COOL STUFF
Celebrating a summer of gardens
By Sally Cunningham

Garden Walk photo by Jim Bush.
What if Buffalo were famous for gardens, and people came from far and wide to see them? And what if they came all summer long?

Here’s the good news: The first part is mostly true. Garden Walk Buffalo has attracted a national spotlight. In the last few years we have received rave reviews in Better Homes & Gardens, Canadian Gardening, Fine Gardening, Garden Gate, Great Backyards, Metropolis, Organic Gardening, People Places Plants, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Martha Stewart Living Radio Blog. That’s great press. And it’s bringing us more than 40,000 visitors during the last full weekend in July.

For the next step—the-all-summer-long factor—we need another strategy. What would bring garden tourists (and their dollars) for weeks and weeks? The answer: A National Buffalo Garden Festival, a series of garden-themed events that build upon Garden Walk Buffalo’s momentum and spreads the magic over five weeks of summer. And it’s underway for the summer of 2010.

Birth of a national festival
The idea to go beyond a two-day festival is a no-brainer. After all, how many people can we accommodate on any one weekend? But it took Ed Healy and Drew Cerza of the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau to think national, and invite Jim Charlier (president) and the Garden Walk Buffalo board in as partners. They gathered advisors from Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, and Garden Rant blogger (and Buffalo Spree editor-in-chief) Elizabeth Licata, and agreed on the goal. “Let’s build on the Garden Walk momentum, include the other great garden walks and tours and destinations—and make it a festival!” they said. “Then let’s market it like crazy!” The National Buffalo Garden Festival was born.

The project so far
The five-week festival—June 18 to July 25—will be an inclusive event that will package, enhance, and promote the best of our already wonderful summer of gardening. The festival organizing committee has begun to identify and invite the participation of the best of our “green” and gardening scene. When it’s presented to the national market later this spring, the National Buffalo Garden Festival will include a myriad of must-see gardens and events offered by many collaborators, among them garden clubs, the WNY Hosta and other plant societies, and the WNY Nursery & Landscape Assocation. Over sixteen existing garden walks and tours will be included, such as the Parkside Garden Tour, Lewiston Garden Festival, Clarence Hollow in Bloom, and the Hamburg Garden Walk. We will have “open garden” days specified throughout the summer. Other cultural institutions will have roles as well, either as hosts for seminars or receptions, or presenting their own events. The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library is offering In the Garden: The Art of Botanical Illustration, adding to the wealth of choices for visitors. Finally, new activities are being planned, including a Perennial Plant Symposium in June, and lectures and tours before and after Garden Walk Buffalo.

What you can do
In the next few weeks you’ll be seeing the announcements, a master calendar, and a website; hold the dates and spread the news. We’ll be at Plantasia (the flower and landscape show in March)—be sure to see us there. If we’ve missed an event, tell us. (You may even want to be a volunteer; we’ll need lots.) Most of all, help us with the buzz … It’s our National Buffalo Garden Festival, and we need to spread the word.

Sally Cunningham is a garden writer, lecturer, horticulture consultant, and author of Great Garden Companions (Rodale Books). She is the project coordinator for the National Buffalo Garden Festival.


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