THE LILAC ZONE (Now being updated again!)

This was a really fun discovery this past year and just proves that one never knows when you might come across something new when looking at lilacs! One of my best lilac buds and I discovered a mutation within a specimen of 'Azurea Plena', the first cultivar in history documented to have double florets and utilized to produce the hyacinthiflora species. While 'Azurea Plena' exhibits bluish-colored florets, the sport was producing pale pink blooms. We flagged the specimen in order to be able to obtain scions of it this winter to ensure preservation of the mutation via grafting. Genetically different than the mother plant and producing radically different-colored blooms, we will watch the grafted specimens for the next couple of years to see if the mutation is stable and they consistently produce pale pink blooms. If so, I would like to propose calling this new development "Rosa Palida Plena"!

A sport of 'Azurea Plena' discovered in 2025!