Summer '08 :: Lovin’ Lilacs

As the old song goes from the 1947 movie This Time for Keeps with Esther Williams and Jimmy Durante, “It’s Lilac Time on Mackinac Island.”

Mackinac Island, Michigan lies in the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Huron and Michigan. This small island is about eight miles around, three miles long, and comprised of 2,221 acres, over eighty percent of which is State Park. The Island is known for its cultural and natural history (it has a fort that was built during the American Revolution), its many horses (automobiles were banned in 1898), and, during the first two weeks of June, for its lilacs.

Mackinac (pronounced “MACK-in-aw”) officially began to celebrate its floral profusion in 1949 when the Island’s nurse Stella King and veterinarian Dr. Bill Chambers came up with the idea to treat visitors to a horse-drawn parade when the air was full of the fragrance of lilacs. What began as a one-day event has now blossomed into a 10-day affair that includes the crowning of a Lilac Festival Queen and a Grand Parade. Myriad other events range from daily lilac walks and talks and a celebration of horses and dogs to historic and nature lectures and adventures as well as plenty of local cuisine to enjoy. This historic festival is the first and largest summer event on the Island, attracting thousands of visitors each year.

As for the stars of the festival, three species of lilacs call the Island home, the most abundant of which is the Common or French Lilac (Syringa vulgaris). There are more than 100 varieties of the Common Lilac grown on the Island, in part due to the efforts of the International Lilac Society who have donated numerous specimens over the years. The flowers may be single or double, the leaves may be solid green or variegated, and the plants may be dwarf or standard. The flower’s colors may be white, violet, pink, blue, and lilac (of course) to red-purple, dark purple, and even a yellow variety known as “Primrose.” One of the most spectacular varieties of Common Lilac planted on the Island in recent years, known as “Sensation,” features picotee flowers; the edge is not the same color as the rest of the petals. In this case, the edge is white while the rest of the flower is a red-purple hue.

Aside from the abundance of blooms and their wonderful scent, people are most impressed with the sheer size of Mackinac’s Lilacs. In most places, Common Lilacs are considered shrubs as they have multiple stems and grow less than twenty feet tall. On the Island, however, they may grow over three stories tall with stems or trunks boasting diameters of more than two feet. (The largest one measures 27 inches across!) Since these are the largest Common Lilacs in the country, the locals call them trees.

These immense proportions may seem unbelievable, but Mackinac Island is blessed to have everything that Lilacs need for good growth. It has well-drained soil made up of a limestone rock base with a nearly neutral pH (lilacs like a pH of 6-7). It has cold winters and sunny, warm summers along with adequate precipitation—all necessary for the growth of these plants.

Though they have become synonymous with Mackinac, lilacs are not native to North America. The Common Lilac originated in Eastern Europe in the mountains of Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. For centuries, the species was cultivated in Turkey; and, during the 1500s, it was imported to Vienna and Paris. So many wonderful varieties of the Common Lilac were developed in France that the term French hybrid or simply French Lilac is often used to refer to all varieties of the Common Lilac. These European specimens were eventually brought to the New World and later planted in the gardens of both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Though they have become synonymous with Mackinac, lilacs are not native to North America. The Common Lilac originated in Eastern Europe in the mountains of Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. For centuries, the species was cultivated in Turkey; and, during the 1500s, it was imported to Vienna and Paris. So many wonderful varieties of the Common Lilac were developed in France that the term French hybrid or simply French Lilac is often used to refer to all varieties of the Common Lilac. These European specimens were eventually brought to the New World and later planted in the gardens of both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Referring to these lilacs as French Lilacs led to the commonly held belief that the French settlers of the seventeenth century brought them to the Island. This is not only highly unlikely but also hard to picture French voyagers or the early Jesuit missionaries carrying lilacs hundreds of miles into the wilderness.

It is much more likely that they came to Mackinac in the mid-nineteenth century at the beginning of tourism on the Island. Scientific bore samples and ring counting of some of the Island’s lilacs indicate the largest trees to be about 125 to 130 years old. This data coincides with the first mention of these flowers on Mackinac, which occurred in the 1870s when a gentleman named Gurdon Hubbard converted his 80-acre tract of land into an early cottage development and called the first cottage he built “The Lilacs.”

During the Lilac Festival on Mackinac, many locals like to clip the blooms to display in their homes or businesses or to decorate the horses and carriages used in the parade. This can be problematic, however. First of all, if lilac flowers are cut with their stems longer than a couple of inches, some of the shoots where next year’s flowers will form may be inadvertently removed. In addition, cut lilacs don’t hold up particularly well. In order to extend their freshness in an arrangement, the water in the vases should be changed daily and the lilacs should be misted as their petals can absorb water.

Traveling to Mackinac at any time of the year can be a wonderful experience but it is particularly enjoyable when the lake breezes are full of the fragrance of blooming lilacs and the sea of vivid purplish blooms delights the eye.

Summer 2008 | By Trish Martin | Photos courtesy of Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau