Like several other bloggers here, I have really enjoyed the irises in bloom in the Lilac Garden. They're stunning! While we all rhapsodize about how colorful the blooms are, and how marvelous the experience is, I keep going back and finding another gem in the display. (Of course, that is what we all do: whether it's Lisa's post or Joe's or Ellen's, you see the gems we've just uncovered and can't wait to share, whether its programs or people or plants.) For me, its a treat to wander and compare the blooms and colors and impressions they leave on you. Iris</em> isn't even my favorite plant (I refuse to choose!) but they were exactly the right display for me when I was out with my camera. On that day, the lilac were still in bloom, and their sweet scent reached me even before I turned into the garden. But once inside it was clear that the irises were stepping onto the stage. It is true the most of the lilacs are on the sloping sides of the garden, while a mix of Iris</em>, Hemerocallis,</em> Paeonia</em> and other plants stride across center stage. This is actually great horticulture because the plants bloom in succession so there is always something happening. Plus, an endless succession of Iris</em>, Hemerocallis,</em> Paeonia, </em>or Syringa</em> planted in scientific rows becomes just that: a long walk. But by creating slopes to the East and West and mixing plants in a conscious theme, the garden takes on far more interesting characters. Meandering paths, benches, and changing displays make real the promise of an earthly paradise. Even if the lilacs aren't in bloom, walk up the grassy paths between them. You might just see a few hidden blooms. You definitely get a totally different view of the same space. See how it becomes a forest when you look across to the other slope? That is one measure of garden design: can a visitor get a wide range of experiences and sensations from the space. It is also a sign of really good gardening, good horticulture. If the plants can't hold up the design, than the design loses meaning and beauty. Another reason I really appreciate this Garden is that the profusion of color comes from a garden that is in place year round. Sooner or later, everyone walks past a really beautiful display of blooming flowers that were all grown in a greenhouse and installed overnight. You see it at many Garden and Home shows, certain special events, and even in some public gardens. While I admire the perservereance and exactitude that such displays require, I also feel mildly put off by them: as soon as those plants look "off," another batch will replace them as they head for trash or compost. What a waste! No, far better to have a garden that mere mortals can aspire to. Sure, the Lilac Garden gets better attention than any yard of mine will ever get, but I can still aspire to get closer and closer. In this picture, I can see the lilac blooms, but also the leaves of earlier bulbs, and the stems of plants yet to bloom. I'm learning the elements that make this part of the Lilac Garden successful, and I can decide if I like the idea of a lilac forest. Or I can find more plants to go under a lilac in a small urban lot. Or I can appreciate that I will be back the same time next year, seeing the lilacs blooming again, even if they are done for now. Finally, there is a benefit to gardens organized around a genus or collection of similar plants. Just look at them all! The diversity that humans found, cultivated or created through breeding is all laid out for you. The same group of plants blossoming all at once allows you to really appreciate the with such striking differences in color and pattern. You can readily see why the goddess of the rainbow in greek mythology was "Iris". Here is Iris</em> 'Batik'. I was completely arrested by the deep purple with the bright white streaks. On the other hand, look at Iris </em>'Bumblee DEElite'. Much shorter in stature, its clearly an iris but will play a much different roll in a garden than 'Batik'. Even so, the plant habit is approximately the same. Irises are pretty much upright plants with flowers at the top and sword-shaped leaves. Even while I'm being enchanted by the blooms, the many plants in leaf create visual quiet, resting places that soften the insisitent message of multicolored blooms. So if you can't tell, I like the Lilac Garden this year. I like the way it combines many favorite garden plants I like the way it displays the diversity within Syringa</em> and Iris</em> (and others). I like the range of different experiences it gave me. And I like the way it breaks new ground, at least new to me. While there are iris collections and lilac collections at other arboreta and gardens, this combination has something novel to offer. I think I will remember the lessons it has shown me for a long time.</p>
</dt> Himalayan foxtail lilies in the Perennial Walk</dd> </dl> </dt> Foxtail lily hybrids in the Ornamental Grasses garden</dd> </dl> If you've been to Denver Botanic Gardens in the last month you can hardly have missed them: no, not the Henry Moore sculptures (albeit they stand out!), I'm talking about foxtail lilies: Eremurus. </em>These stand out (and stand up!) in a dozen gardens: bristling exclamation points that are impossible to miss. </em>The literal translation of this Greek-derived scientific name is "Desert tail", which isn't quite accurate. Foxtail lilies are sentinels of the true steppe of Eurasia, growing from Anatolia in the west all the way to Mongolia in the east. They are not found on true desert so much as grassy prairie and montane meadows. Mike Bone and I saw them in the Tian Shan mountains above Almaty last summer and on the foothills of the Altai mountains of Kazakhstan (high points of our trip last year). The climate of Central Asian steppe is the exact equivalent of ours (we are "homeoclimatic") so it's hardly surprising that Eremurus</em> do so well in Colorado. I would be hard put to decide if I like the towering white Himalayan eremurus (Eremurus himalaicus</em>) in the Perennial Walk more than the even taller Eremurus robustus</em> blooming there now....or the yellow spires of Eremurus stenophyllus</em> filling PlantAsia's steppe garden as we speak...or maybe the many burnished and brassy hybrids in gold, nearly brown and brilliant orange that make the Ornamental Grasses garden riveting this time of year, or encircle the annual test gardens...</p> These inspiring spires and towering turrets of bloom practically brand Denver Botanic Gardens, making it seem like foxtail lily botanic gardens for a month or so in early summer. I would be envious if I hadn't gone out and counted nearly a seventy foxtail lily stalks in my very own garden that have bloomed so far this year. One can never have enough of a good thing, right?</p>
</p> Denver Botanic Gardens has been involved in restoration of damaged ecosystems around the state of Colorado through its Research and Conservation programs for at least a decade, but none have been quite as satisfying as the one at Bluff Lake Nature Center. "Over the past four years Bluff Lake Nature Center staff and volunteers have removed hundreds of Russian Olives and numerous tamarisk from around the site and along Sand Creek. We estimate that within the next two years Bluff Lake will be completely free of these invasive tree species," says Bluff Lake Site Manager (and former Denver Botanic Gardens horticulturalist) Chris Story. THE HISTORY: The partnership between the two organizations began in 2003 when the Research Department at Denver Botanic Gardens was looking to put volunteers on meaningful conservation projects. Steve Norris at Bluff Lake Nature Center had a great opportunity and a great need to do restoration work there. Denver Botanic Gardens volunteers Susie Crane and Barry Levene took on the leadership role of researching the goals of the site and how to match restoration practices to meet these goals. In 2003, Susie and Barry began assembling an official weed plan for Bluff Lake. Denver Botanic Gardens staff assisted in gathering information and linking the volunteers to professionals who could give advice.</p> </p> Since then, Susie and Barry have led a group of volunteers to tackle everything from bindweed to Russian olive. Susie says, "Early efforts were hit or miss. We didn’t know anything, had no tools, no chemicals. The first time we planted forbs out at the site the rabbits ate them all. A donor paid for Rick Brune to do a plant survey in 2004. That was the turning point. He mapped plant communities on the entire site. We found weeds we didn't know we had as well as natives not known to be there." The program has continued to expand over the years. Chis Story explains, "We have also begun to expand our garden area with donations form local nurseries and with plants propagated at DBG from seed collected at Bluff Lake. We have interns from Metro State, and the Denver School of Science and Technology creating an herbarium for Bluff Lake with duplicate specimens mounted for DBG. We have collected and mounted over 120 species so far." Yesterday, Denver Botanic Gardens Associates toured these projects in a formal program. Bluff Lake Nature Center is open to the public and organized tours are welcome. For more information about restoration projects by Denver Botanic Gardens, see our website, under 'Conservation and Research'.</p> </p> This blog post was written by Anna Sher, Ph.D.</em>, adjunct researcher and former director of the Research & Conservation Department at Denver Botanic Gardens.</em></p>
They may be tiny mustard plants but they have a huge impact in a region believed to contain one of the nation’s largest reservoirs of natural gas. Physaria congesta</em> (Lesquerella congesta</em>) and P. obcordata</em>, both federally listed as Threatened under the National Endangered Species Act, are found right in the heart of all the activity associated with drilling for this oil and gas.</p> Denver Botanic Gardens is conducting a study on the genetic diversity of these two species. Both have very limited ranges and both are highly threatened by oil and gas development. Regulations are in place to protect these species from direct disturbance from oil and gas development. Indirect threats are harder to control. Pollinators essential for the survival of the plants could be affected by the roads, dust and chemicals used in drilling. Transporting the oil and gas back to a collection center creates large disturbances which become corridors for weeds and other threats to natural habitat.</p> Our study will examine how genetic diversity is distributed among the populations of each species. Greater genetic diversity allows a plant to cope with environmental variability. The results of this study will tell us the level of genetic diversity within each population and help guide conservation of this species by determining which populations have the best chance of future success and focusing seed collection and conservation efforts on those.</p>
Denver Botanic Gardens and Kaiser Permanente have created a first-of-its-kind community supporting agriculture (CSA) program. The community farm will provide fresh local produce to Colorado families.</p> Made possible through a three-year, $500,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente, the CSA will operate as a community farm at Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield—located at C-470 and Wadsworth Blvd. in Littleton.</p> Shares of the CSA are sold to members of the public who then receive portions of the garden’s fresh produce during the harvest season, from June through October. This new venture marks an important milestone:</p> The Gardens is the first botanical garden in the country to operate a CSA program of this scale. This partnership is also believed to be the nation’s first CSA collaboration between a botanical garden and a health care provider. In its first year, the Chatfield CSA will serve approximately 65 families who have already signed up for the program.</p> In addition, a percentage of the fresh produce will be donated to local food banks in the Rocky Mountain region. There are plans to expand the garden next season to allow for additional CSA memberships.</p> SEEDED IN SUPPORT BY KAISER PERMANENTE</p> Photos by Scott Dressel-Martin</p>
I can tell gardening season is here, not just by the brilliant sunshine, the gardeners eager to get started, the students jumping into classes that they'll use next week, the plant sale and the shoppers, or the colleague rashly vowing to start his peppers outdoors this weekend in spite of frost warnings at his altitude. Rocky Mountain Gardening has some element of risk and unpredictability after all (last nights low in Denver was close enough to freezing to inspire a protective measures for all the plant sale plants). No, its the sequence of plants blooming, and the patterns of temperatures, and the reactions people make that confirms it all to me. Spring sprang already, and now's the time to get into gardens, landscapes and yards. Its not just the purchasing of plants that's on--it's everything from lawn mowing to sowing vegetable seeds to new projects getting underway. The ideas your neighbors and co-workers are entertaining as varied as they are: ask them! Determined to grow fresh vegetables in an area approximately the size of a business card? Try Super Small Space Vegetable Gardening with Patti O'Neal. As intimidated by choosing a contractor as by working alone? Hiring a Landscape Professional with Curtis Manning is for you. Determined to garden without declaring war on woodland creatures? Friendly Wildlife Management with Joe Julian. The string of subjects is epitomized by the range of Rocky Mountain Gardening classes offered in just the next few weeks: Bluegrass and Alternative Turf Grasses, Friendly Wildlife Management, Pots with Panache, Sustainable Greenhouse Design, Tree ID and Selection, and Trees and Shrubs for Small Spaces. Each of these ideas will bring out your fellow Rocky Mountain residents–and I mean out to their lawn, to a neighbors blooms, to your street-side tree. Once you begin to look, you begin to see all the different arenas in which someone from your community is improving their landscape. Pots, boxes and other containers will show up in many contexts. Some will transform tiny patios into lush landscapes, others will accent walkways and decks, and some will even be plopped directly into planting beds, adding color, height, contrast or even a simple way to move a tender plant out of frost's way. You have your choice of classes (Container Gardens for Shady Spaces, Container Gardens for Hot, Dry Spaces, Pots with Panache) but more importantly, you have choices of personal preference and chances for creative expression. You find that most gardeners take their landscape quite seriously–partly because its viewed as an investment in the value of their home–but they let themselves go a little in a container. Not sure if chartreuse vines go with purple grass? Well, I wouldn't do a yard full, but lets try it in this pot from two years ago. And voila! I believe that really good gardeners are not afraid to experiment... Gardeners who appear to be always successful probably just remove the corpses faster than some us. Speaking of successful and really good gardeners, there's a pair of events to take note of this spring. The 2010 Garden Conservancy Open Day in Denver is May 22, the other is its Friday night preview "Inspired by Mountains and Plains: Redefining the Well-Adapted Regional Garden" on May 21, at 7:00 PM. The Garden Conservancy Open Days program features private gardens opened to the public to raise awareness and funds for the nonprofit Garden Conservancy. We are fortunate that Colorado's own garden writers, experts, and personalities have joined together to inspire another year of Open Days in metro Denver, and doubly so to have them many of them speak! I enjoy walking through private gardens because the experience of place is real and tangible, but I love the opportunity to see presentations because it captures another person's view of these spaces. In the case of "Inspired by Mountains and Plains," I expect that the format of the evening, many shorter talks back-to-back, will give me a wealth of experience to have in mind as I tour gardens the next day. Registration for the May 21st event brings you the perspectives of David Salman, owner of Santa Fe’s famed High Country Gardens; Pat Hayward, Director of the Plant Select program; Marcia Tatroe, author of Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West</em>; Bill Adams, a superb grower of wholesale succulents, alpines and xeric perennials; and Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at Denver Botanic Gardens, whose home garden is also open on Saturday. And then there are the perspectives gained from traveling to more distant landscapes too. The Colorado Heartland Tour: Magical Gardens at Peak Spring Bloom will inspire you with garden visions selected by Panayoti Kelaidis, places in Colorado Springs and Pueblo that will inform a Denver gardener even as they are different from Denver. Or further afield, the deadline for "Gardens of Portland, Oregon" with Horticulturist Ebi Kondo is just days away: call Pam Rathke at 720-746-0748 right away if you're interested in the June 17-20 itinerary. It can be tough to travel when your garden is calling... but it can be tough to go another year and realize you haven't traveled. Finally, there are many other arts practiced in conjunction with gardening. The culinary arts are always well-represented (Sensational Summer Soups and Salads, Fiesta in Lucinda’s Garden) and photography should be. I was fortunate enough to have access to Scott Dressel-Martin's photographs from earlier today: Scott is responsible for the photographs on the Gardens' main website, among many other beauties. We are fortunate to have him teach for us too: The Next Stop: Take Your Photography to the Next Level is coming up on May 13. One thing I enjoy about public gardens is being involved with the other people who are involved. With all the growers, speakers, instructors, organizers and volunteers that I encounter, there's a palpable sense of pleasure, an unspoken frisson of excitement because something cool will happen next. It can be as simple as invitation to come over and look at my garden, a shared photograph, or it can be a revelation that changes your gardening forever. The season of gardening is here: all you have to do is dive in.</p>
Denver B-cycle rolls out this week, and the Mile High City will never be the same. The program launches on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22. The York Street B-Station will be one of 45 to 50 stations with 500 bikes spread across the city. Visit the Denver b-cycle website for more info or to join. We still have plenty of room available for your own personal bikes on our regular bike racks, too. Bike to the Gardens this week!</p>
Everybody knows bleeding hearts (Dicentra</em>) but their cousins, Corydalis, are rarely found in Colorado Gardens. Denver Botanic Gardens is helping change all that. The largely drought tolerant genus Corydalis</em> contains hundreds of species (compared with just a dozen or so of the moisture loving Dicentra</em>) and many of these are in peak form at the Gardens right now. The first picture shows 'George Baker', probably the most eye blasting of these spring ephemerals. This picture is taken in my garden, but the combination of draba and corydalis is brilliantly displayed behind the Cactus and Succulent House in the Rock Alpine Garden right now. Go down there quickly! If you poke around the rest of the garden you will find a dozen or more other kinds of this amazing genus lurking here and there. Corydalis angustifolia</em> is another of my favorites, this one coming from Central Asia, forming a large patch in front of the old Alpine House (now the Cactus and Succulent House). You may not find Corydalis at the Rock Garden sale this Saturday (April 24) in Mitchell Hall (from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) but you will find no end of other treasures: be there or be square! Corydalis angustifolia</p>
</p> Saturday's warm weather drew out more bulbs and other early bloomers, and finally its beginning to look like March should. March belongs to several genera in the rock garden, Crocus,</em> Galanthus </em>and Helleborus</em> are just a few genera that shine in March.</p> First we will revisit the genus Crocus,</em> the main focus of last week's blog. The sunny skies Monday afternoon allowed me to get photos of crocus both open and closed. The first is the same cultivar of Crocus sieberi</em> I featured closed up last week. The bright orange stamens are a lovely contrast to its lavender petals. The white crocus is most likely Crocus chrysanthus</em> 'Ard Schenk' or a similar cultivar. Notice both the pale gray venation on the reverse of the blossoms and the orange stigma sticking out of the far left.Crocus sieberi</em> can be found in the lower meadow smack in the middle of the Rock Alpine Garden, while Crocus 'Ard Schenk' is in front of the Cactus and Succulent house behind the low stone bench.</p> </p> While many of the crocus where open yesterday afternoon, Crocus reticulatus</em> pictured above, is perhaps my favorite crocus. Still closed up deep in the shadows, the reverse of each bloom is a work of art. It is especially beautiful as each bloom opens revealing the interior. </p> </em></p> Iris reticulata</em> cultivars have been getting well deserved attention now, and Iris 'Pixie' pictured above makes up for it's smaller size with the intensely deep color of its flowers. It graces the top of the waterfall at the highest point of the garden. The blooms are less weather resistant than crocus, and snow and temperatures above 70 make them go away quickly. Actually temperatures in the 30s through low 60s make most bulbs last longer than warmer temperatures.</p> </em></p> Sternbergia candida</em> is a lovely white flowering bulb in the Amaryllis family. It is rather rare in gardens, as all Sternbergia</em> are CITIES listed meaning permits are needed for them to cross international borders. This is done in part to curb the widespread collection of bulbs out of their native habitats. Many species of bulbs are still in dangered of extinction through gathering for the horticultural trade, and habitat loss. Enjoy the photo of the Sternbergia </em>is it is in a part of the garden not accessable to the public.</p> </p> Eranthis hyemalis </em>is the last bulb featured this week. A member of the buttercup family you can see the resemblance to several of our native buttercups found in the high country. On a side note the buttercup family has been broken up and Eranthis</em> maybe in the hellebore family. This cheery little gem is under the Magnolia at the east entrance of the Rock Alpine Garden.</p> </p> Staying in the same family but departing the bulbs, is Pulsatilla vulgaris</em> or pasque flower with its deep lavender or purple blooms. The word pasque is French for Easter and refers to the general bloom time. Soon it will be time to find our native pasque flower Pulsatilla patens</em> in the foothills. Pasque flowers can be found throughout the Rock Alpine Garden.</p> </em></p> Helleborus vesicarius,</em> a feature of a blog several weeks ago is now in full bloom, as you can see it is a far departure from the open blooms of Lenten roses (Helleborus x hybridus</em>) or Christmas roses (Helleborus niger</em>), but it has its own charm. Spring is well on its way.</p>
