The best garden tour, it turns out, starts the night before.
By Lauren Newkirk Maynard
This summer, a garden-season tradition is back.
Years ago, before Gardens Buffalo Niagara brought several garden events together under one organization, Garden Walk Buffalo threw an annual party at the former Bullfeather’s bar and restaurant on the West Side.
The evening connected gardeners, local garden lovers and out-of-town visitors together on the Friday before the big event.
It was a great time, giving hard-working gardeners a respite and a signature cocktail to sip as they mingled with folks from all over the United States, Canada, and even Europe.
“We’d have fun getting to know each other,” says Jim Charlier, former president of Garden Walk Buffalo and an avid gardener whose famous garden shed has delighted countless visitors on the Walk.
If you had your garden open the last weekend of July, it was also fun to see people you’d just met the night before, paving the way for long-standing relationships and repeat visitors to our city.
“This was before Open Gardens and East Side Garden Walk provided out-of-towners with more to do the week leading up to Garden Walk,” Charlier says. This year, there are more than a dozen area garden tours leading up to Garden Walk weekend, including four the weekend before (such as East Side Garden Walk, another GBN event), and Open Gardens on Thursdays and Fridays.
GBN revives that tradition on July 22—four days before Garden Walk—with Blooms & Brews, a public party and fundraiser to be held from 5-9 p.m. at Chandler Street Breweries, 166 Chandler Street, Buffalo.
Tickets ($35 in advance, $45 at the door) are still available for Blooms and Brews, which gets you two drinks, freshly sliced pizza, a cork pull and a chance to sample Pollinator Pils, a limited edition pilsner brewed by Smoldered Society Brewery. You’ll also receive complementary copies of GBN’s 30th anniversary bookazine ($15) and 2026 Open Gardens Guide ($20).
So get your tickets today and come hang out with us on the 22nd! Your support helps GBN create some of the country’s best garden tours and garden programs, and makes Buffalo all the more beautiful and deeply connected.
We say cheers to that!
