Norway is a country at the top of the European map. It is a part of Scandinavia. It’s capital, Oslo, is situated on the same latitude as the southern cape of Greenland and the central part of Hudson Bay, but thanks to the warm Gulf Stream our climate is mild and good for both people and plants. The west coast where I live is very good for lots of shrubs and trees with its wet summers and mild winters.

Lilacs have for generations been among the most popular plants in Norwegian gardens, and then we speak about the Common Lilac, Syringa vulgaris, in different flower colours. Here this plants flowers around mid summer, and this has made a connection to weddings. Summer weddings have been a popular tradition, and Lilac flowers has been used for decoration on these occasions. People also bring flowering twigs into their homes. In a way one can say that the Common Lilac is the Norwegian summer flower par excellence.

Most gardens used to have one or a few specimens of Common Lilac. Beside its popularity, I guess an explanation to this is that it has been very easy to propagate. The Common Lilac is stolonifereous, and new plants could easily be separated and given away to friends and relatives. White, violet and more purple flower colours could be seen in gardens. Until the end of the nineteenth century this was the only Lilac in our gardens. Then the Chinese species came to Europe by the great plant hunters.

Another important reason for the Common Lilacs popularity is its hardiness. It grows well along the mild coast line, but it is also very useful in the central parts of Norway where winters are much colder and the temperature drops far under the freezing point for weeks and months in winter. In some of these regions the Common Lilac is the only flowering tree that can be grown.

Another species that has been much used is the Nodding Lilac, Syringa reflexa.
This has not been used as much as the Common Lilac, but it has been found in lots of gardens for years. This plant seeds very easily, and new plants grow up in hundreds around the mother tree. Thus the plant could be spread around at no cost.

In the coldest parts of Norway the Hungarian Lilac, Syringa josikaea, has been much used due to its extreme hardiness.

Over the last years dwarf species and hybrids have been used as container grown patio plants.
Lilacs are still popular plants, but in the milder parts of the country people can choose lots of alternative flowering trees now which was not available some decades ago. It seems to me that the Lilac is sold a little less over the last years in these parts of Norway. In the colder parts of the country it is still the dominating flowering plant in most gardens. Today most people buy their Lilacs in garden centres, and most of them are grafted.

There is no Lilac organisation in Norway and very few gardeners are Lilac collectors – if any. To find a society you will have to be collecting Roses or Rhododenrons.