LILACS LOVE THUNDER BAY

best shrubs for Thunder Bay? My first recommendation would be lilacs. Many varieties thrive here. When lilac time arrives in June, you can walk around the older areas of town drowning in the scent.

The most widespread lilac in Thunder Bay is the heavy scented syringa vulgaris,(or common lilac). Single or double flowered heads, in mauve, white, purple or magenta, grace trees ranging up to eight feet in height. Common lilac is often used for hedges. Although all lilacs prefer the sun, vulgaris can be seen around town growing happily on the north side of buildings. This variety produces suckers which means the hedge fills in quickly but grows wider and more tangled as the years go by unless trimmed vigorously. If you have the space, it is a great choice.

My small back garden has room for several lilacs. The two large Preston lilacs both over 10 feet tall are not as heavily scented as the vulgaris or my French lilacs, but they are hardy, beautiful, non-suckering and covered with blooms. Coral, a pale pink, opens the season and its neighbour, Royalty, a dark purple, follows.

A selection of French lilacs range along the fence. The French lilacs are about 6 feet high, non suckering, with a strong, traditional lilac scent. My three favourites are Sister Justina (white), President Grevy (blue) and Mme Casim Perier (a large-flowered white).

Tall Japanese lilac, Chinese Lilac, Manchurian lilac, Amur lilac and others appear from time to time in local nurseries. As long as a shrub is hardy to our zone 3, it will probably thrive. Even a tiny space can hold a lilac. The little leaf or Korean lilac, a small bush only one metre high with fragrant pink blooms, looks good in the new grassless front gardens.

I never cut the spent blooms from my lilacs and yet I have a heavy crop of flowers every year. I cannot reach the top blooms and I am not about to set up ladders to do this useless task. The birds enjoy the seeds over the winter. In spring, the lilacs always burst forth.