Honoring Your Garden Sparks
My Garden Spark is a chance to share the stories of the gardeners who inspired you, encouraged you, and educated you as you began your journey. The stories captured here are submitted by people who were inspired to share a tribute in honor of their Garden Sparks. Do you have a Garden Spark you would like to celebrate? You can join in here.
My Garden Spark Stories
Helen Florence Hemberger, "Florence"
I grew up in my grandmother's gardens--these were extravagant affairs, terraced with stone walls and paths by my grandfather, a carpenter and mason. From first thaw to first frost, there was something in bloom, flower and vegetable gardens always lush and always alive with all kinds of creature--praying mantis, cicadas, grubs--and birds. I pretended to be an adventurer in the field. I watched the spit bugs and monarch caterpillars and broke open the milkweed leaves and seed pods to feel the sticky “milk.” I hid in the bower made by the rose bushes and wrote stories and drew pictures. Naptime in the summer was often on blankets under the huge maple tree and I can still conjure the sound of the leaves in the breeze that made naptime last well beyond toddler years. I have carried seeds from those gardens from home to home and the touch and scent of soil will always be the touch and scent of grandma.
Shared by Laurie Ousley
Fellow Master Gardeners and staff at the Oneida County Cooperative Extension
Since completing the Master Gardener program at the Cooperative Extension I have been constantly amazed by the knowledge and creativity of my fellow master gardeners and the staff at the Cooperative extension.
Shared by Donna Kimpton
Lucille Davenport
My aunt’s legacy was to create beauty with her gardening skills and knowledge & passing these on to both my brother & I.
Shared by Christine Novak
Anna M. Davidson Thom
My Grandmother, Anna Thom, grew up on a horse farm near Belfast Ireland, practiced nursing in London, married Joseph Thom, moved to Buffalo, lived to garden, and died in 1967. Grandma was a pioneer of the current “Lawn Gone Garden Movement” as she grew sustainable English Ivy instead of grass in front of her home at 4 16th Street (currently 4 Union Place). If grandma wasn’t home, we would look for her in gardens of surrounding homes like the backyard of the neighboring cottage featured on page 58 of “Buffalo Style Gardens” by Cunningham and Charlier. At one time a pianist from the Buffalo Philharmonic lived in the little cottage and grandma helped him with his garden. Grandma taught me to grow roses from a cutting containing three leaf buds. To grow a rose plant two leaf buds below ground, place a large glass jar over the rose cutting and hill up the soil to cover the bottom one third of the glass jar, water frequently and fertilize with coffee grounds. In Spring reduce the amount of soil around the glass jar and remove the glass jar in June. Grandma’s garden had all the elements such as a small circular garden path that went up and down Grandma’s micro mountain which was covered with sedums. We grandchildren walked around and around the garden path which took us close to the fence where Holly hocks and Sunflowers grew between grandma’s garden and her other neighbor’s garden. Besides roses grandma grew Sweet William, London Pride, Coral bells, Forsythia, Daisy, and Queen Ann’s Lace. The most important thing that grandma taught me was to share your garden and gardening skills with others. Photos of Joe and Anna Thom in front of their garden gate at 4 16th Street about 1955.
Shared by Kathryn Schwenzer
Jane Laing Herbert Lenhard
My mother always had a beautiful garden, which I enjoyed from a very young age. Always so many Gladioli! I'm honored to have pieces from her collection here in my Buffalo beds - Peony, Astilbe, Bleeding Heart and Trillium, along with Edelweiss for my Dad.
Shared by Robin Lenhard
Jim Charlier
A number of years ago I was asked by Jim Charlier to convene strategic planning with Garden Walk Buffalo as it was growing beyond its City footprint. Working with Jim and Jeffrey Tooke and all the other people so passionate and committed to the vision of what opening up of summer gardens could do for our city…I fell deep into their well of wonder and work and welcome. I have such admiration and appreciation for the joy that Gardens Buffalo Niagara bring to all that visit and smell the fruits of the labors. Thank you Jim.
Shared by Judy Shanley
Anna Rettig
I knew about Anna Rettig long before I ever met her. Anna and her husband, Martin, lived on a country road that connected my parent’s town, Lancaster to my own town, East Aurora. Every weekend when we’d go to visit my parents, I would ask my husband to slow down as we passed her house so that I could drink in her amazing garden; the perfusion of blooms all year long from drifts of daffodils in spring to stunning Japanese Iris in summer to jaw-dropping dinner-plate hibiscus in the fall. Then I joined the local Iris Society and met a fiery older German woman that I took an instant liking to. When it finally clicked that she was the owner of my fantasy garden it was like meeting a movie star – an unlikely one, but a movie star in my world. We were friends from the start. Anna had a colorful background. She was born in Yugoslavia (now Serbia), and had little formal schooling due to family circumstances. She began work at age 12 and was married at 19 to Martin. In 1939, they moved to Germany to try to find better farming jobs. Anna often spoke of how hard was the life of a farmer and said that they had a saying in German “Mistus – Christus” which translated to “where there is manure, there is Christ”, because the lucky farmer who owned a cow and could fertilize the poor soil did so much better than those that had to rely on nature alone. They came to the US in 1952, after WWII, sponsored by the Bishop of Erie, PA. Hard work enabled them to realize the American Dream of education for their children and a house in the country when they retired, where they grew vegetables and flowers and raised bees for honey. Anna was a natural born gardener and she loved to share both plants and knowledge. I can still hear her booming voice on the phone “KATTY – COME SEE WHAT IS BLOOMING”. Anna would talk to me constantly about the care of her plants… her beloved irises, her amazing candelabra primroses, her hostas and poppies. She showed me and she shared and she planted a very deep seed that still grows strong. And I see Anna Rettig every single day throughout my garden.
Shared by Kathleen Guest
Jane Gorman
My mother is the one who inspired me to be a gardener. To say she loved to garden, was an understatement. She could not wait for spring to come and get out in the yard to start the clean up process. She would be out there everyday from sunrise to sunset. I will always remember the way she would touch the flowers or talk to them. On Mother's Day, she would just want to spend time in her yard. She had seven children and she didn't want to be bothered with going out or going anywhere, especially if the weather was good. Just come see her in her yard and she will talk to you for hours about her flowers. Every weekend in July we would go to all the garden walks in Buffalo. Start early in the morning and go all day. I miss that most of all.
Shared by Courtney Gorman
Angeline Bondi Buffamonte
My Dear Aunt Ange, Spreader of Beauty. Aunt Ange planted flowers where she found a bit of available ground. In one of her homes, the previous owner had installed a circular above-ground swimming pool. When Aunt Ang and Uncle Phil moved in, down came the swimming pool. They did not fill in the circular space with grass seed, but rather, with flowers. Right is the middle of their backyard was a perfect circle of perennial beauties. Her gardens were a bountiful spillage of blooms of all shapes and sizes. The main quality of her gardens was their (her) GENEROSITY! It was impossible to leave her home without a carful of cuttings, roots and clumps of all sorts. Throughout my adult life, which included quite a few moves (six +), Aunt Ang supplied me with much of her bounty. One of my favorites was forget-me-nots. She bestowed me with so many, and they did so well, I was able to "pay it forward 'and share with friends. Sadly, Aunt Ang left this world around the same time that I was obliged to leave behind (winter time)the gardens without being able to take any bits with me. Some years passed and I was establishing myself in another home. It saddened me that my present home would not have any of Aunt Ange's garden snippets. Lo and behold, a gardening friend came visiting, and guess what he brought? Forget-me-nots from the original clump I had given him grown from the original clump Aunt Ang had given me! I am happy to say, my present garden, located in the Parkside neighborhood of Buffalo, is carpeted with forget-me-nots every Spring. Gardeners keep on giving.
Shared by Karima Bondi
Kathlene Dolman Newkirk
My mother had a sunny victory garden in our backyard growing up, as well as prized bearded iris along the side of our house. I'll never forget tasting my first green bean, my first tomato, fresh from that plot, warm from sunshine. There was hardy field rhubarb (still a favorite of mine), glowing marigolds with their heavy scent, and dark blue lobelia planted above a pot of red geraniums, their own strong fragrance signaling summer, the Fourth of July picnic next door, and all things childhood and good. Thanks, Mom, for sharing the joy of growing beauty. I'm still working on reaching your knack for houseplants.
Shared by Lauren Maynard
Elaine Bergman
Shared by Sam White
Ranlet Lincoln
The gardener who inspired me is my father-in-law, Ranlet, who started me planting forget-me-nots in 1992. I've planted his forget-me-nots in three states since then!
Shared by Catherine Lincoln
Art Osteen
My grandad. Growing up, he and grandma lived next door. He tended a quarter-acre vegetable garden that family and friends benefited from, a grape arbor that formed a long tunnel, flower gardens, a stand of lilac trees that scented the neighborhood, let us pick blackberries with reckless abandon, tapped his maples in the spring, and was the only man I knew that had tulips. When he would go away camping in the summer, he left me to take care of weeding and watering his vegetable gardens, after showing me how. The name of my garden blog, ArtofGardening.org is a nod to him - the "Art" in my gardening.
Shared by Jim Charlier
Do you have a gardener that inspired you? You can honor them as your Garden Spark by visiting here.