At the base of each plant in the lilac rows at the Ornamental Gardens is a label displaying the lilac name, originator, date and country of origin. If it originated in Canada, the province or city (if Ottawa) is also shown, along with a Canadian flag.

• Canada
• U.S.A.
• Europe

Canada

There are 43 cultivars from 12 Canadian originators in the Lilac Rows at the Ornamental Gardens.

The earliest originator in Canada (and North America) appears to be James Dougall of Windsor, Ontario, with eight cultivars from 1874-1880. His cultivar 'Princess Alexandra' can be seen in the Lilac Rows at the Ornamental Gardens.

Isabella Preston

Isabella Preston of the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa was the most prolific originator. She began hybridization at the Farm in 1920 and 88 of her cultivars are recorded in the International Lilac Register. Of particular importance was her creation of the late blooming, interspecific hybrids within the Villosae series, including cultivars of S. ×prestoniae and S. ×josiflexa.

There are 12 of her early and late blooming cultivars in the Lilac Rows and an additional 31 elsewhere on the Farm. The Friends continue to acquire cultivars that are missing from the collection. A special planting of late blooming lilacs was started, spring 2005, in the Ornamental Gardens, southwest of the Lilac Rows. This honours Isabella Preston and features plants she originated.

Examples in the rows of S. ×prestoniae include, ‘Ethel M. Webster', 'Isabella', ‘Nerissa', ‘Olivia', ‘Portia', and ‘Silvia'. Examples of her early blooming lilacs are 'Grace', 'Maureen', 'Norah', 'Peggy' and 'Viscountess Willingdon'.

Dr. Frank Skinner, at his nursery in Roblin, Manitoba, started doing similar crosses of late blooming lilacs two or three years after Miss Preston's start. Twelve were originated and we have five in the rows, 'Donald Wyman', 'Hecla', 'Helen', 'Hiawatha' and 'Hunting Tower'.

Frank Skinner

Cultivars in the rows by other Canadians include:

• from Ontario:
  • Blacklock
    ca 1943 ‘Heavenly Blue'
    ca 1957 ‘St Joan'
    ca 1957 ‘St Margaret'
  • Castle
    1969 ‘Violet Glory'
  • Hancock
    1967 ‘Woodland Blue'
  • Paterson
    1960 ‘Frank Paterson'
  • Schloen
    1962 ‘W.T. Lee'
  • Slater
    1973 ‘Slater's Elegance'


• from Manitoba
  • Cumming
    1967 'Miss Canada'
  • Robinson
    1945 ‘Lucelle'
    1937 ‘Pom Pom'

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U.S.A.

There are 42 cultivars from 19 USA originators in the rows. Just a few examples:

Alexander, J.H. III, Massachusetts 2005 ‘Purple Haze' Clarke, California 1948 ‘Clarke's Giant' 1953 ‘Sweetheart' Dunbar, New York 1916 ‘Adelaide Dunbar' 1923 ‘Alexander Hamilton' Fiala, Ohio 1980 ‘Albert F. Holden' 1988 ‘Blanche Sweet' 1981 ‘Porcelain Blue' Havemeyer, New York 1944 ‘Priscilla' Klager, Washington 1915 ‘City of Gresham' 1930 ‘City of Longview' Yeager, New Hampshire 1959 ‘James Macfarlane'.

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Europe

There are 115 cultivars in the rows from 22 European originators in 6 countries. Examples include the following:

from France: Lemoine - the most prolific by far. In the rows, we have 78 from a total of 214 named cultivars produced by the Lemoine nursery over the period 1853-1953. Examples: 1925 'Capitaine Perrault' 1878 'Hyacinthiflora Plena' 1949 'Madame Charles Souchet' Bruchet pre 1923 'Souvenir de Simone' Gouchault 1919 'Aucubaefolia' Saugé ca 1820 'Saugeana' from Belgium: Brahy-Ekenholm pre 1854 'Ekenholm' Darimont 1858 'Dr Lindley' Legraye pre 1879 'Marie Legraye' Mathieu pre 1906 'Princesse Clementine' Stepman-Demessemaeker 1908 ‘Mme Florent Stepman' 1906 ‘Mons. Léon Mathieu' pre 1923 ‘Mons. van Aerschot' from Germany: Engler pre 1987 'Engler Weisser Traum' Grunewald 1913 'Margot Grunewald' Pfitzer 1921 'Königin Luise' Späth 1883 'Andenken an Ludwig Späth' Wilke 1928 'Ruhm von Horstenstein' from The Netherlands: Eveleens Maarse 1943 'G.J. Baardse' Maarse 1949 'Primrose' from Poland: Bugala 1970 'Jaga' from Russia: Kolesnikov 1947 'Krasavitsa Moskvy' pre 1974 'Nadezhda' Shtan'ko Mikhailov 1956 'Kosmos'

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