THE LILAC ZONE

Future name - "Thunder Cloud?

This was a fun discovery during the 2022 trip to Highland Park. A volunteer seedling was blooming

in the middle of a documented cultivar located at the park, the bloom so different that it was clearly indicating that what a friend of mine and I was seeing was not a sucker of the parent plant. We noted how spectacular the bloom was, with white near the eye in each floret and mutually agreed that this new lilac might be worthy of being given an official name. (Not all lilacs that have been given names originally were a product of intentional hybridizing. Some highly impressive cultivars have actually been open-pollinated seedlings that were selected for their high merit and given an official name!) 

This winter, scions were collected of this lilac, courtesy of one of my friends that lives fairly close to Highland Park and grafted by my grafting buddy so that we have can have additional copies of it already underway, should we decide that it be worthy of a name after another couple of years of continued observation. If it is deemed worthy, we agreed that due to its darker purple coloration, we may consider calling it "Thunder Cloud"!