Bloomerang Pink Perfume Lilac

Once upon a time roses only bloomed once a year. Today we find that almost incredible, and we take it for granted that roses will keep blooming and blooming for months, as all the best modern varieties do. Yet when it comes to the ever-popular lilac, some people think they ‘should’ bloom only in spring. How can that be right? Surely we deserve to enjoy the sweet perfume and rich colors of lilacs whenever we can, not just in spring? With the Bloomerang series, now we can have exactly that. Blooming of course in May, but then again in summer too, these great plants are rapidly becoming garden standards, and the range keeps on expanding. If you love the rich fragrance of lilacs, and the vibrancy of pink blooms, then you will adore having the Bloomerang® Pink Perfume Lilac in your garden, giving you all that on a compact bush not just once, but over and over again in a single season.

The Bloomerang Pink Perfume Lilac soon develops into a dense bush 4 or 5 feet tall and wide. Its rounded form is perfect for the middle of beds, or for planting in a row to make a natural screen. Grow it in a lawn, or plant it between windows around your home so that the rich fragrance drifts in, telling you that spring has come. This hardy bush thrives in the coolest zones, where the range of shrubs is more limited, so why not fill your garden with beautiful lilacs – you hardly need anything else. The dense, twiggy growth of this bush keeps it full right to the ground, and the neat leaves are rounded ovals, just over an inch long. They are a rich green, with a slight gloss, and they stay clean and fresh all summer, since this plant is usually not bothered by that dusty mildew that often disfigures the European lilac varieties.

The flowers of the Bloomerang Pink Perfume Lilac may be small, but there are many of them in each big, fat blossom head, which is a full 4 inches long. The flowers are slender tubes, flaring out at the end into 4 flat petals. The outside of the flower tube is a beautiful dusky old-rose pink, and the open petals are a bright candy pink, so the whole flower head sparkles with color and glows in your garden. You may have been disappointed by the lack of perfume in some of the ‘non-traditional’ lilacs, but you won’t be with this one, because it has a powerful and rich true lilac fragrance as wonderful as any. It drifts across your garden, and into open windows, and you will be smelling it not just in spring, but in summer too. This shrub produces a full crop of blooms in May, that almost completely cover the bush with flowers. It takes a brief rest in June, and in in July blooming returns, with a good crop of flowers. The plant continues to produce flower heads all summer and into the fall. You will love this plant in your garden because you will see blooms on its neat rounded shape month after month – it really delivers. 

Grow the Bloomerang Pink Perfume Lilac in full sun for the maximum blooming. It grows best in cooler zones, and it is perfectly happy and reliable in zones 3 and 4, where many other shrubs struggle. It grows rapidly in ordinary garden soil, preferring well-drained but moist soils. Periods of drought and heat may reduce the reblooming, so keep even mature bushes well-watered through the summer. Beyond zone 7 it is usually too hot for good reblooming. After the first blooms fall you can trim it lightly to remove the spent flower heads, or just leave it to grow naturally, depending on your garden style. Trimming will delay reblooming by a week or two, but it will give the most reblooms, so it is worth the few minutes it takes. Straight after that spring bloom finishes is the only time you should trim or prune this bush. If you do it at any other time you could reduce the reblooming, or the spring blooms for the following year. Anyway, with its compact rounded form it doesn’t need trimming to stay neat. This variety of lilac is very resistant to powdery mildew, and other pests or diseases rarely trouble it. Deer leave it alone too, so it needs no spraying or special care.

Although part of the Bloomerang Lilacs, the variety known as ‘Pink Perfume’ has a completely different origin to other Bloomerang plants. ‘Pink Perfume’ was developed in the Netherlands by André van Nijnatten, at his nursery in Zundert. In 2000 he took pollen from a beautiful Chinese lilac called Syringa microphylla `Superba`, and he used it to pollinate flowers of the Korean lilac, Syringa meyeri `Palibin`. Among the many seedlings he grew from this cross he found a plant with incredibly fragrant large pink flower clusters that rebloomed in summer. It was patented in 2014 and joined the Bloomerang® series of Proven Winners® from Spring Meadow Nursery, Inc, Grand Haven, Michigan. This plant is a fabulous addition to that group of outstanding reblooming lilacs, and just as reliable and easy to grow. Everyone is snapping up these great new lilacs, so don’t miss out – order now.