Syringa vulgaris (common lilac, "Murasakihashidoi")

Japanese name: ムラサキハシドイ
Scientific name: Syringa vulgaris

[Overview]
A deciduous shrub or small tree 4–8 m tall.
The leaves are simple and opposite, ovate, 4–12 cm long and 2.5–6 cm wide, with a slightly glossy upper surface.
The leaf margin is entire.
The petiole is 1.5–3 cm long.
Cymose panicles 10–20 cm long at the tips of the previous year's branches bear many densely packed flowers.
The flowers are tubular, 1 cm long, with 4 lobes at the tip, and the flower color is pale purple, white, reddish purple, red, pink, and so on.
The flowers are fragrant.
The fruit is a capsule.

[Uses]
The flowers smell good and are used as a perfume ingredient.
The fruits and leaves are also used medicinally.

[Cultivation]
Propagate by division, grafting or layering.
In spring, if planting is delayed the plant weakens, so plant early.
The suitable planting area is north of the Kanto region.
It prefers fertile soil in a sunny, well-drained, well-ventilated place.
Avoid places that receive the afternoon sun.
For potted plants, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries; for plants in the ground, rainfall is sufficient, but in midsummer water once in the morning.
In spring, apply a small amount of fertilizer made mainly of organic materials such as bone meal or wood ash.
Because it does not have many branches, it is usually not pruned much, only thinned out during the dormant season.
Pests include aphids and scale insects.

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