Welcome to the Tower Hill Heritage Garden Lilac Walk. The plants were selected for the Garden because their attributes make them good choices for the home garden in our area, for their variety of colour and fragrance and to extend the bloom season.

If you visit the Garden while the Lilacs are in bloom, a walk around the Tower will introduce you to twenty-two different lilac cultivars that will do well almost anywhere in Ontario.

Start your walk between the stone pillars and proceed counterclockwise around the the Tower. The plants have their numbers painted on a rock at their base.

Number 1

Syringa x hyacinthiflora“Maiden Blush”

An exceptionally fine early blooming hybrid with fragrant pink to lavender-pink flowers.

Number 2

Syringa “Miss Canada” (Preston Lilac)

A heavily flowering cross between “Redwine” and “Hiawatha” with deep rose-pink flowers. The flower spikes are very unique.

Number 3

Syringa patula “Miss Kim” (Korean Lilac)

A hardy fragrant lilac.Blooms when others have finished with pale pink coloured flowers

Number 4

Syringa x hyacinthiflora“Mt. Baker” 

A very hardy cultivar that blooms before the French hybrids.  Profuse, single white flowers

Number 5

Syringa “Ludwig Spaeth” (French Hybrid)

An old cultivar, but still one of the best purples.

Number 6

Syringa  meyeri“Palibin” (Dwarf Korean)

Fragrant flowers bloom profusely on this unusual dwarf variety.  Excellent uniform habit and maroon fall colour.

Number 7

Syringa“Belle de Nancy” (French Hybrid)

Double pink flowered cultivar

Number 8

UnidentifiedSyringa

Number 9

UnidentifiedSyringa“Grandma Ballantyne” 

A gift of one of the Tower Hill Gardeners, named by the group for her mother

Number 10

Syringa “Paul Thirion” (French Hybrid)

Double magenta flowers

Number 11

Syringa x hyacinthiflora“Purple Glory”

An early, long lasting bloomer with a delicious fragrance.  Purplish fall colour.

Number 12

Syringa vulgaris Krasavitska Moskvy (French Hybrid)

Fragrant white flowers with shell pink overtones emerge from distinctive pink flower buds in mid spring. Excellent for cutting.

Number 13

Syringa“Donald Wyman” (Preston Lilac)

Panicles of purple buds open to single reddish-purple flowers in mid-June

Number 14 - to be replaced.- it was a beauty and we may try again in 2026

Syringa bailbelle “Tinkerbelle”

Has a pleasing spicy fragrance and wine-red buds open to single pink blooms. Good specimen plant.

Number 15

Syringa“Minuet” (Preston Lilac)

A late flowering dwarf hybrid with light purple buds and light rosy flowers.

Number 16

Syringa“Agincourt Beauty” (Slater Collection French Hybrid, reg. 1971))

Deep purple bloom whose florets are the largest in the world. 

Number 17   

Syringa“Mrs. Irene Slater” (Slater collection French Hybrid, reg. 2002)

Irene’s favourite, a soft mauve.  Registered after Len’s death by the family.

Number 18  

Syringa “Lynne” (Slater Collection French Hybrid, not registered)

Double pink flower, special to the family

Number 19  

Syringa“Agincourt Beauty” (Slater Collection French Hybrid, reg. 1971))

Deep purple bloom whose florets are the largest in the world

Number 20

Syringa “Sensation” (French Hybrid)

Single purple florets with a distinctive white border. A unique lilac.

Number 21   

Syringa “Adelaide Dunbar” (French Hybrid)

Very fragrant deep purple double flowers.  New stems are dark purple, enhancing the colour of the blooms.

Number 22

Syringa “Madame Lemoine” (French Hybrid)

Double white flowers on a wide, spreading bush. Very showy.

In addition to the numbered Lilacs on the Lilac Garden Walk, there are several very old, very large unnamed Preston Lilacs near the Pond. The one here as tall as the street light was removed in 2024 but is showing signs of new growth at the base with the fortitude of her hybridizer Isabella Preston.

There is also a very old tree lilac, Syringa reticulata, between the pond and sundial, shading the perfect spot to rest at the end of your walk. Sadly, it is a highly invasive tree that can be found throughout the woods and along the undeveloped portion of George Street.