What kind of lilac tree is it?

[thistlebloom]

How about a Muskogee Crape myrtle?

See:http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/Muskogee.htm

You might want to add your zone to your avatar, it makes it easier to help you .
A crape myrtle may not grow wherever you are, I had thought you were in zone 7 for some reason.
And welcome to the forum btw!

 

[patandchickens]

I will not say a thing to our association though. I'd really hate to see that little tree go so soon. We'll see.

You know what, between the fact that that really IS a nice looking specimen and the fact that if someone asks about it you can honestly say "the landscaper says it will grow 10' tall", I bet you will be fine

It is weird that you say that normal purple lilac trees don't exist. I lived overseas when I was younger and there used to be that huge lilac tree with purple blooms that would hang over the high fence of a house. We used to stop and smell the bloom on our way back from school because they were heavenly. Because of it, I always thought that lilacs where trees not bushes, but it seems to be the opposite here.

I think this is just a semantics problem?

It seems as if you are perhaps using "tree vs bush" to refer to tall vs short, whereas following standard horticultural usage I am using it to refer to whether it's single-trunked vs multistemmed.

Lilacs (except for S. reticulata) are all inherently multistemmed. They can be pruned to a single trunk or topgrafted to produce a tree *shape* but it's unnatural, and I mean that not as a value judgement but just that it's not the way their genes program them to grow.

They can however still get quite TALL (except for the littleleaf tribe and some of the less-vigorous fancy lilac cultivars). I've seen lilac hedgerows that are definitely at least 25' tall (i.e. taller than the average two-story house). But they are not TREES in the horticultural sense; they are just monster-big shrubs, you know?

Does that help sort it out any?

(e.t.a. -- purple is not a common color for flowering temperate-zone trees. Size aside, I do not believe jacaranda is zone-7 hardy. Some crape myrtles are sort of purple-y, in a pinky-purple kind of way, I do not know if there are true light-purple colored ones though. I have rattling around the back of my head that there is something with dangling racemes of small purplish pea-like flowers but can't connect it with a particular name -- no, I am not thinking of wisteria vine or tree of heaven -- perhaps either honey locust or black locust? Honestly I think that since what you want is lilac, you should stick with your lilac, there is nothing else at all like 'em )

Pat

 

[Denise]

It is a tree, it's called a Dwarf Korean lilac. I have one and know of a few more. They smell just as good as the lilac bushes just not as big.

 

[897tgigvib]

Yes, Lilacs can be, and are indeed grafted. We used to sell at least 2 kinds of Lilac tree. One of the kinds we sold were definitely grafted on Reticulata rootstock. We had one that had been damaged on the top part that died, but the rootstock sprouted. We kept it of course.

So, this may be a Korean Lilac, maybe even Miss Kim, grafted on Reticulata rootstock. The trunk is amazingly straight. It may be an intermediary Lilac trunk. Check for graft lines at soil level, and at the standard's level.

 

[nachoqtpie]

Crepe myrtles do come in purple.

They can be pruned to look like a tree and can be quite tall.... 20'-25' tho it does take some time. They also should be cut back in the fall every year to get rid of the seed pods. That also helps them produce more flowers the next year. I LOVE my bright fuchsia blooms that pop up around June. There is a similar one in just about every single front yard of every house in my subdivision. Some people have cut theirs out and that makes me sad.

 

[hedgenursery]

It is a shrub, it's known as a Small Japanese lilac. I have one and know of a few more. They fragrance just as excellent as the lilac plants just not as big.

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hedging plants