Western New York Nursery & Landscape Association

For the latest information and schedule of events visit the National Buffalo Garden Festival website!

A Message from the President - March, 2010

 Many of you have already heard about the new National Buffalo Garden Festival (NBGF) which is expanding on the hugely popular Buffalo Garden walk.    It will be a five week festival which the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau is coordinating with the help of Sally Cunningham and various garden and horticulture partners, including the WNYSN&LA.  You can check out their new web site at http://www.nationalgardenfestival.com.   Buffalo is gaining recognition nationally as a gardening Mecca, and the NBGF is leading an effort to continue to grow that reputation and draw more attention and tourism to our region.  The WNYSN&LA is committed to seeing the National Buffalo Garden Festival succeed.  This can only help with our region’s resurgence as a place we can all be more and more proud of being connected to, and we have an opportunity to help make sure our industry benefits exponentially.

 Among other things, the CNLPs of the WNYSN&LA are working with the NBGF on a Front Yard Garden Contest in which only member firms of the WNYSN&LA can participate.  The project copies a hugely successful event in London, which brings enormous attention to the garden/landscape businesses. It also builds upon the Extreme Makeover excitement but is not the same thing--In this case your work will be individually recognized. (We are calling it a "Garden Contest" rather than a "makeover", to minimize any confusion.)

 Details: The work will take place the week of July 5th to 10th, and then the public will judge them (ballots or text-in) from July 11 to 17. (We'll calculate many categories and will find ways to publicize and educate about all of your work.) The committee plans to draw a lot of local media attention.  The street that the NBGF has selected to make over is the highly visible North Parade Avenue, just opposite the Science Museum and Martin Luther King Park.  Photos of the street with the homes to have their front yards made over are attached.  There are a lot of details to work out, but we will make sure that the signage headlines the Landscaper and recognizes all those who donate live plants or hardscape items.

 What we need from all of you is a willingness to participate at some level.  We need 19 landscapers to agree to take on one of these small front landscapes, (most of them are less than 1,000 square feet).  We need growers, retailers, hardscape and mulch suppliers to indicate their willingness to help by the donation of materials, at whatever level they are comfortable with.  And we could certainly use a major sponsor to take interest in this project and help fund the work.  It is our hope that we can get the live plant material donated or paid for by grants to make this easier for the landscapers to shoulder.  If we can make this year a great success, we can not only hope to attract more sponsorship for subsequent years, but we can grow our association and further the branding of CNLP as desirable in the marketplace.