In 2014 my children, grandchildren and I attended the Annual Lilac Festival in Rochester, NY's Highland Park. There were more beautiful lilacs there than I had ever seen before, but I fell in love with one cultivar in particular, Syringa vulgaris 'Rochester', with its gorgeous white blooms of unusually heavy substance. As I learned later, this cultivar was a favorite of Father John Fiala in hybridizing many beautiful lilacs that are still sold today.
I would like to grow Syringa vulgaris 'Rochester' in my garden but have not found a source, in spite of much searching. I did find several catalogs listing 'Rochester', but each one indicated that it was "Not Available." Finally I found it in the catalog of ForestFarm Nursery, and I ordered three plants. However, when the plants arrived their flowers were blue with white edges, not pure white like 'Rochester'. Forest Farm looked into the matter and found that all of their so-called 'Rochester' plants also had blue flowers with white edges, like the ones they shipped to me. So I am back to square one. I still want 'Rochester' very much.
Does anyone know where I might find this plant?
