Rochester Lilac Festival

Highland Park possesses a huge collection of lilacs, featuring more than 1800 bushes and over 500 different varieties.

The Highland Park arboretum and nearby Ellwanger Garden[2] can be toured free of charge and are open to all visitors.

The festival ends each year with the annual Lilac 10K road race and 5K Family Fun Run.

In 1888, nurserymen George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry endowed the Rochester community with 20 acres (81,000 m2) of gently rolling hills that are now known as Highland Park.

The park's lilac collection was started by horticulturist John Dunbar in 1892 with 20 varieties, some of which were descendants of slips of native Balkan Mountain flowers that were carried to the new world by early colonists.