My journey with Denver Botanic Gardens began in the spring of 2016 after graduating from Fort Lewis College. I joined the Research and Conservation</a> Department as an applied conservation intern with a primary focus on the Deer Creek restoration project</a> at Chatfield Farms. After two summers of working in seasonal positions, I started working on a Master’s of Science degree through the University of Colorado Denver in partnership with the Gardens under the advisement of Dr. Rebecca Hufft, the associate director of applied conservation. I am on track to complete this degree in the spring of 2020 and I am eager to apply all that I have learned to my continuing work at the Gardens.</p> Each semester as a graduate student, I have worked at the Gardens as research assistant. For the fall 2019 semester, thanks to funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Museums for America program (Federal Award Identification Number MA-30-18-0410-18), I served as a student assistant in the natural history collections helping with preparation for the move into the Freyer – Newman Center</a>.</p> The Gardens houses three different types of natural history collections: plants</a>, fungi</a>, and arthropods</a>. To ensure that these historical specimens are efficiently moved while maintaining their scientific integrity, I, along with the rest of the research and conservation team</a>, have been working diligently to account for each collection’s unique needs and considerations. For example, the 20,000 individual fungal specimens needed to be individually wrapped in protective, archival tissue paper and photographed before they can be moved to their new home.</p> Due to the enormous demands of moving our natural history collections, the majority of efforts in the Research and Conservation Department have been focused on special projects</a>. Move preparations have meant that normal specimen processing</a> has come to a halt. The priority is to get our collections ready to be moved with the intention that normal specimen processing will continue in the Freyer – Newman Center.</p> Spending more time in the natural history collections has allowed me to gain a deeper appreciation for the amount of dedicated resources that go into making and maintaining the collections. Being a part of the research and conservation team has been an incredibly humbling and powerful experience. I am so proud to be working to preserve, protect and celebrate Colorado’s biodiversity.</p> This blog post was written by Margo Paces, graduate student and botany seasonal.</em></p>
You know what they say—home is where the heart is and also where the lichens are. Actually, as far as I can tell I’m pretty much the only one who says that part about lichens. (I’m trying to get it started though—pass it on.) But it’s true, and it’s not just the lichens—it’s also where the cacti, pikas, grasses, cows, cottonwoods, sunflowers, trout, sagebrush and dung beetles are, among many others. You probably don’t have lichens growing on your couch or dung beetles hanging out in your living room watching Netflix, but your home is not just the place where you can wear your ratty old sweatpants without judgement. Your home is also the broader habitat in which you live, and the deeply interconnected network of organisms of all shapes and sizes that you share it with.</p> Welcome Home: Meet Your Habitat</em> is a new exhibition in the Science Pyramid that explores these interconnections, featuring natural and human-made objects combined with interactive digital stories about the invisible depths of our bonds with nature. Meet the plants, animals and fungi that share our home across landscapes, from prairies to ponds to cities.</p> They might not have brought you cookies when you moved in, but these organisms share our neighborhoods just like our human neighbors do. Take a look around Denver and you’ll see crows complaining to each other on top of telephone poles, mushrooms sprouting along sidewalks, moths searching for a tasty dinner in gardens and flowers soaking up the sun in parks. And that’s just the urban spaces—we also share habitat and resources with rural and even alpine areas. Relax in a bubble bath and you’re using water that once originated as snow from a pika’s chilly mountain home; water your garden and that water may end up as a cool drink for a cottonwood further downstream.</p> Welcome Home</em> features some easy, practical things you can do to steward water and other natural resources to support both our human and non-human neighbors and the health of our shared home. Need a breather? Pull up a comfy chair in the Habitat Lounge area and learn about the ways that organisms are adapted to their habitats and how you can adapt your behaviors to your own environment.</p> Don’t miss meeting the neighbors with this new Science Pyramid exhibit (also a great way to warm up if you’re enjoying the Gardens on a snowy day). Admission is included with admission to the Gardens. And if you could help me get that whole "home is where the lichens are” thing going, I would appreciate it.</p>
If the short days of winter have you longing for colorful tropical blossoms, there is no better place to get your flower-fix than the Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory. There are hundreds of plants to see and many are in bloom and ready to chase your winter doldrums away.</p> As you enter from the main lobby, you are immediately greeted by a clump of Dichorisandra </em> thyrsiflora</em> </em>or blue ginger. While the common name suggests this plant is in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae</em>) it is actually in the same family as Tradescantia</em> or wandering Jew (Commelinaceae</em>). This plant blooms sporadically throughout the year and warrants a close-up look.</li> While you are in the area, look in the pond and see if you can spot our new bird residents. The Denver Zoo has loaned us a pair of Hottentot teal (Spatula hottentota</em>) for our visitors to enjoy. These small ducks are native to eastern and southern Africa as wells as Madagascar where they hang out in shallow pools and marshy areas. Having an animal presence in the Boettcher Tropical Conservatory helps underline the importance of complete ecosystems – where plant and animal life both flourish.</li> Across from the pond and along the south pathway, you can see Clerodendrum </em>x speciosum</em> or glorybower putting on a big display. There are many colorful parts to this flower. The bright orange-red petals, the pink/lavender calyx and the metallic green sheen of the fruits. This colorful vine is native to tropical Africa.</li> Along the north wall next to the elevator is a beautiful clump of Seemannia sylvatica</em> or Bolivian gloxinia. This colorful member of the African violet family (Gesneriaceae</em>) is native to South America – mainly in Bolivia and Peru. Take a look inside the flower and enjoy all the detailed patterns.</li> At the west end of the Boettcher Tropical Conservatory near the exit, you will find a cute little ornamental pineapple – Ananas lucidus </em>‘Red Smoothie'. The species parents of this cultivated variety would be found growing naturally as a terrestrial bromeliad across much of South America. The brightly colored fruit is mainly ornamental and too "woody” to be worth eating.</li> Behind the pineapple is a large clump of Costus barbatus</em> or spiral ginger. Although these look like large flowers, the red segments are not part of the actual flower itself. The true flowers are the small yellow blossoms at the top which are pollinated by hummingbirds. This plant is native to Costa Rica.</li> </ul> There are many more flowers to discover as you explore the Boettcher Tropical Conservatory. We hope you’ve enjoyed your winter escape.</p>
</p> They say life is composed of significant moments and special memories – and what better place to make yours happen than the breathtaking surroundings of Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street!</p> Immerse your guests in the unparalleled beauty of the Gardens in a wide variety of rentable spaces. Our Private Events team will walk you through the details of each of our unique venues to find the perfect space for your event. With spaces both indoors and outdoors, large and small, events of all shapes and sizes can take root and bloom at the Gardens at any time of year. </p> 2020 dates are on sale now, and the 2021 rental calendar opens on January 6. Popular dates and venues sell out quickly – so don’t delay! Your guests won’t soon forget their experience at your private event at the Gardens, and neither will you!</p> To learn more and to set up a tour appointment, contact us at private.events@botanicgardens.org</a> or call 720-865-3551.</p>
From May through October this year, my colleague Ellyse Varone and I scouted, identified and collected seeds from more than 30 populations of 18 different species. We overcame many hurdles—collecting through a pandemic, a late June freeze and early September snowfall, insect and ungulate herbivory, drought and fires—and all while short-handed with limited time and a limited collection area. Despite the many factors that may have held us back, we successfully completed the 30 seed collections required of us for the Seeds of Success program and planned more seed collections for the month of October. </p> Some collections had been planned for months, awaiting inflorescences to flower and flowers to seed. Other collections occurred spur of the moment where we found plants both in flower and in seed and were able to complete a full collection in a few unscheduled hours. We traveled among five Colorado counties: Routt, Larimer, Jackson, Grand and Eagle. Eagle County was experiencing the height of Colorado’s drought this summer and proved the most difficult county to collect in. While there, we encountered impassable roads, sudden dead ends, popped tires and turns too tight to maneuver. </p> However, Eagle County did prove to be plentiful for showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa</em>). This was one of our simplest collections requiring only 80 seed pods and about 20 minutes of collecting to gather more than 10,000 seeds. Before their pods dehisce (split open), the showy milkweed seeds resemble fish scales. The vegetative parts of the plant bleed a milky white latex when cut or bruised. </p> We arrived at these plants just in time before their seed pods opened and their tufted seeds flew on the wind to populate places far and wide to aid the monarch butterflies’ migration through North and Central America. Yellow owl’s clover (Orthocarpus luteus</em>) proved to be one of our most difficult collections, requiring us to crawl on hands and knees to inspect each 10-centemeter plant to collect more than 1,700 tiny seed pods to reach our goal. </p> We ran into many challenges over the summer and still collected well over 300,000 seeds to be included in the Seeds of Success library of seeds where they will await their turns to revegetate and repopulate native plant communities. In our changing and uncertain world, it is great to know that we have contributed to the success of future restoration projects unbeknownst to us. </p>
The first time I saw the sagebrush shrub steppe of North America, my mind melted. I grew up in a lush part of the country where tall shade trees blocked out the sky, we regularly lamented rain and the color green was taken for granted. The intense silver glow of the arid West was alien and exotic to my eyes and I instantly fell in love.</p> Plants have developed silver appearances as a reaction to the desiccating effects of sunlight and drought. Silver, grey, white and blue colorings of plants are the results of growing trichomes (plant hair), increased wax exudations on their surfaces or genetic mutations of cell colors called variegation. All of these adaptations help plants retain moisture and keep their cells cooler by increasing their surface albedo, their ability to reflect sunlight.</p> The American West is not alone in its glory of argent shrubbery. The world’s desert, Mediterranean, alpine and other steppe regions (Middle Asia, Patagonia, Argentina and Southern Africa) also hold their own wealth of silvers, and we’ve been zealously collecting these incredible beings in the Steppe Garden.</p> Begin exploring our collection by walking beneath the cottonwood trees on the eastern edge of the Steppe Garden.</strong> Look for the long white stems and yellow flowers of rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa</em>) emerging from the shortgrass prairie.</li> Head north on the curving gravel pathway.</strong> To your left you’ll see the Southern African Helichrysum trilineatum</em>, a small silver mound, full of yellow flowers.</li> Then, just beyond, exploding around the edges of the garden’s spinal stones, the fine-leaved Gomphostigma virgatum</em>.</li> Walk a bit further </strong>and you’ll see a collection of steppe shrubs—the shimmering and columnar Shepherdia argentea </em>‘Totem’; the three-lobed, almost-white Artemisia cana</em>; and the soft and sprawling Artemisia ludoviciana</em>—all extremely important plants in our local shrub steppe ecosystem.</li> At the end of this path</strong>, under the boughs of Austrian pine, you’ll see a small plant with thick, pearly leaves. This is Shepherdia rotundifolia</em>, usually a resident of areas further southwest than Denver, but surviving in our colder climate, none-the-less.</li> Continue following the westerly curve of the pathway</strong> to the Middle Asian section of the Steppe Garden to the tall and graceful Caragana microphylla </em>‘Mongolian Silver Spires’. Look, but don’t get too close, as tiny thorns protect this shrub from grazing animals.</li> Cut southeast on the gravel path </strong>that runs between the two Middle Asian garden beds to see the ultra-white and very fragrant Helichrysum maracandicum</em>, </em>which, when gently touched, gives off the scent of curry spices!</li> Journey across the canal to the Patagonian sections of the Steppe Garden </strong>to glimpse our last three shrubs, all from the important steppe genus of asters, Senecio</em>, including S. patagonicus</em>, S. filaginoides</em> and S. bracteolatus</em>.</li> </ul> Now, with your eyes attuned to the beauty of silver, continue exploring the gleaming shrubs of the Gardens.</p>
My internship did not happen the way I expected: masks, social distancing, cancelled events and field trips. As the Therapeutic Horticulture Intern, I dreamed of working with a variety of people in therapeutic programs to figure out if I want to become a certified horticultural therapist. 2020 had other plans. Typically, the therapeutic horticulture intern observes, leads and creates new programs that connect people with themselves and plants. However, I had to overcome the challenge of distance (and distancing) and come up with a project that would be safe, sanitary and possibly done from home. Luckily, I was able to learn from and bounce ideas off my mentor, Manager of Therapeutic Horticulture Programs Angie Andrade. </p> I was inspired by the idea of the language of flowers, which connects the inherent beauty of flowers with associated meanings, to create a reflection sheet—a list of thought-provoking questions accompanied by a photo of the flower being discussed—that could be used in future therapeutic programs. These reflection sheets will help get participants socially engaged and connected with themselves and others. </p> While the language of flowers seems like a light subject on its own, the meanings I chose to dive into get heavy quickly. I chose five flowers to discuss: yellow rose (friendship), yarrow (healing inspiration), black-eyed Susan (justice), chamomile (energy in adversity) and red & white rose together (unity). Each flower choice is meant to address COVID-19 and racial tension/injustice. </p> Below is an example of the content I have created for people to reflect on their experiences in 2020: </p> Yellow Rose—Friendship </h4> Friend – a person attached to another by feelings of affection; a supporter Rosa </em>‘Wekvossutono’ —Julia Child Rose </p> Reflection questions: </p> What first comes to mind / feelings you have when you notice a yellow rose? </li> How has COVID-19 affected your friendships and close relationships? How did you have to adjust? Are you still adjusting? </li> Reflect on your gratitude for friendship. Reach out to a friend and share what their friendship has meant to you. </li> </ol> Nature has a unifying power in times of intense division. Mental health is always important, but especially during this global pandemic and the anti-racism movement. </p> I invite you to take the time to slow down, contemplate and appreciate the beauty that persists even in difficult times. Tend the garden of your heart. Take a moment to reflect. How can you lift others up? I believe that asking yourself good questions and processing your feelings will give your heart the rest and perspective needed to keep going in this fight. This post was written by Rudi Wimberley, therapeutic horticulture intern. Rudi is a senior at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, majoring in Plant Sciences with a concentration in Sustainable Landscape Design. She grew up in a small rural town called Paris in Tennessee. She hopes to continue pursuing her passion for people, plants, and art through a career in landscape design after graduation. </em> </p>
