Spring Has Been Wet and Cold!

'Easter Bonnet' Daffodils

This is the worse spring I can remember! I do believe the News said it was the rainiest April ever. I've hardly had times to enjoy the daffodil blooms. This also of course means the garden is a mess! I can't handle cold rain. I do hope this is not a sign of how summer will be. I of course signed up this year to be in the local garden tour and nightmares of not being ready are already tossing around in my head! For those of you interested. The tour is part of the National Gardening Festival of Buffalo.


I will be part of the Kenmore/Tonawanda tours on Sat. July 23 and Sun. July 24. (After all the gardens have been entered in June, you can get more specific info by clicking here.)

Thinking of all this on a rainy day, I made a list of garden nurseries and centers links in the WNY area to visit that are listed towards the bottom of this page. If you have a favorite that I forgot, let me know.


Old Heirloom Daffodil from a GW friend in Arkansas which I believe is 'Butter and Eggs'

4th Annual Buffalo~Niagara Tomato TasteFest

One of the tables full of tomatoes to taste


Me donning the over the top tomato apron that I found last winter.

The party was a great success as usual. We had quite the turnout, and it definitely was an eat, drink, and be merry kind of day.

Some of the attendees

The winners are as follows:
Sweetest~ Snow White grown by Mark Korney
Prettiest~ Sparks Yellow grown by Julianna G. aka Sorellina
Ugliest~ a big unknown lumpy pink tomato grown by Toby Rotella. We had a late arrival of one that was butt ugly and looked like a giant curled up horn worm that garnered a few votes and probably would have won if they arrived earlier so Toby kept his certificate, but graciously gave his bag of TomatoTone to Tauna the grown of "Hornworm"


Tangiest~ Guernsey Island grown by me. I finally won something
Smallest~ Matt's Wild Cherry grown by Mark Korney
Largest~ We didn't get any monster ones this year and Rob K. couldn't make it so I didn't give out an award. I personally did have a 15.8oz. Romeo paste tomato.

Best of All was a tie! the prize was given to Henderson's Winsall grown by Julianna G. The other vote getter was Humph grown by me.
Norm Brown Award(Craziest Tomato Lover) was given to Pomona for traveling the farthest to come. She came from Pittsburg. (We did have representatives from SC and CA there, but they were already in town.)

We as usual had lots of yummy food.

This avocado, tomato, and corn "salsa" was quite yummy.

And people won great raffle prizes.


I'm already looking forward to next year!

To see all the pics, CLICK HERE.

My Poor Abandoned Blog

Daylily 'Beautiful Edgings'

Things in life get crazy sometimes, and some things get pushed to the back like this blog. My business has taken off which of course leads to less free time. I also had a few deaths and illnesses of close family and friends last year. Which of course can put you in a funk and leave you with even less free time. But life is good. My house is a mess, but life is good : )
So what made me finally post? Thoughts of vacation. I'm taking my annual trek to the Florida Keys tomorrow. I posted a few times about vacation last year. I hope to do so again. I also hope to get more pics on here afterwards too.
We'll see where things go...

Summer Garden Trip Adventures

Going to visit special nurseries and gardens is always a great time. In the past week, I went to 3 places, Palmiter Garden Nursery, Jerry Kral's garden, and Cottage Gardens Daylilies.


I met the owners of Palmiter's in early spring at the Rochester Gardenscape show. They are located in Avon a small town outside of Rochester. They are very well known for their amazing peonies. Their nursery came about from being gardeners who had plants people admired, so they began to sell, and things progressed from there. So there is a large home garden to see besides the plants for sale.

Though a bit pricey compared to so other nurseries, the plants were excellent quality and the staff was friendly and helpful.

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Rock Garden Society member, Jerry Kral, had a visit to his garden for our chapter. He is very lucky to have an acre garden within the city limits of Rochester. His backyard is mostly shade gardens filled with amazing plant specimens and garden art.




It was easy to take cool pics at his place.


He does have a sunny area complete with rock gardens at the back corner of his property.


It was a fantastic home garden to visit!

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Friends and I were lucky enough to visit Cottage Gardens Daylilies in Medina again this year. The day started off very rainy, but it did calm to a gentler rain as we got there, and we had a great time.

Hilde and Elizabeth perusing the daylilies

Besides the daylily fields, there is also a beautiful house garden to enjoy.


Brent Ross, the owner is a very friendly and funny guy.



Debbie 4, a seedling of Brent's that came home with me

I'm already looking forward to next year's trip!