'Joy and happiness': It's Lilac Time in Lombard, and the blooms are popping

Lombard's lilacs are almost in full bloom, or so says the official "bloom 'o' meter."

But it's not as if the showy flowers explode all at once in Lilacia Park, the epicenter of Lilac Time, a celebration of the blooming season over the course of more than two weeks in May. The park contains over 200 varieties of lilacs. Buds open into white, pink, blue, violet, magenta and deep purple blooms at different times.

"If we have sunshine the next few days, we're really going to see these lilacs pop," Lombard Garden Club member Cynthia Ward said.

Lilacs and their heavenly fragrance have been adored by Lombardians for nearly a century. The town's love affair with lilacs began in 1927 when Col. William R. Plum, a Civil War veteran, donated his collection to the village. The colonel and his wife, Helen, brought lilac bushes back home to Lombard from their European travels in the early 1900s.

That private garden grew into Lilacia (pronounced Lye-lay-sha) Park. Jens Jensen, the Danish-American landscape architect responsible for some of Chicago's landmark parks, designed the older section of Lilacia with winding paths and curved, limestone edging.

"The village hired Jens Jensen to do something with what was basically a planting area with lots of lilacs, and Jensen came in and redesigned things and made it just beautiful," Ward said.

A villagewide festival still revolves around the blooming period. The Lilac Time schedule is packed with concerts, the Lilac Queen coronation this Saturday, guided park tours and the garden club's lilac sale - all leading up to the annual Lilac Parade down Main Street on Sunday, May 21.

Some lilac fans come simply to wander among the flowering trees and shrubs, to breathe in their perfume, before the blooms start to fade.

"A lot of people are hypnotized by them. It's just gorgeous," Lombard Park District horticulturist Jane Burke said.

She predicts the larger, vulgaris varieties should get their moment in the sun next week. Burke and her crew tend to nearly 1,000 lilacs in Lilacia Park.

"If we get into 80-degree weather, then by Memorial Day, my lilacs will be done," she said. "They don't like it hot."

As of Friday, the park district's "bloom 'o' meter" was registered at one notch before "full bloom."

"You've got the early bloomers, and they're out, so there's plenty of color," Ward said.

The garden club will be selling 490 lilac plants on the north side of Lilacia Park starting at noon Thursday, May 11. Historically, customers have come from as far as Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana. Ward manages the fast-paced sale.

"If we hold true to past sales, we'll be sold out by the end of Friday," she said.

The buzz has to do with the wide selection - 19 classic and new lilac cultivars - and simple pricing. Lilacs are $35 each, including tax.

"We have some that are less common that are popular in the lilac crowd," Ward said.

The garden club describes the Pocahontas lilac as a profuse, particularly fragrant bloomer. Violet florets emerge from maroon-purple buds.

"That's a very sturdy, early-blooming purple lilac that you can't ordinarily find," Ward said.

In Lombard, one of the most popular lilacs is named for President Abraham Lincoln.

"It's very blue, and it sells like crazy," Ward said.

The club has been running the lilac sale for over 50 years. Club members pot and nurture bare-root lilacs from a Minnesota nursery so they're green plants by the time of the sale. Proceeds help fund scholarships for high school students and the club's public programming.

Ward has seven lilacs gracing her front yard in Lombard. Her growing tips? Plant lilacs in a "sunny, sunny" area with well-drained soil and room to grow.

"Don't put them by the gutter. Lilacs like cold, and they like full sun," Burke said.

Every year, the park district crew plants 50,000 tulip bulbs in Lilacia Park. The succession of blooms continues with irises, peonies, delphinium, hydrangeas and so on.

Lilacs, though, are intertwined with village history. The "people of Lombard are extremely proud" of their lilac traditions, Burke said.

The Lombard Historical Society unearthed a proclamation by former Village President Fred Maisel from the 1930s. It may be the best way to celebrate Lilac Time: "Let joy and happiness reign. Lay aside all other vexations of spirit, forget business anxieties and render at all times due and becoming obedience to pleasure. Let us welcome into our realm those who come from distant places to pay homage to that beautiful flower, the lilac."

7 facts to know about Lilac Time in Lombard

In honor of Lilac Time in Lombard, here are some facts you might not know about the event:

• Then-Village President William Mueller plugged the festival during a 1996 appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. Mueller made a bold declaration, calling Lombard the “Lilac Capital of the World.”

• The first Lilac Time festival sprouted in 1930.

• Since then, Lombard has crowned a Lilac Queen every year, except from 1937 to 1946, when festivities were scaled back because of World War II.

• Artist Christia Reade designed the original crown and engraved it with flowers, leaves and branches. Women in the community donated silver spoons that were melted down to create the headpiece. This year’s coronation ceremony, sponsored by the Lombard Junior Women’s Club, will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday in Lilacia Park.

• The park is on land donated by Col. William Plum upon his death in 1927. After his wife, Helen, died in 1924, the colonel offered to sell his lilacs to Joy Morton, who cultivated his own horticultural legacy by founding the Morton Arboretum. Morton refused, saying the lilacs had become a part of Lombard and should stay there. Plum’s gift ensured Lombard would become known as the “Lilac Village.”

• Guides from the Lombard Historical Society give park tours during Lilac Time. Tours are $7. Registration is required at

lombardhistory.org.• The Lilac Parade, the finale of the two-week Lilac Time celebration, steps off at Main Street and Wilson Avenue at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 21. For a full schedule, visit

lombardlilactime.com.Source: Daily Herald archives, the Lombard Historical Society