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NEBRASKA CITY, Nebraska — A Nebraska community best known for its apples and trees is seeking visitors interested in another plant — lilacs.
Over 30 some years, a collection of different lilacs at Arbor State Historical Park in Nebraska City has grown to more than 200 varieties and ranks among the top-10 collections of lilacs in the nation for its size.
The lilacs, in shades of vibrant magenta, deep purple, lavender, pink and white, line a 1/3-mile rock path, with lilacs blooming on both sides of the path.
The collection, on a former cornfield adjacent to Arbor Lodge, now hosts sold-out spring “lilac tours,” an annual Bloom Fest and has drawn attention from the International Lilac Society.
The lilacs – some from Russia, China, Japan and France – also have their own Instagram account, “nebraskalilacs.”
“This is way far beyond what anyone ever imagined,” said former Arbor Lodge assistant superintendent Mark Kemper, who helped plant the lilacs decades ago.
Arbor Lodge is the former home of J. Sterling Morton, whose promotion of tree planting led to the Arbor Day holiday. Nebraska City is also home to an annual fall celebration of its local apple orchards, the Apple Jack Festival.
The lilac path has been transformed and restored in recent years due to the dedication of two volunteers, Nathan and Ashley Mueller of Lincoln.
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Development of the lilac walk was first launched by Hoyt Lambert and Jan Fricke of Omaha, volunteers with the International Lilac Society, who envisioned a path on land purchased by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
The first plantings were young lilacs donated by Max Peterson, a noted lilac grower from Grant, Nebraska, whose private collection was once the largest in the world, according to the commission.
Some of Peterson’s cultivars were named for family members, such as his wife, Darlene, and remain thriving today in the Arbor Lodge’s collection.
Most of the lilac plantings took place in 1996 and 2002, but in later years the collection fell from the priority list. The Muellers eventually stepped in to revive and restore the lilac plantings, devoting nearly 330 hours in their first year of work to remove debris, grass and weeds from the lilacs.
Together, it forms the largest public lilac collection in Nebraska and the fifth most diverse in the nation.
In 2027, the Muellers will host the International Lilac Society’s annual convention in Nebraska City on the grounds they helped transform.
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