Plant Profile: Syringa meyeri 'Palibin'

Lilacs are valued for their profuse early-spring display of fragrant flowers, but their unattractive spent blooms and unrefined foliage make them unsuitable for urban settings where plants need to earn their keep throughout the year.

Syringa meyeri 'Palibin' is a notable exception that deserves much wider use. A compact deciduous lilac reaching just 100-120cm, it was an early 20th-century introduction from North China, where it was discovered as a cultivated variety (wild specimens are unknown).

The plant is worth growing for its high-quality foliage alone: the small leaves are oval and glossy green, with undulating margins (often red-tinged when young), remaining fresh and attractive until they fall in autumn.

Plants bloom while young, producing dense clusters of small cylindrical flowers, deep pink-purple in the bud, that open as pale pink corolla tubes with four (sometimes five) lobes. The small size of the florets means that the spent inflorescences do not usually detract from the plant's overall appearance. However, deadheading will increase the chance of the occasional rebloom in autumn.

Plants are extremely tough and resilient, tolerating temperatures in excess of minus 35°C, regenerating from the base if damaged. Little (if any) maintenance is required for this slow-growing cultivar, which shows reduced susceptibility to some of the diseases (e.g. lilac blight) that affect the larger species. A neutral to alkaline soil is preferred.

With a close-packed framework of regularly branching branches and bud-tipped twigs, the plant continues to occupy space when not in the leaf and has a pleasing winter silhouette. It is a good subject for use in street planters exposed to small soil volumes, which increase the risk of cold damage.

The 'Fairy Tale' series (e.g. TINKERBELLE 'Bailbelle') has been developed by crossing S. 'Palibin' with S. pubescens subsp. microphylla 'Superba' and selecting for fragrance in a range of flower colours (bred in North Dakota, these cultivars are also exceptionally cold hardy).

By Martin Deasy, a UK-based horticulturist and landscape designer. Originally published in the January 2025 edition of FloraCulture International .