I went to Buffalo NY and returned with a Hosta (and lots of photos)

July 8th thru the 13th I was in Buffalo NY for the 2026 Garden Fling. Flying out I had a great view of Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainer.

Flying into Buffalo I got my only view of Niagara Falls (the white froth off in the distance). Yes, that does appear to be duct tape on the end of the airplane's wing. It did get us safely from Denver to Buffalo...

We were greeted by a nice green vertical planting in the Buffalo airport.

Naturally I had to look closer.

From what I found online it's been in place since at least 2022, they've been maintaining it well!

From the hotel Andrew noticed this celebration of wind going on out in Lake Erie.

The official Fling activities didn't get underway until Thursday evening, so I had the day to explore. Since the Fling itinerary didn't include Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens I made the trek on my own, mainly to visit the Historic South Bark Conservatory (future blog post).

Before calling my Lyft back to the hotel I walked up the street to put an eye on this building, which turned out to be Our Lady of Victory National Shrine & Basilica, built in 1926.

It was rather extraordinary.

It seemed like they were covering the dome with new copper sheets.

Inside...

Andrew was with me in Buffalo and during his exploration around the city he encountered many sidewalks in need of repair, and snapped this photo of one that had been taken care of.

More street art, this one hitting a little hard.

Even though this one isn't technically art, I thought it was a fine call out to my blog.

Each of the three days of Fling tours we boarded a bus luxury motor coach at the hotel and headed out to the suburbs to tour gardens. Then in the afternoon we returned to the city and set out walking a different neighborhood, with a map in hand of gardens participating in Garden Walk Buffalo. It was in one of those neighborhoods (Elmwood) where I spotted this unique piece. This was not one of the participating gardens, by the way.

Their front walkway railing, also eye-catching.

All told we visited some 27 private gardens, 2 plant shops, and a Hosta farm. We dined at one of the Oldest Woman's Clubs in America, had lunch at "Silo City" (a post industrial landscape being reimagined), toured an arboretum and stopped at Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House—although oddly touring the actual house was not included, just eating lunch on the grounds and walking through the conservatory.

It was in garden #20 that I finally saw an agave (I'm not counting the ones I saw in the conservatory), as a bonus there were also ferns!

I came away from the long weekend with two new plant crushes, the first spotted in this garden, belonging to Wendy and Jeff Leyonmark....

I give you Calycanthus floridus 'Burgundy Spice', that foliage! Sure it can eventually reach 8ft x 8ft but I spoke with Jeff and he said it was slow grower.

The next new must have is hanging out in the far right window of Craig Coyne and Gary DeNezza's home (check out those Hosta!).

Thankfully there was another down at ground level, Caladium 'Burning Heart'.

A bronze-leaved "sun tolerant" Caladium that has pink to orange spots. The color does not show well in these photos but was fabulous. 

Here's the group picture. Officially there were 72 attendees from 28 states and Canada signed up for the Buffalo Fling. You can see the list of folks on the Fling website, here. The Pacific Northwest was represented well with 7 Oregonians and 5 Washingtonians.

Yes I'm sharing a couple more photos from the sky, first this shot of an island, maybe in Lake Michigan—we flew back to Portland via Baltimore. I found the agricultural patterns especially interesting on an island.

And then, home. That's the Columbia River Gorge, Mount Adams and Mount Rainer in the distance. I love visiting other places, but also love coming home. 

So about that Hosta. I received this Hosta 'Sun Mouse' as a door prize at our group dinner at the Twentieth Century Club. It was donated by Murray's Hosta Farm which we'd visited earlier in the day. I thought it was rather fitting since Hosta were grown in practically every garden we toured.

I purchased this Hoya crassipetiolata at one of the plant shops we visited, Put a Plant On It. I needed another Hoya for a little project I'm working on and wanted to support the shop. Of course there will be a future blog post about it, and the owners garden too which we visited the day before. 

There will be future posts about the gardens we saw during the Buffalo Fling! I also want to thank the Fling organizers Jim Charlier and Elizabeth Licata, the many volunteers that made the weekend flow smoothly, and the sponsors that keep the Fling affordable...

And... next year the Fling returns to Portland! Mark your calendar for July 22-25. Watch the Fling website for more information.

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