Lilacs: Beautiful Varieties for Home and Garden

by Naomi Slade, Georgianna Lane (Photography)

Announcing the changing of the seasons and the coming of summer, Lilacs are ubiquitous both within gardens and as a wild flower. Their scented flowers are well-known to many with whorls of fragrant blossom sitting perfectly at nose-height. Symbolising first love, their fleeting bouquet can provoke a sense of nostalgia. As a garden flower they became a popular choice in the eighteenth century, particularly across North America, and lingering shrubs and blooms in the wild are a telltale indication of where earlier dwellings might have been. Naomi Slade explores a wide range of different Lilacs, drawing our attention to the varying shades of pink, lavender, mauve, burgundy and of course, lilac, and also to white, blue and yellow varieties. Lilacs are durable plants and this book offers advice on how to care for and propagate your flowers, how to identify rare species and practical tips for how to get the most glorious blooms and the most bountiful cut flowers.

Genres: Photography

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 7, 2022

About the author

Naomi Slade is the author of Dahlias (Pavilion in the UK, Gibbs SMith in the US, 2018), An Orchard Odyssey (Green Books, 2016) and The Plant Lover’s Guide to Snowdrops (Timber Press 2014).

A lifelong natural historian, graduate biologist, former rock band manager and serial entrepreneur, she has won awards for designing both carnival floats and show gardens.

Her award-winning writing has featured in a wide range of newspapers and magazines including The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Financial Times, House and Garden, The Garden, The English Garden and Saga Magazine. She has covered gardens in France as well as the UK and contributed editorial on both sides of the Atlantic.

Interests include plants, people, botany, environment and design; science, social history and architecture. A good day off would involve swimming, skiing, climbing mountains, exploring new horizons or reading a really good book (someone else’s).

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely gorgeous book about the history of the many varieties of lilacs. The photographs are so beautiful showcasing each different bloom and its colour. I read this book just as lilacs were beginning to bloom all along the road in my community! A friend gave me some cuttings so I planted them according to the instructions included in this book.

[Katy Koivastik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful volume, rich in color photographs. Author Naomi Slade and photographer Georgianna Lane have produced a well-organized book comprised of history, poetry, growing habits and instructions for starting and maintaining an individual lilac plant, or an entire garden full.