Collection

Ornamental Trees & Shrubs

Lilacs

Lan­dis pre­serves a his­toric lilac col­lec­tion and main­tains appro­pri­ate records for future gen­er­a­tions to uti­lize. Fred Lape had a spe­cial inter­est in lilacs. Father John Fiala in his book, Lilacs, the Genus Syringa, said the fol­low­ing, ​“Fred Lape was an author, lin­guist, hor­ti­cul­tur­ist and a lilac enthu­si­ast. His (book), A Gar­den of Trees and Shrubs, is a must for estate plan­ners who are begin­ners. He was the orig­i­na­tor of the S. vul­garis seedlings from ​‘Kapriz’ and ​‘Cheat’ seed obtained from Rus­sia and the orig­i­na­tor of the beau­ti­ful late bloom­ing white lilac ​‘Sum­mer White” for which he received an Award of Mer­it. He received a com­men­da­tion for his trans­la­tion of the Russ­ian lilac pub­li­ca­tions into English.

The exist­ing his­toric col­lec­tion has been declin­ing due to Lilac Witch­es Broom (LWB), a dis­ease of lilacs caused by the Phy­to­plas­ma Can­di­da­tus Phy­to­plas­ma frax­i­ni. This phy­to­plas­ma was first iden­ti­fied as the causal agent of Ash Yel­lows and has since been attrib­uted to both dis­eases.. Thanks to a gen­er­ous dona­tion from a long-time Lan­dis vol­un­teer and donor, a new loca­tion free of the dis­ease has been estab­lished and the col­lec­tion is being restored. Although not all the orig­i­nal lilacs are avail­able now, every attempt is being made to include all the vari­eties that were part of the orig­i­nal collection.

Rhodo­den­drons

The Arboretum’s col­lec­tion is made up of cold hardy mem­bers of the genus that will sur­vive and grow in the north­east Unit­ed States. 

The col­lec­tion site also acts as a tri­al area for new­ly devel­oped plants that have poten­tial for use in north­ern land­scapes. Rhodo­den­drons are won­der­ful for col­or in spring, pro­vid­ing a delight for the eye.

Crab Apples

Crab apples pro­vide spec­tac­u­lar spring bloom­ing and autumn fruit­ing dis­plays, how­ev­er, dis­eases and pests have been very destruc­tive to the genus Malus. As the result of inten­sive breed­ing pro­grams most of the new­er vari­eties are resis­tant to dis­eases and pests. 

Vis­i­tors can see the old­er and more recent­ly devel­oped vari­eties side by side in the Arboretum’s collection.