Syringa meyeri - Meyer Lilac (Oleaceae) ------Syringa meyeri is a compact but spreading, small- Fruits foliaged Lilac with showy, late May, lavender-purple -brown capsules on the winter persistent fruiting inflorescences. Meyer Lilac is especially urban stalks are not ornamental tolerant and without powdery mildew on its foliage. Twigs It is a Lilac that can be grown as a formal or informal -light brown to gray, with winter floral buds that are hedge. small, oval, and distinctly checkered (due to the differential color pattern on the overlapping floral FEATURES bud scales) Form -exhibiting dense twiggy branching on relatively thin -medium-sized ornamental shrub (or small branches (unlike all other Lilacs, which have ornamental tree, when grafted onto a moderate to sparse branching on medium to thick standard) branches) -species form slowly matures at Trunk about 6' tall x 8' wide -usually not applicable, unless the shrub has been -spreading oval growth habit (where grafted onto a standard (typically at about 4' in the oval shape is on its side) height) and becomes tree form -slow growth rate Culture USAGE -full sun to partial shade Function -performs best in full sun in moist, well-drained soils, -foundation, entranceway, border, group planting, but is urban tolerant and adaptable to poor soils, dry informal or formal hedge, or specimen shrub soils, compacted soils, soils of various pH, and Texture especially to heat and drought (but not adaptable to -medium-fine texture in foliage and fine texture when poorly drained sites) bare -propagated primarily by rooted stem cuttings, but -thick density in foliage and when bare also by seeds Assets -Olive Family, with virtually no diseases or pests -fragrant dense inflorescences in late May (including a complete resistance to powdery mildew, -very urban tolerant which plagues many of the old-fashioned traditional -compact yet spreading Lilac Lilacs) -flowers at an early age -abundantly available in container or B&B form, and -no powdery mildew on the foliage sometimes grafted onto a standard -foliages nearly to the ground (and therefore not -as with most Lilacs and full-sun ornamental shrubs, leggy [as are all other Lilacs]) its flowering is greatly reduced if it is placed in Liabilities partial shade -poor autumn color Foliage -slow growth rate -medium to dark green, opposite, orbicular to Habitat rhombic in shape, entire but slightly wavy-margined, -Zones 3 to 8 about 1" long, with venation that is nearly palmate -Native to Northern China -leaves are glabrous, entire, dull-shiny, never infested with powdery mildew, and have an ineffective SELECTIONS yellowish green to Alternates golden-brown autumn -shrubs with fragrant flowers (Clethra alnifolia, Itea color virginica, Philadelphus coronarius, Syringa -foliages nearly to the species/hybrids/cultivars, Viburnum x burkwoodii, ground, which is Viburnum carlesii, Viburnum x juddii, etc.) especially valuable when Cultivars – Variants – Related species it is pruned into formal -Meyer Lilac can be grafted onto a Lilac standard, hedge form, as it does not forming a small ornamental tree that has a densely become leggy twiggy, spreading canopy Flowers -Syringa meyeri 'Palibin' (or 'Palibiniana') - Dwarf -lavender-white to violet- Korean Lilac - the most common cultivar of the purple, fragrant, in late species, valued for its even more compact habit (to 4' May, as 4" long fragrant x 6') inflorescences that -Syringa patula 'Miss Kim' (also listed as Syringa completely cover the velutina 'Miss Kim') - Miss Kim Lilac - the most shrub popular Lilac today, essentially a vertically-growing -flowering profusely at an complement for 'Palibin' above, 'Miss Kim' slowly early age, and because of matures to 6' x 4', with larger but fewer purplish- the shrub's dense lavendar fragrant inflorescences to 5" long, with twigginess and partial shade tolerance, it has a fair larger, ovate, wavy-margined, cupped, mildew-free number of floral buds buried in the interior stems that leaves to 3" long, having a mixed and subtle autumn are preserved even if it is sheared back in late color summer or autumn, and therefore loses most of its flowering buds for the following season