When was the last time you purchased a fruit tree, a rose shrub, a dwarf or rare evergreen, a grape vine or a non-specie tree for your garden. Did you know that all these are usually grafted! Grafting usually in the above cases improves hardiness and has been a long time accepted way to propagate by nurseries for years.
In the 1860’s almost all grape vines in Europe were lost to the grape phylloxera louse.
That is when grafting started in the European vineyards.

A few years ago I submitted an article on grafted lilacs and am rewriting one for this with a lot more experience.
Lilacs are propagated in different manners; root division, softwood cuttings, tissue culture and grafting. With over 25 years now in the nursery industry working for large wholesale companies and working on our own at Select Plus Nursery, I have had the chance to gain much experience.
There are some people that are against grafted lilacs. Maybe when the plant has only 1 year under it’s belt I agree but after the second year when a good graft is done it will stand up to any lilac.
Last winter 2003-2004 we had a lot of rain in the fall and a huge freeze with little snow coverage after. We lost more than usual amount of 1 gallon lilacs that were from softwood cuttings or tissue culture. But our 1 gallon grafted lilacs were not affected.
Thus came the theory I have been internally supporting that a grafted lilac on a late root stock suck as preston can withhold more damaging winters concerning poor drainage or colder weather.
I still prefer to propagate by softwood cutting myself but sometimes to secure new or rare cultivars this is the way to proceed. Once the younger graft is sunk a little deeper into a 1 gallon or 3 gallon pot the reshoots from the under graft become almost non existent and the original scion wood roots on it’s own.
Tissue culture lilacs are usually bushier plants from a younger age.
Softwood cuttings can take an extra 1-2 years to flower. They have to build a good root system first. They must go through their juvenile period first.
Shoot divisions as we have all heard the stories can take many years to flower.
Grafted lilacs can flower much more rapidly since the root system below is already established. The only thing is we should be aware of a grafted plant so we know how to properly prune it. It is a skill to learn and much more costly to do than other forms of propagation.
So what we must appreciate is the availability of lilacs. Losing a cultivar to extinction is losing genetic material we will never be able to get back. Keep your nametags or keep a record of what you purchased.

Frank Moro