Garden Travels: Unexpected Garden Adventures With a Dear Friend

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Garden Travels: Unexpected Garden Adventures With a Dear Friend
Buffalo New York

I enjoy traveling – especially when I get to explore new places. Last month, I journeyed to Buffalo New York where I toured gardens, attended a writer’s workshop, and best of all, spent time with one of my favorite people.

Why Buffalo you may ask? Well, it turns out that this industrial city has beautiful green spaces, whimsical private gardens, as well as test gardens. Each August, the city hosts Garden Walk Buffalo where people from all over the U.S., Canada, and other countries descend to tour over 400 private gardens. I was in Buffalo for the Garden Communicator’s Annual Conference, which is held in a different city each year. Each year, I look forward to the conference where garden tours, educational sessions, and the tradeshow fills our days. It is also a very good time to reconnect with fellow writers.

Buffalo New York

I arrived in Buffalo a few days early to meet up with my BGF (Best Garden Friend), Andrea who flew all the way from Australia to attend. We met two years ago when we attended our first conference and bonded instantly. Throughout the year, we keep in touch via Facebook Messenger and look forward to spending a week together at the conference. 

Our agenda for the first day was to explore the downtown area down the street from our hotel. There were many older buildings, including our hotel, which had been beautifully refurbished, including the city hall and its art deco architecture.

The day was sunny, humid, and hot. Desert dwellers like me don’t deal very well with humidity, but that didn’t stop us from exploring.

banks of Lake Erie , Buffalo New York

We walked down to Canalside, which is along the banks of Lake Erie. As we explored the area, we walked through beautifully landscaped garden beds. The hosta and coleus were stunning with their contrasting colors.

pink flowering gaura ,Buffalo New York

While I may not be able to grow many of the plants we passed by, it doesn’t keep me from enjoying their beauty and getting inspired to create similar plantings using different plants that thrive where I live. However, there was ONE plant in this bed that currently grows in my garden – pink flowering gaura.

Buffalo New York ,Buffalo New York

As we continued walking along the water front, splashes of color caught my eye. 

Buffalo New York , Buffalo New York

We had stumbled upon a ‘pot of gold at the end of a rainbow’ or in other words, a test garden where the latest flowering annuals are being tested.

white and purple angelonia ,Buffalo New York

Large containers filled with ‘Supertunia’ petunias look as if they are on steroids. But, this type of flower is smaller than regular petunias and flower more abundantly as you can see. The tall spikes of white and purple angelonia add a lovely vertical accent.

White alyssum, black sweet potato vine, and gomphrena , Buffalo New York

White alyssum, black sweet potato vine, and gomphrena make a unique grouping that works. 

I was thrilled to note that many of the plants in the test garden would grow nicely in my desert garden – during the cool season.

pink gaura ,Buffalo New York

More pink gaura was to be seen, blooming in front of masses of Supertunia.

Buffalo New York

Lantana is a very familiar sight in arid gardens where it can survive outdoors throughout the year. However, in cold winter regions, it is treated as an annual.

Black-eyed Susan vines , Buffalo New York

Black-eyed Susan vines grew against a wooden fence surrounded by vibrant verbena and double petunias.

Buffalo New York

I love trellises made from natural materials on hand like this wood, likely fished out from the lake.

Salvia amistad.

Here is another plant that currently grows in my desert garden – Salvia amistad.

Million Bells (Calibrachoa)

Million Bells (Calibrachoa)

Garden Travels: Unexpected Garden Adventures With a Dear Friend

After the long trek from our hotel and exploring the test garden, Andrea and I were content after seeing such beautiful plants, but we were also hot, tired, and hungry.

Garden Travels: Unexpected Garden Adventures With a Dear Friend

Thankfully, we found this wonderful restaurant a couple of blocks away. The food and service were fabulous, so we came back again for dinner.

I invite you to visit Andrea’s blog where she writes about her adventures gardening in Perth, Australia. Please come back to join me for day two of our adventure where we discover another garden – this one filled with edible plants along with whimsical garden signs.

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."
6 replies
  1. Andrea L Whitely
    Andrea L Whitely says:

    These were two very special days. I feel very grateful to be able to call AZPlantlady my BGF and it was indeed a wonderful, life changing moment in Pasadena. when we two garden gals met for the first time.Buffalo New York was such fun, I can’t wait for the next adventure…until then we will just have to be satisfied with Social Media for our communications and when you think of it we are very lucky, in my lifetime (and I’m only 52!) our only communication would have been lettergrams and postcards-never phone and photos!

  2. arizonaplantlady@gmail.com
    arizonaplantlady@gmail.com says:

    Hi BGF,

    Can you imagine how much more difficult it would have been to communicate with each other just a few years ago? I am so thankful it is so much easier now, but I still miss hearing your voice with its lovely Aussie accent!

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