photo by: Sara Shepherd

The lilac bushes are all gone from KU's Lilac Lane. In this picture, taken Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, behind Fraser Hall, there is only dirt where the lilacs once were.

After hearing all the lilacs had suddenly disappeared from Kansas University’s Lilac Lane I thought, “No way,” and went to see for myself.

Sure enough, every bush has been ripped out, and there’s just mud where they once lined the street behind Fraser Hall. At least for this KU/Oread neighborhood alumna — who walked through them daily for years, and has a soft spot for both history and flowers (I’m not as old as that makes me sound, I promise) — it was a disconcerting sight.

photo by: Sara Shepherd

The lilac bushes are all gone from KU's Lilac Lane. In this picture, taken Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, behind Fraser Hall, there is only dirt where the lilacs once were.

Turns out there’s no need for outrage.

The lilacs, which were removed last week, will be replaced with new ones around late September, KU landscape architect and project manager Marion Paulette said. She said KU planned to replace the old lilacs and decided to do it now, while work was already going on in the area for the Jayhawk Boulevard Reconstruction project.

“The ones that were there were pretty overgrown, and some were missing and very scraggly,” Paulette said. “They’ve been maintained; they just really were old and were at the end of their life.”

Paulette said she’s hoping for blooms on the new plants next spring. She said KU will plant “Penda” and “Red Pixie” lilacs, both newer cultivars of Persian lilacs, an old and fragrant variety they believe is the same as what was there in the past. Paulette said she didn’t know how old the torn-out lilacs were, but they definitely were not the original lilacs of Lilac Lane.

Lilacs first were planted there in the 1870s, when local nurseryman Joseph Savage donated them and worked with Chancellor James Marvin to plant a row to frame the east lawn of Old Fraser Hall, according to a section on Lilac Lane from KU’s application to get the KU Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Information on Lilac Lane in the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the KU Historic District.

“They’re an important landscape, and very important to the character of KU, and certainly something we want to maintain and preserve,” Paulette said.

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Notice anything major missing from the KU campus lately? Let me know, by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187 or on Twitter @saramarieshep.