Poster Purple French Lilac

Syringa vulgaris (lilac or common lilac) is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to the Balkan Peninsula, where it grows on rocky hills. Between 1876 and 1927, the French nurseryman Victor Lemoine of Nancy introduced over 153 named cultivars, many of which are considered classics and still in commerce today. Lemoine's "French lilacs" extended the limited color range to include deeper, more saturated hues, and they also introduced double-flowered "sports", with the stamens replaced by extra petals. On Mackinac Island in Michigan you can see and smell all 23 lilac species, some 400 varieties and thousands of individual plants. In June and even into July in the case of late-blooming varieties. The island celebrates lilacs with a a Lilac Festival in June every year. That's definitely on my list of festivals to experience.