The name of the exhibit, To Be of Service to Flower Lovers, is the reason given by Colonel William Plum on his application to the United States Department of Agriculture explaining why he wanted to import lilacs from Victor Lemoine of France. Plum amassed over three hundred different lilac cultivars during his lifetime. Later, the Lombard Park District worked with renowned landscape architect, Jens Jensen, to design Lilacia Park for future generations of flower lovers. In 2011, visiting leaders of the International Lilac Society proclaimed Lilacia Park one of the best maintained lilac collections they had seen. This exhibit provides insight into the relationship of Plum and Lemoine, as well as the location of and details about the various species and cultivars of lilacs in Lilacia Park.
Over the course of three years, Marymae Meyer and horticulturist, Jerry Budd, inventoried, mapped and developed a botanically correct, computerized database of Lilacia Park’s 100-year- old lilac collection. Meyer later donated the database, photographs and supplemental research to the Lombard Park District. Meyer will also present “Lilacs 101”, a program for lilac lovers, in a Brown Bag Lecture on Wednesday, April 25 at noon in the Carriage House.
