THE LILAC ZONE

Since 2019, I feel that I have made some great strides in procuring some pretty rare lilacs with the goal of ensuring further distribution of them to other private collections and public gardens in the future. Thanks to my grafting buddy, as well as LB's family, who so generously took the time and energy to send me scions, we were able to successfully propagate 10 different cultivars that are pretty difficult to find.  Grafted lilacs are not ideal, but as a means of helping to preserve the genetic material of a rare lilac, it is one way of doing so, especially if the 

​​2020 Preservation Efforts​

particular variety of lilac is not one known to sucker. By successfully preserving the genetic material in this manner, it will allow for more time to identify one or more people that can then propagate these lilacs further via taking softwood cuttings when these plants are big enough, or to propagate them via tissue culture.

On a separate note, plans for trips to lilac collections this year specifically with the goal of furthering preservation of certain cultivars have been completely upended due to the current Coronavirus situation. That being said, I haven't let it deter me as I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe that this work will still get done, whether it can be done this year or some time in the future.

I also believe that when certain doors are shut, others open up. Due to some extra time that I have had because of working from home lately, I have made connections with two additional lilac sources that I was unaware of until now (much to my wife's chagrin). This is very exciting to me, as connecting with these people is only going to aid in preservation efforts further!