One Evening, Two Penfield Gardens!—August 2025
A wonderful evening was had by FCGN members and their guests on August 20, 2025 when we visited the gardens of Carol & Dave Southby and Cindy Riess & Michael Buczko, two next-door neighbors in Penfield. There was so much to see in both gardens: native plants, flowering perennials, interesting trees and shrubs, a flourishing vegetable garden, artful landscaping; and so much to talk about with the homeowners.
Carol and Dave’s garden
Photos contributed by Nita Beck, Jeff Schuetz, and Carol Southby
Carol provided us with information on a couple of plants that several people asked about during the evening:
Asclepias curassavica 'Monarch's Banquet' — “This is tropical milkweed, given to me by a friend. The best thing about it is that it has bloomed continuously since I was given it back in late April. But it does have some major negatives. Apparently the Monarch butterflies have not read the name and have not considered it to be a banquet. They have not used it for egg-laying -- apparently when plant breeders change the leaf color of a plant that is a host caterpillar plant for butterflies the butterflies no longer recognize it. Meanwhile I have not seen a single butterfly or other insect visit the flowers. The benefit of that is that there are no seed pods, which would be why it keeps on blooming. As you might expect from its name of tropical milkweed, it is not hardy here. The label listed it as zones 9 - 11. Please caution anyone who has property in Florida or other places where this plant would survive the winter not to plant it in their yards. In those regions it is actively contributing to the spread of a parasitic organism called OE that is deadly to Monarch butterflies. This link has a lot more information about this problem: Tropical Milkweed—a No-Grow.”
New York Ironweed, Vernonia noveboracensis — “I love the color of the flowers, and it is listed in many places as a good plant for pollinators. It also spreads very aggressively by seed and is very difficult to remove even when the plants are still small. The mature plants are dramatic, and can be 8 feet tall, making a huge clump over time. In my yard the deer often eat them down early in the summer, so the plants do not usually get so tall and they still flower, on shorter plants. The purple flowers are followed by large seed heads of gorgeous looking shiny bronze fluffy seed heads like dozens of pretty soft stubby paint brushes. I have now learned that I need to cut every single seed head off long before the seeds start to blow around the garden. I also have to put those in the trash because our compost does not kill the seeds. Left to their own devices, the seedlings will pop up all over the yard. They quickly develop a deep taproot, so unless I find them when they are very small, it needs a spade to dig them out. Once I discovered this bad habit, the gorgeous 8 foot high clump that was several feet across had to go (I only discovered the need to remove the seeds ASAP later). When Dave began to dig out this monster clump, we found out how it likely got its name of ironweed. The roots were like iron, only stronger, because in this process, it broke Dave's very sturdy British spade!!! So the plant is now banished to a darker corner because stressing out an aggressive plant can usually keep it manageable, and I rush in with pruners and a trash bag as soon as the flowers start to fade. I will try to save some seeds this year, because they are lovely in dried arrangements, and because there may be a few people with large yards who are brave enough to grow some of this plant.“
Cindy and Michael’s garden
Photos contributed by Nita Beck and Jeff Schuetz
One more bit of colorful fun: Cindy sent some pictures to Fine Gardening magazine that she took of her garden just prior to the event, and they published them on their blog, found here Cindy's Orange, Chartreuse, and Purple Designs in New York - Fine Gardening.
Original announcement
On Wednesday, August 20, 6:30-8 pm, FCGN will be visiting two next-door properties in Penfield, the gardens of Carol and David Southby and their neighbors Cindy Reiss and Michael Buczko.
Carol and David Southby are naturalists who share a passion for plants, butterflies, birds and all wildlife, both in gardens and in the wild. They have been gardening on this property since 1991 and have been greatly influenced by the gardens they grew up with in England. Their yard is bordered in back by mature mixed woodland with oak, hickory and tulip trees, home to wild turkeys, red foxes, many birds and butterflies and some ever-hungry deer. Over time more lawn has been removed, flower beds were added and extended. Favorite ornamentals like hellebores and primulas now rub shoulders with a wide assortment of native plants.
This is a cottage garden, with many plants shared by friends or grown by Carol from seed. Favorite plants like swamp milkweed, cardinal flower and great blue lobelia are allowed to naturalize and fill spaces. By trial and error, they have learned to grow plants that the deer usually avoid eating. Vulnerable plants are fenced for protection, though the deer always manage to munch a few plants anyway.
Among the unusual trees, the lovely paperbark maple and stewartia were planted as small trees over 30 years ago. A large kousa dogwood began as a seed that Dave collected back in 1991. Yellowwood, fringe tree, and two Japanese umbrella pines were added later. There is a vegetable and soft fruit garden, and a wildlife pond. Shade gardens have lush ferns, spring wildflowers and spring-blooming perennials that cover the ground. In sunny places the focus is on plants for pollinators, including a recently developed border overflowing with native summer-blooming perennials like phlox, asters, and goldenrods.
Photo by Carol Southby
Cindy Reiss and Michael Buczko’s garden is a contrast to Carol and Dave’s in that deer rarely venture in, as their yard is protected by a picket fence with large shrubs planted just inside, including a huge hydrangea, bridal wreath spirea, rhododendrons and ninebark, and by their pet dog Myla. Cindy has been developing their garden for 13 years. It has mostly full sun, and lots of native plants to attract pollinators. There is a large border of summer phlox and an island bed of mixed shrubs and perennials. A former vegetable garden has now been converted into another island brimming with bold perennials. Native shrubs include redbud, fothergilla, Carolina allspice and a huge oak-leaved hydrangea that billows out to the lawn. Bordering the deck, the chartreuse/orange leaves of candy corn spirea glow, even on cloudy days. A whipcord western red cedar and bold container plantings provide vibrant contrast. A small pond attracts singing toads in spring.
Photo by Cindy Reiss
NOTE: The event starts at 6:30. Try not to arrive before 6:30, so that the owners and our volunteers will have time to get ready for you. Open to members and one guest, registration required. To register, respond to this email or mail flowercitygardennetwork@gmail.com. You will receive the addresses by email at least a week before the event. It is not generally possible to respond to each registration individually; however, if you don’t hear back with the address by a week before the event, please email. This, and most of our events, will take place rain or shine.