ILS 2025 Preservation Committee Fundraiser

The main goals of the Preservation Committee of the International Lilac Society in the Western Hemisphere are:

1. to identify, locate and take steps to mitigate the risk of lilac cultivars ceasing to exist that have been identified as being of high merit and endangered due to their rarity.
2. to help to facilitate the replication and distribution of these lilacs to public and private gardens across the US.

Why are so many lilac varieties rare and why spend time and effort preserving them? There are many cultivars that exist that have been consistently identified as being of high merit, whether it be based on the size of florets or panicles, abundance of bloom, clarity or richness of color, shrub shape, resistance to disease and mildew, heat tolerance or a combination of these factors. Unfortunately, many of these cultivars were never put into mass production in the plant nursery trade, so few of them have been replicated in great numbers and distribution has been limited. Not only do we want to preserve these cultivars so that future generations may enjoy them, but we believe that some of them could potentially play an important role if used as parent plants in plant breeding programs to introduce better lilac varieties to the public in the future.

With that being said, we need your help! While much of the work that is accomplished is done voluntarily by both the Preservation Committee members and the organizations that we are working with alike, preservation work does not come without necessary expenses, which include:

• materials needed for harvesting divisions of rare cultivars and maintaining/growing them until they are large enough to plant out or distribute
• purchasing root stock for grafting of scions of rare lilac cultivars
• materials required for tissue culturing and growing the resultant plants to a viable size
• shipping plants and genetic plant material to/from organizations

This year we are challenged with a lack of funds being available to cover these costs. While the International Lilac Society can allocate a small amount of funding to support our work, unfortunately it is not nearly enough to enable us to cover the associated expenses of the work that we planned on accomplishing this year. For this reason, we are asking that you might consider donating to our cause. Financially supporting the Preservation Committee will not only ensure that we continue to make great strides in preserving rare lilacs that are notable for their merit, but it ultimately benefits the everyday admirer of lilacs as well. Not only are we working with public gardens to improve their lilac collections in one way or another, but we have already been able to provide some of these lilacs to organizations that we have partnered with to use in their lilac breeding programs. Our work is also serving to make some of the less obtainable (and beautiful) lilac cultivars more available to the public. For the past several years, we have been able to donate some rare lilacs to the annual ILS auction and soon we anticipate being able to offer some of them for purchase on a broader scale.

All that being said, we are asking that you please consider donating to the International Lilac Society Preservation Committee to support its efforts! All funds donated will go directly towards covering the expenses listed above. No matter how small, your donation will make a difference in what can be accomplished this year.

As an added bonus, every person donating will be entered into a raffle, with five lucky US residents winning a rare lilac that cannot be found in the common marketplace.

To donate, we have set up a website on the Internet for your convenience.
To access it, please click on the donation link!

Donations will be accepted through June 30th of 2025. 

Thank you in advance for your support!

Joshua Miller, Preservation Committee Chairman