Common Lilac
Syringa vulgaris
The old-fashioned lilac, planted for its sweetly fragrant spring flowers superb for cutting, and deer leave it alone. It does best where winters are long and cold, and struggles in mild-winter regions. After bloom it's a plain, leggy shrub, and powdery mildew greys its summer leaves.
- Mature size
- 12 × 9 ft
- 3.5 × 2.7 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–7b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Apr–May
Common Lilac at its mature size
A mature Common Lilac grows 8 to 16 feet tall and 6 to 12 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Common Lilac looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Nov–Mar
Bare upright gray stems with dried brown seed capsules.
In leaf · Apr, Jun–Oct
Heart-shaped blue-green leaves on upright stems.
In flower · May
Large conical clusters of lilac flowers.
Photos
Growing Common Lilac
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Hedge, foundation planting, specimen, deer resistant, and fragrant
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Southeastern Europe
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Common Lilac, that’s about 9 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Common Lilac in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other lilacs
Dwarf Korean Lilac
Miss Kim Lilac
Common Lilac
Ivory Silk Japanese Tree LilacAll drawn to the same scale.