SPREE INSIDER
Botanical bonanzas
By Eliza Northwood

After months of wearing longjohns under your tux or ball gown, Hawaiian shirts and puka shells have never looked so inviting.
Oh, my, it’s March again—that time of year when the remnants of last autumn resurface and you curse the fact that it was too wet to rake back then, and it’s still too wet to rake now. The sky’s overcast and those darn leaves are poking through the slowly melting snow, giving your surrounding environment a bleak palette of gray, brown, and white. When will it finally be blue, green, and yellow?

Though the daily color scheme won’t change for weeks, you can at least fake it for a few hours by attending Buffalo’s two botanical bonanzas, both taking place this month, and both promising to take the Miserable out of March and put some Spice in your Spring. We’re sponsoring both of them, because we know a good party when we see one. Or two!

The first of these plantastic events will be Paradise Under Glass, Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens’ second annual sneak peek at the Gardens’ Spring Flower Show (the year’s biggest event of its kind). Coordinated by a committee of various young professionals throughout the Buffalo area, Paradise brings a youthful crowd together to celebrate the end of a dreary winter and anxiously anticipate April showers bringing May flowers (precipitated by a 75-degree night or two in March). The two-hour event features fun music, good food, beer and wine, and complimentary leis. Tickets are $25 ahead of time or $30 at the door, and all proceeds benefit the Botanical Gardens (a nonprofit organization that relies on personal donations to survive). Local and corporate sponsors donate such enticing prizes as Sabres tickets, personal training sessions, and more. After months of wearing longjohns under your tux or ball gown, Hawaiian shirts and puka shells have never looked so inviting.

Paradise Under Glass will take place at the Botanical Gardens (2655 South Park Ave.) on Thursday, March 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through their website, www.buffalogardens.com, or at your local Wegmans.

Two weeks after that steamy soiree, you can start thinking about your own planting plans by attending Plantasia: A Carnival of Color. “Western New York’s Only Garden and Landscaping Show” features 15,000 square feet of patios, theme gardens, water displays, and other ways you can make your neighbors jealous. At this Hamburg Fairground event, you have four days to view everything from the most innovative to the most practical gardening and landscaping ideas. Garden centers, nurseries, and landscaping companies from all around WNY come together to showcase their original and traditional takes on flowers, grass, ponds, and all things horticultural. There will be slide presentations, educational seminars, and question-and-answer sessions so amateur gardeners can get advice and suggestions from professionals. Attendees can also purchase all sorts of garden goodies from the numerous vendors setting up shop for the duration of the show.

Plantasia 2008 is scheduled for March 27–30 in the Agri-center at the Hamburg Fairgrounds, running from 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Sunday. For more details and a coupon for a dollar off admission, head to www.plantasiany.com. Can’t wait for opening day? Join us Wednesday, March 26 for Spree’s exclusive preview night from 7–9 p.m. Tickets are available exclusively on the Spree website.

Eliza Northwood is a graduate of mount holyoke college; she interned at Buffalo Spree in fall 2007.


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