Visit Nebraska City and you'll find trees. Trees of all kinds - maple, oak, birch, fir. What you may not know is that the birthplace of Arbor Day is also home to the fifth-largest public collection of lilacs in the United States. 

For a month every spring, more than 200 lilac plants bloom into mid-May. Vibrant deep purple, magenta, lavender, pink and white lilac blossoms hug a 1/3-mile loop at Arbor Lodge Historical State Park, on the grounds of land that once belonged to the estate of J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day. The fragrance of the blossoms says spring is finally here. 

"It is kind of a gem," said Nathan Mueller of Lincoln and a volunteer curator of the lilacs. "Highland Park in Rochester, New York, wins, of course, and that's OK. We're a long way from there. This is a really nice collection here in the Midwest." 

Rochester has the world's largest public lilac collection, with more than 1,200 plants featuring 500 varieties. Toronto Gardens in Ontario has the most varieties in the world, with about 800 types of lilacs.

There are only 13 main lilac species in the world, Mueller said. The varieties are offshoots of the original lilacs, including France's Lemoine variety, he said.

About 80 percent of the lilacs at Arbor Lodge are American-bred, with others coming from France, Russia, Germany and China, among other nations, Mueller said. 

Arbor Lodge hosts a lilac festival over two weekends in April. Bloom Fest also features hands-on horticulture workshops at the Lied Greenhouse. 

The lilac collection is divided into three sections. 

The Max and Darlene Peterson Lilac Walk features more than 150 lilacs along the gravel path. The Petersons' farm was once considered the world's largest collection of lilacs. 

About 50 lilac plants can be found in the Forest Bed. Peterson's Red Pixie is among the lilacs on display.

The Monument Bed, with 20 lilacs, is arranged in four rows. Among the lilacs on exhibit is Peterson's Ruby Cole variety. 

While Nebraska City's lilac collection has been decades in the making, it's really taken off over the last few years, with Mueller and his wife, Ashley, volunteering about 300 hours per year in maintaining and growing the collection, spending half a day every weekend at the park. 

Mueller, who has a doctorate in soil fertility and teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has long had a fascination with lilacs, growing up near Hooper. 

"I grew up with lilacs on the farm, and it was just a plant that we both were interested in," he said. "It's been a fun project for my wife and I to do together." 

Much of Nebraska City's lilacs came from plants raised on Max Peterson's farm near Grant, Nebraska. His farm had about 800 varieties at one time.

Peterson graduated from the Denver Floral School of Design and co-owned Wee Flower Shop in Ogallala. 

A longtime member of the International Lilac Society, Peterson died in 2024. Some Peterson-raised lilacs are also on display at Omaha's Lauritzen Gardens. 

The first set of lilacs was planted at Arbor Lodge about 30 years ago, Mueller said. The Muellers became involved with the Arbor Lodge project in 2020, he said. 

"It really goes back to kind of being a Pandemic project," Mueller said. "We were home with our kids, and I decided just to redo our landscaping. We had just moved in in December 2019, and then all of a sudden, Spring of 2020, things changed. So I restarted, and had planted a few lilacs, and then started diving into lilacs and reading more." 

His research brought the family to Nebraska City to learn more about the Arbor Lodge collection. The couple became volunteers soon after, Mueller said. 

Over the past few years, the Muellers have planted more lilacs at the state park, he said. 

While not native to the United States, lilacs have proven to be a hearty plant, adaptable to cooler environments of the northern United States, he said. North Texas is about as far south as they can bloom, Mueller said.

"There's a lot of cultural significance, where settlers did bring them with them across the U.S.," Mueller said. "George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had planted lilacs at their sites, too. But they kind of just moved with settlers, kind of like peonies and irises." 

Lilacs are perennials, so once planted, they'll blossom each year, he said. They grow best when they receive about six hours of sun daily, Mueller said. 

"They're not real happy in the shade," he said. "I always tell people to find a sunny spot in the yard, with a little watering and maintenance upfront." 

After about three years of attention, they're pretty self-sufficient, but not maintenance-free, Mueller said. 

"We do talk about pruning and what that looks like over time," he said. "They can live up to 100 years." 

Nebraska City will host the International Lilac Society's annual convention in 2027. The 2026 convention is scheduled to be held in Quebec City, Quebec, in late May.

Tim Trudell is a freelance writer and online content creator. His work has appeared in Flatwater Free Press, Next Avenue, Indian Country Today, Nebraska Life, Nebraska Magazine, Council Bluffs Daily Non-Pareil and Douglas County Post Gazette, among others. He is a citizen of the Santee Dakota Nation.