Miss Canada Lilac (Syringa x prestoniae ‘Miss Canada’)

There are few sights as lovely as Lilac in full bloom, and the Miss Canada Lilac (Syringa x prestoniae ‘Miss Canada’) manages to improve on this spectacle. This beauty queen’s talents involve a romantic and dramatic color change and more blooms than most gardeners can imagine. This shrub has a flair for the dramatic but is anything but high maintenance!

The Miss Canada Lilac’s claim to fame is its violet flower buds that open to reveal ballerina-pink blooms. In late spring, two weeks later than French Hybrid Lilacs, this remarkable shrub dons dense clusters of flowers on the end of its branches. When trimmed to be more upright this Lilac looks like a feminine Crape Myrtle with exaggerated pompoms.

This bright bush is a great way to make the Lilac blooming season last a little bit longer and fill your garden with an enchanting scent. Mix among other Lilac varieties for an extended bloom that you, your neighbors and your local pollinators will be grateful for after a long drab winter!

Planting and Application:

This deer-resistant, flamboyant plant is perfect for back-of-border plantings and out-of-the-way areas. Not only tall and dense enough to discourage deer from entering your property, but also beautiful enough to brighten those sometimes more forgotten locations! You’ll enjoy the other wildlife that is drawn to these shrubs!

A Miss Canada Lilac would also add height and make for a wonderful centerpiece of a butterfly garden! Don’t be surprised when they have to share space with the hummingbirds, though. You can add a bird feeder for even more wildlife activity. The dense branching is perfect for birds to nest in so create groupings for habitat and shelter!

A highly floriferous anchor plant on the corner of your driveway, garage, or foundation beds, you’ll soften corners of hardscapes and add grace to the ends of stone walls and fence corners with these feminine shrubs! We’re sure you’ll love all the flowers you will have available for snipping and adding to floral arrangements! Perfume your world indoors and out!

Many landscape artists also love to use this dreamy-pink wonder as a screen, informal hedge, or as the entrance to a garden room. Try ‘limbing up’ the lower branches to reveal the multi-trunk form and create unique Lilac trees for additional accenting and focal points! Pot one up in a large planter and keep that scent anywhere in the sun! Provide pinpoint shade by a favorite reading chair or add privacy around seating and entertainment areas!

• Clusters of Highly Scented Pink Blooms
• Purple Bud Turn Into Pink Flowers
• Blooms Later Than Other Lilacs
• Pollinator Friendly
• Dense Green Foliage
• Hedges, Privacy, Specimen & All-Round Gorgeous Landscape Ornamentals

Tips for Care:

Lilac bushes are easy to grow and low maintenance. Just provide it with full sun for the most blooms, but Miss Canada tolerates some partial shade as well. Extremely cold-hardy, these flowering shrubs thrive down to USDA growing zones 2 through 7. Plant Lilacs in almost any type of soil so long as it is well-drained. Provide consistent moisture in their first year and during drought, but once established, Lilacs are versatile, adaptable and somewhat low water usage plants.

Please don’t plant her too deeply and would rather be planted exactly at the same depth it was growing in at the nursery. Top the root system with around 3-4 inches of Arborist bark chips. This flowering queen loves nitrogen fertilizers, but be sure to avoid the roots or you’ll see all foliage and no flowers.

While this shrub grows about 6 – 10 inches a year into a compact shape, it’s possible to prune it if needed. Prune directly following the bloom to correct crossing branches or remove any broken limbs. Lilacs bloom on last year’s wood. If you prune too early or too late, you’ll lose the flowers for next spring. Prune it right after it flowers and before seeds are formed assures you an abundance of flowers the following year.

• Full Sun & Partial Shade
• Moderate Moisture & Lower Once Established
• Any Well-Drained Enriched Soil Type
• Prune Immediately After Flowering
• Deer Resistant & Very Cold Hardy

The Miss Canada Lilac will light up your yard with powdery pink clusters of flowers while creating the perfect destination for pollinators.