Lilac of the Week

Pocahontas, Syringa x hyacinthiflora, blooms earlier than most other lilacs. Its deep maroon-purple buds open to single deep violet florets. Pocahontas, which grows to an impressive height of 10 to 12 feet and a similar width, was bred in 1935 by Canadian Frank L. Skinner, a self-taught horticulturalist in Manitoba. He named it for the Indian princess, daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Algonquian Indians in the Tidewater region of Virginia. This cultivar can be found, along with a large selection of others, at the online Lombard Garden Club Lilac Sale, www.lombardgardenclub.org.