THE COASTAL GARDENER:

At this time of the year scores of transplanted gardeners surrender to the nostalgia of a fragrant, blooming lilac shrub somewhere in their garden. The image of huge, billowy lilac branches becomes just too much to resist. These gardeners can almost smell the sweet, powerful fragrance of lilac bouquets wafting through the rooms of their home. Perhaps these are transplanted easterners caught in a tortuous kind of lilac exile.

At some point or another, during their gardening journey, these gardeners have probably heard tales about “California Lilacs” — lilacs that have been bred specifically for our local conditions. Lilacs for Newport Beach. Lilacs for Costa Mesa. And lilacs for the Balboa Peninsula. How lovely.

Just this week I’ve talked to at least three gardeners who were searching for one of these elusive Newport Beach lilacs.

The truth is, they do not exist. Sorry to break the news, but even a retail nursery manager must come clean on this one. There are no lilacs, not Descanso Hybrids, Korean lilacs, Chinese lilacs, Hungarian lilacs, Persian lilacs, French hybrids or lilacs in a mail order catalog that will flower properly in coastal Orange County.

The closest thing we have in our climate to a true lilac are those that were bred nearly half a century ago at what is now Descanso Gardens, a public botanical garden in La Cañada, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. These hybrids, called Descanso Hybrids, were a huge step forward for Southern California lilac fanciers. It meant that lilacs, similar to those in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, could now be grown in California’s cool inland valleys. But, unfortunately, not in Orange County’s mild coastal gardens. Newport Beach is quite different than La Cañada.

Nonetheless, fueled by years of fictional garden writing, overzealous marketing and obsessive gardeners who believe their wishes are greater than a plant’s genetic programming, these lilacs have become nursery mainstays at this time of the year.

In Orange County we live in a near plant paradise. With varying degrees of ease or difficulty, we can grow tens of thousands of plant species. The current edition of Sunset’s Western Garden Book contains some 8,000 entries, and it is a tiny slice of the possibilities available to us.

But perhaps the one factor that a gardener cannot amend is a plant’s need for winter cold, and that is precisely what a lilac needs. A bitter cold winter, although unliked by gardeners, is compulsory to a lilac.

Lilacs are not alone in the modest catalog of impossible local plants. Add to the list peonies, dogwood, forsythia, lily-of-the-valley, rhododendrons, hyacinth and aspen trees.

That’s OK. I’ll be fine with the tens of thousands of plants that we can grow here in coastal Southern California.

ASK RON

Question: I planted several Purple Queen Bougainvilleas last fall in a Western exposure, in a high elevation in South Laguna Beach. The plants lost many leaves in December but are showing new growth this spring. How often should they be watered? Should I add fertilizer, and how often?

Bob

Answer: Your bougainvillea situation sounds rather typical. Especially when young, bougainvilleas often lose many of their leaves during the winter. They don’t grow at all in the cool weather and may even look like they are dying. Bougainvillea are tropical plants and are best planted in warm soil and during long days and warm months of late spring through summer. As they begin to awaken, usually about now, start feeding young plants with a balanced fertilizer according to the label directions. Discontinue fertilizing prior to the cool temperatures of late fall. This fertilizing schedule will help them grow and fill in more quickly.

Once established and up to size you do not need to fertilize a bougainvillea at all. In fact, an established, mature bougainvillea will usually bloom better without fertilizer.

ASK RON your toughest gardening questions, and the expert nursery staff at Roger’s Gardens will come up with an answer. Please include your name, phone number and city, and limit queries to 30 words or fewer. E-mail [email protected], or write to Plant Talk at Roger’s Gardens, 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar, CA 92625.

RON VANDERHOFF is the nursery manager at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar.