THE LILAC ZONE

This lilac has been such an exciting discovery. It is a mature specimen over 20' tall that was propagated by a known lilac propagator, Ken Berdeen and given to a friend to grow and observe in his private collection. Unfortunately both propagator and horticulturalist passed on before it was ever named. I have been fortunate enough to be able to visit this collection and by using well-documented maps denoting the location of each cultivar, was able to verify that this lilac still exists! 

By now you likely know how much I love blue lilacs - and this lilac, I love!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! 

This lilac produces beautiful, sizeable panicles of large blue florets which fade to a light blue as it ages. The plant itself doesn't seem to produce many suckers, at least suckers that are obvious to be from the mother plant. In the past several years, I have collected suckers from around this specimen, but I suspect that due to the direction that their root systems were coming from, they are all actually suckers from the lilac planted adjacent to this one. When they bloom, it will be easy to tell if they belonged to the mother plant or the lilac adjacent to it, as the the lilac adjacent to this one is a double-flowering lilac of a different color.

Two years ago, a new sucker was discovered fairly close to the mother plant and its root system appeared to be coming from it, so the sucker was collected and now grows in my collection. It will likely be several more years before it finally blooms and reveals whether it was produced from the mother plant, but I am hopeful that it was!

A lilac that I am currently calling "New Blue"!