Lilac Sunday (Chinese) Lilac            si-RING-ga ×  chi-NEN-sis

• Broadleaf deciduous shrub, to about 12 ft (3.6m) tall and wide, somewhat arching.  Flowers pale purple, fragrant, individual flowers only 13 mm wide, but in abundant clusters that are at both terminal and axillary position, thin branches arch under the weight of the blooms.
• Sun or part shade.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3       ‘Lilac Sunday’ was derived from seed received from the Botanical Garden of the Chinese Botanical Academy, Beijing by the Arnold Arboretum in 1979; see http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/458.pdf.  John Alexander, the propagator of the Arboretum, surmised that the that the seed-bearing parent was S. protolacmiata, the cutleaf lilac, and the male parent S. vulgaris, the common lilac; such hybrid progeny are known as S. x chinens.  This selection bears the name of the Arnold Arboretum’s annual lilac celebration, a time-honored Boston tradition that draws thousands in mid-May to "experience firsthand the showy, fragrant flowers of the lilac collection."