Fire danger and the garden
January 10, 2013
Panayoti Kelaidis
How easy it is to be lulled into complacency in the depths of winter when our attention is distracted by snowpack and driving conditions. We appear to have forgotten just how long and hot last summer
Plant Select: Towards a viable landscape future
January 3, 2013
Panayoti Kelaidis
Xeriscape sometimes summons images of oceans of gravel and harsh, stickly, pointy plants that stab, slash and terrorize homeowner associations. A primrose? Really? Well, there are even primroses that
Paradoxical rose of Christmas
December 19, 2012
Panayoti Kelaidis
First of all, it's not really a rose. Helleborus niger is now put in its own family (Helleboraceae), although still allied with the buttercups. Although seemingly innocent with that ghostly whiteness
Christmas red year 'round!
December 8, 2012
Panayoti Kelaidis
You have to be a real Scrooge not to love Poinsettia this time of year (and it's OK to say "Poinsetta" in my opinion!)...that RED--it's a red even redder than Santa's suit when Mrs. Claus brings it
Mad about Monocots!
November 30, 2012
Panayoti Kelaidis
With this remarkable string of warm days in November, we can hardly be blamed for thinking summertime, and summertime is fast approaching in the foothills of South Africa, where the spectacular genus
Alpha beta gramma....
November 13, 2012
Panayoti Kelaidis
Every so often a plant comes along that surprises you: I never thought one had to "improve" the ubiquitous and abundant blue gramma grass that occupies almost every patch of prairie remnant left
Water-related events highlight Denver's unique challenges
October 16, 2012
Jennifer Riley-Chetwynd
With the summer heat finally having subsided (after setting new records for the number of +90-degree days), Denver’s water use has started to wane. Landscapes that had relied on irrigation through the
Don't meddle with Medlars!
October 8, 2012
Panayoti Kelaidis
The fruit is strangely lurid. Medlar is a European tree in the Rose Family that somehow exudes an air of strangeness. I have read accounts of how terrible it is to taste fruit before hard frost: we
Another day in paradise...
September 13, 2012
Panayoti Kelaidis
People ask me all the time "When is the best time to visit Denver Botanic Gardens?" I confess here and now, I find this question annoying. Denver Botanic Gardens is simply gorgeous every minute and
We Study Fungi at the Gardens?
September 10, 2012
Jennifer Ramp Neale, Ph.D.
Why yes we do, and we have for several decades. The last weekend in August, over fifteen citizen scientists and several mycologists braved the wee hours of the morning and one of the driest summers in
Your Feedback Helps Us Grow
August 31, 2012
Membership Department
When members take the time to let us know about their feelings or experiences, those of us in Denver Botanic Gardens' Membership Department pay close attention. Member feedback is one of the most
Tree or shrub? Heptacodium excels at both...
August 24, 2012
Panayoti Kelaidis
No, Virginia! Those are not flowers,but the seedheads on one of the most remarkable and beautiful shrubs (or is it a tree?) from China. Heptacodium miconioides was discovered by E.H. Wilson in Hubei