It’s time for lilacs in Upstate New York. A Lilac Festival takes place today (May 12, 2017) through May 21, 2017, in Rochester, New York. Hours for the annual event, now in its 119th year, are 10:30 a.m. through 8:30 p.m. daily.

Although there are all sorts of ancillary events, Road Trips Gardeners are most interested in the gardens and lilacs. We’ll be zoning in on Highland Park, located in the Mount Hope Preservation District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Monroe County’s Highland Park was the dream of George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry, two leading Rochester citizens and prominent nurserymen. Owners of the world-famous Mount Hope Nursery, they endowed the community with 20 acres of their nursery’s land and enlisted the help of noted landscape engineer Frederick Law Olmsted to develop the park. The relationship with Olmsted lasted into the twentieth century, and today Highland Park has grown to comprise 150 acres of rolling hills filled with what’s said to be the largest collection of lilacs in the United States: more than 500 varieties of lilacs on 1200 plants.

(Photo courtesy of Rochester Lilac Festival)