Highland Park – Rochester, New York’s Olmsted jewel – is in full bloom on Mother’s Day 2025 weekend.
With all due respect (and admiration),
Art Giacalone
Highland Park/Lilac Festival
Perhaps an internet troll who critiqued my most recent letter-to-the-editor was correct when he suggested that I must have way too much time on my hands given the things I worry about (the particular topic, the dignity of Native Americans). I rejected the notion until I realized what I had running around in my brain while driving home this afternoon from a visit to Rochester’s Lilac Festival. I was thinking about the things I have in common with the many lilac trees gracing the hilly park located in the southern portion of the town of my birth:
First, the lilac trees and I not only have deep roots in the Flour/Flower City, we both started our lives adjacent to Highland Avenue – the trees in Highland Park, my twin brother David and I down the road at Highland Hospital.
Second, we both hang out at an Olmsted-designed park. I walk and/or bicycle daily through South Buffalo’s Cazenovia Park. They spend all 24/7, twelve months of the year in the aforementioned Olmsted gem, Monroe County’s Highland Park.
Third, casual observers checking us out today might have superficially concluded that the lilac blossoms and I were both a bit past our prime. And,
Fourth, just as anyone stopping by this zoning/environmental lawyer’s website might be surprised (perhaps, disappointed) if they expected my blog to always be playing the same old note, a person who thinks a “lilac festival” only offers lilacs would be quite surprised (and, most likely, not disappointed) by the variety of vegetation one’s senses have the opportunity to explore at this annual event.
Here’s proof:
Paperbark Maple (Western China)
Daybreak Magnolia
Elizabeth Magnolia
Brozzoni Saucer Magnolia
Ricki Magnolia
[?]
Katsura Tree (planted 1919, coincidentally, the year my father was born)
Lilac-colored Lilacs
With All Due Respect,
Art Giacalone
P.S. Bonus picture. My daughter, on the right, sitting in the Katsura tree in 2009:
Here’s a bouquet of images from the 2019 lilac festival at Highland Park, Rochester’s Olmsted park.
With All Due Respect and Admiration,
Art Giacalone
We Buffalonians exude pride and gratitude for our historic connection to Frederick Law Olmsted and our legacy of Olmsted designed and inspired parks and parkways. My days are certainly more energetic and promising when they start with a walk through my neighborhood’s gem, Cazenovia Park (even during the winter months). And I recall fondly my young adult years when I would daringly cross Parkside Avenue during the PM rush hour to jog along Delaware Park’s ring road, enjoying the expanse of green grass, shade of the trees, and glimpses of the inhabitants of the Buffalo zoo. Generations of Queen City residents have similar positive feelings and memories for their nearby Olmsted parkland, whether it’s Front Park, MLJ, Jr. Park, Riverside Park, or South Park (and its glorious botanical gardens).
But I’m also a native of Rochester, New York, and I find it near-impossible this time of year not to be lured 75-miles eastward down the I-90 to re-visit my first Olmsted Park – Highland Park – nestled in a stunningly beautiful and hilly area of the “Flower City” [f/k/a “Flour City”]. While Highland touts its 1,200 lilac shrubs, and is in the midst of the 120th annual Lilac Festival (being held this year from May 11th through May 20th), the park’s magnolia trees made the deepest impression on me during my May 16, 2018 sojourn. And my quick trip to the city of my birth also reminded me that 2018 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of legendary social reformer Frederick Douglass – who called Rochester home for a quarter of a century.
Here are other images from my visit to Rochester’s Olmsted park:
CHERRY BLOSSOMS:
MAGNOLIAS:
LILACS:
TULIPS:
FREDERICK DOUGLASS/HIGHLAND BOWL:
With All Due Respect,
Art Giacalone
P.S. The City of Rochester has events to commemorate the bicentennial of Frederick Douglass’ birth throughout 2018. For additional information, click here.
With All Due Respect 