Chet Okonczak can tell you the name of every plant in his garden, and if he’s not sure of a name, he can easily look it up. Organized in a three-ring photo album are hand-drawn maps of each plant in the six beds in his backyard at 38 Brentwood, Cheektowaga. On the same page are photos of that bed at various times of the year. In the pocket on the back of the page he keeps the plant tags so…...
Can you help readers with these two gardening questions? Gardening question #1: What’s the name of this stinky plant? I saw your post about the stinky plant. I think I have one, but it does not look like a lily. I was told mine is a voodoo plant. Last year, it gave me a beautiful umbrella effect. This year, it is odd and has a red flower in the middle. Today I found a ton of flies on it, and…...
You don’t need a lot of space to grow fruit bushes or even fruit trees. New varieties have been developed to be smaller, more compact and more attractive in the landscape, according to Fred Safford, who is in charge of trees and shrubs at Lockwood’s Greenhouses. Safford will discuss how you can grow your own fruit and berries at home in a class at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 19 at Lockwood’s, 4484 Clark Street, Hamburg. He will explain how to…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko For decades, impatiens has been the go-to flower for the shade. But now that a blight is wiping out these wonderful flowers, you’ll have to rethink your plant choices for shady gardens. Some garden centers won’t sell impatiens at all this year, while others will grow a limited supply but will sell them without guarantees. Don’t expect to find impatiens at all next year. What should you plant instead? A couple of local events can help…...
Snow covered the ground, temperatures were in the 20’s and there was a biting wind in South Buffalo on Thursday, but it was actually a good day to plant trees, said Ed Dore, vice president of Western New York State Nursery and Landscape Association (WNYSNLA). (2017 UPDATE: WNYSNLA is now PLANT WNY.) Volunteers planted about 115 trees for LEAF a Legacy, part of the National Garden Festival and organized by WNYSNLA. Above, Neil Stern of Gernatt Gravel and Bob Smith of…
Grassless front yards aren’t seen only in the City of Buffalo. A profusion of flowers fills most of Catherine Klein’s front yard in a semi-rural area of Clarence. “You don’t need grass,” she said. “Grass is green. Flowers are colorful.” As you’re planning your garden for this summer, take inspiration and some tips from Catherine. Catherine and I are related. Her father-in-law and my late father were cousins, which makes me and Catherine second cousins by marriage (or something). I…...
‘Hot picks’ available during Botanical Gardens plant sale Alstromeria ‘Inca Ice’, seen above, is one of the “hot picks” offered this year as part of the Great Plant Sale of the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. Only a limited number of specimens of each hot pick will be available. The hot picks must be ordered online. The deadline to order is April 5. Plants will be available for pick-up at the Botanical Gardens during the Great Plant Sale on…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko “It’s quite interesting; it’s not beautiful,” Fran Evans of Hamburg said about his voodoo lily, an unusual plant from Cambodia. Last year Evans showed us his many gardens that were filled with early spring flowers. At the same time, his six-year-old voodoo lily (Amorphophallus konjac), a potted specimen, bloomed for the first time. The blossom has a cool pitcher shape, decorated in regal colors of maroon and gold. I’d say the voodoo lily was pretty– if it weren’t…...
The birthday flower for January is the carnation, which is one of my favorite flowers. It has everything you could want in a flower– a beautiful shape, a wide variety of colors and a delightful fragrance. But some people look down on the magnificent carnation. “The carnation got a bad reputation,” said Maggie Wittmer, floral designer at Mischler’s Florist and Greenhouses in Williamsville. “There’s no reason to hate the carnation. That’s a bum rap.” In addition to being beautiful, the…...
When it comes to decorating, gardeners like to bring the outdoors inside, and using a nature theme actually makes it easier to transition from fall holidays to winter holidays. Pine cones are great transitional elements, said Mary Gurtler, designer at Lockwood’s Greenhouses, 4484 Clark St., Hamburg. The wine glasses in the photo above are a great example of that. If I describe them as being painted in fall shades of yellow, brown and green, you can picture them on a…...
© 2013 Buffalo-Niagara Gardening. All rights reserved.