THE LILAC ZONE (Now being updated again!)

'Pink Elizabeth' is not very well known and it should be! This cultivar was propagated by an American woman named Hulda Klager. Few of her lilacs have been propagated in large numbers but this one was selected to be tissue cultured by a plant nursery in Washington state and I am really glad. It was given to me by a really lovely lady and great friend and I am so thankful for that. In my opinion it is one of the best single pink-flowering vulgaris!

I was thrilled to be given 'Daisy Wolcott' by a good friend of mine this year and even more thrilled to see that it had bloomed when he gave it to me. There are very few hyacinthiflora that have blue flowers and this is one of them. I think it is the bluest of all hyacinthiflora that I have seen to date and I can't wait to see this bloom when it is bigger and has more to show!

This lilac is called 'Richard A. Fenicchia', named after an American lilac propagator that produced a number of incredible lilac cultivars. This lilac produces (what seems to me to be) very unique double violet florets. Until recently, it was only known to exist at Highland Park in Rochester, NY, but was tissue cultured several years ago and thus is more readily available. I just obtained my specimen in 2025 and it was kind enough to produce a small number of flowers for me to enjoy!

2025 was another tough year and was probably one of the most disappointing seasons in regard to seeing lilacs bloom for the first time. Despite that a number of my younger lilacs have finally grown to be a good size and one would think that they were finally large and old enough (some being 5-6 years old at this point) to produce a bloom or two, only three lilacs bloomed for the first time this year. This was most likely due to the wet summer that we experienced in 2024 that caused a massive bacterial blight which stressed the lilacs out. In any case, all three lilacs that bloomed are considered fairly rare, so it was exciting to see them bloom nonetheless!