By Jim Charlier:
The National Garden Festival presents... The Buffalo-style Garden Art Sale -
Sunday, June 24, 10 a.m. - 6 pm
Visit our Buffalo-style Garden Art Sale and bring home fun stuff for your garden! We'll also have a Plant Society Avenue (bring questions!), complete with a Chinese Auction of Plant Society contributions, and the WNY Hosta Society's Accredited Hosta Show - all during the Parkside Garden Tour!
The Daily Dish, found on Atlantic.com says,"There are Japanese, English and Russian gardens, and what I would call Buffalo gardens-eclectic, funky mixes in which found objects and exotic-looking rooftops figure prominently."
Over the past years of Garden Walk Buffalo (the largest garden tour in the U.S) and the various events of the five-week-long National Garden Festival, visitors have noticed Buffalo gardens have more than just pretty plants. There's an abundance of fine, folk, and found art. Buffalo is blessed with a large community of artists and gardeners (and artist-gardeners), so it's no surprise that the two should meet and help define a "Buffalo-style" garden. The city's greatest assets - art, architecture, gardens, and friendly people combine in these tourist-attracting events unlike any other events locally, and any other in the country.
When people think of garden styles, top-of-mind include English, Japanese, Romantic, formal. No internationally-recognized garden style has ever emanated from the U.S. Though Allan Becker, a Montreal garden writer, writes, "Have you noticed the Buffalo-style gardens that have been evolving in western Upstate New York? This type of gardening is considered by some to be an original American contribution to urban landscaping. Although the style pays homage to Romantic English gardens, its unique and distinct local flavor sets it apart from other gardening idioms." He goes on to say that grassless front yards and hellstrips, exuberantly colored homes, densly-planted gardens with liberal use of foliage, and neighbors designing their front yards to compete for attention define the Buffalo-style of garden.
He also states, "The gardeners of this city have created horticultural beauty of such high quality that their work has captured the attention of the rest of America. Admiring camera-equipped tourists arrive from outside the Niagara-Erie area, national magazines place journalists there to write about it, and other cities send delegations to determine if they can emulate Buffalo's success."
Who are we to argue?
Join us for this first-ever National Garden Festival Buffalo-style Garden Art Sale, hosted by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. Add some Buffalo-style to you own garden.
Below is a list of the participating vendors and what they're selling...
Steps and Stones (Ann Briely) Garden pots & planters made of hypertufa
Ten Thousand Villages (Kim Burg) Bird houses, garden pots, art pieces
ArtofGardening.org (Jim Charlier) Copper wall hangings, wine bottle torch kits, hypertufa planters, botanically-themed necklaces
Buffalosmark (Carol Conwell) Floral note cards, natural stone coasters, Misc handmade items
Restored Photo & Design (Barbara Crocker) Digital art photos-flowers, gardens, Floral earringsLorraine's Concrete Leaves (Lorraine Cummings) Concrete bird baths, small toadstools
Creative Copper Wire (David Cyr) Handcrafted garden items of copper and art glass
Blessings by Nature (Paula D'Amico) Natural, one of a kind, bouquet of Herbs in glassed vessels
Linda Dugan (Linda Dugan) Leaf impression hypertufa, hand painted bird baths
Darlene Gray Garden photography
Patti Harris Totems made of foundry wood & metalClear Light Studio (Donna Ioviero) Sculptures, bird baths, fountains, enamel flowers
Aremel Soaps (Robin Lenhard) Handcrafted soaps - floral & herbal, Gardener's soaps
Rusted Grain (Megan McNally) Garden Furniture using reclaimed wood
Pottery by Regina (Regina Rexford) Raku pottery
Gary Wiglusz Bird Feeders made of steel rings and etched glass
Urban Roots Community Garden Center Hand blown glass flowers, solar spirals
Artisan Sheds (Lynn Weber) Wooden garden obelisks & planters
Creations by Heather Gillette (Heather Whitney) Recondition hand painted glass items
Heart of Franklin Concrete garden statuary
The Plant Society Avenue at the Olmsted Conservancy (84 Parkside, Buffalo) will include specialist plant societies as well as the Erie County Master Gardeners and the Botanical Gardens.
Representatives of each society will be available throughout the day to show off their favorite plants and answer your questions concerning their care and cultivation. Some plants will be for sale.
The National Garden Festival is a collaboration between the garden and landscape organizations of the Buffalo Niagara region. The festival is presented by Visit Buffalo Niagara, District 8 Federated Garden Clubs of New York State, the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Garden Walk Buffalo, the Western New York State Nursery & Landscape Association, the New York State Certified Nursery and Landscape Professionals, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library and Forest Lawn Cemetery. Funding is provided by the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, the Western New York Foundation and the Buffalo Green Fund. Additional support has been provided by the Western New York Hosta Society, the Buffalo Area Daylily Society, the Peace Garden Project, Master Gardeners of Cornell Cooperative Extension, Buffalo in Bloom, the Iris Society of Western New York and Elizabeth Licata. The Buffalo News is the festival's media sponsor.
Looks great! Thanks for all the work this organization is doing to promote a positive and visit-able image of our city.
Everyone needs to realize these events aren't just about plants (which are cool unto themselves), but how our gardens and architecture enhance each other. Your pictures tell the story.