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Lilac Collection
In April and May, the heady perfume of blooming lilacs fills the air and lures visitors to the Louisa Clark Spencer Lilac Collection, just northeast of the Cranford Rose Garden. The collection features 150 specimens of these much-loved shrubs, including 20 of the 27 known lilac species and subspecies, and 130 cultivars. Their fragrant flowers range in color from white to purple, and they come in single and double forms.
Early lilacs, such as Syringa x hyacinthiflora 'Annabel', begin blooming in late April. Soon after, around the first week in May and peaking on Mother's Day, come the flowers of the common lilac, S. vulgaris. By Memorial Day, late-blooming lilacs such as S. reflexa, S. villosa, and S. x prestoniae are at their peak. The last to bloom, in the second week in June, are the spicy-scented tree lilacs S. reticulata and S. pekinensis, both with single white flowers and attractive cherrylike bark.
The date of the first lilac plantings at Brooklyn Botanic Garden remains a mystery. When Dr. C. Stuart Gager, BBG's first director, noted in the annual report for 1917 that World War I was "disrupting the Garden's acquisition of choice varieties," the collection already included more than 100 varieties of common lilac (Syringa vulgaris). Clearly, the wartime interruption was only temporary.
Syringa meyeri, Meyer's Lilac
Historic Image Collection
View historic photographs of the Lilac Collection from the Historic Image Collection.
Map of the Garden
The Lilac Collection is indicated by the orange box. Click on the map to visit other locations in the Garden, or click here to view a larger map.
