suggestions wanted for smallish varieties of lilac and cherry
whitehounduk
Posts: 2
I have a small, rented courtyard garden. The main part of the garden is about 20ft square, around a third of which is paved. The remaining two thirds was under gravel but with the landlord's permission I have lifted the gravel and am putting down a lawn and raised beds. The beds have to be raised because there's a layer of concrete a few inches under the soil. The soil in the raised beds will be about 20" deep.
I would like to have a small lilac and a cherry tree in the raised beds, the lilac in a north-west corner and the cherry in a south-east corner. I do not want absolutely tiny bushes, but I'm hoping for something in each case that won't go much over 9ft high and 6ft wide. Both need to be moderately shade-tolerant. The garden is surrounded by two-or-three-storeys-high walls on three sides and a lowish (about 7ft) wall to the east. It gets quite a lot of sun in the morning but is in shadow from just after noon onwards.
Among lilacs, Carpe Diem is everything I want, a beautiful blue-lilac colour and heavily scented, except that if I get a Carpe Diem it's liable to end up bigger than the entire garden. Does anybody know a blueish, scented, shade-tolerant lilac similar to Carpe Diem but smaller - or know whether I could control a Carpe Diem by pruning?
Also, does anybody know a smallish cherry that both fruits and flowers? I was looking at Sylvia but that has white flowers, and I'd prefer pink.
Last edited: 06 May 2017 15:18:19
Posts
Lilac Palibin is a small lilac which flowers twice a year and for the Cherry I would recommend Kordia.
Thank you. Palibin looks very good. although I was really hoping for something a little more blue. I found a nice small blue one called Boomerang but it wants full sun, so it might not cope with getting sun only in the mornings.
Kordia has the same problem as Sylvia - it produces white blossoms and I was hoping for pink. *Are* there any pink-blossomed cherries which are good croppers, or is it an either/or thing?
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/95108/Syringa-vulgaris-Souvenir-de-Louis-Spaeth/Details
Link above - Souvenir de Louis Spaeth. I bought this in early April from a local garden centre and it is growing beautifully. Like you, I didn't want something enormous but big enough to hide a fence and the neighbour's shed roof! I'm excited to see this flower and keep growing. Good luck.