</p> The holidays are gleaming brighter than ever at Blossoms of Light™</a> this year at York Street, and thousands of visitors have already booked their tickets to enjoy the dazzling display of lights. We love welcoming first-time guests to this annual event, but we also work hard to redesign the show every year so that long-time members and visitors always have something new to look forward to.</p> How long does it take to design Blossoms of Light?</strong></p> The lead coordinators will start designing next year’s show while the current display is still up. It’s much easier to identify the areas where we need more lights, the color palettes we like and the changes we’d like to make while the gardens are still aglow with lights. After the initial walkthrough, we continue to adjust the design, modify color palettes, add or subtract trees and evaluate the experience as a whole before finalizing the design in late spring.</p> How much of the design stays the same from year to year?</strong></p> We re-assess the entire display every year, and to keep things fresh, almost every garden gets a new color palette. Usually, even if we really love the way an area looks, we won’t keep it the same for more than a couple of years. But don’t think that we forget our favorites! Palettes we like might simply move to a new location. We may also bring back colors to a certain feature after a break – this year, the teal tree in the Annuals Garden made a triumphant return! We are also always working to bring new special features to life to round out the display. This year, be sure to check out our immersive 360-degree lighting experience in Oak Grove, or the all-new projections on the Science Pyramid!</p> What factors do you consider when choosing color palettes? </strong></p> This is one of our favorite parts of the design process, but also one of the most challenging! When selecting colors, we think about the balance of “cool” and “warm” palettes, which colors look good together, where to incorporate traditional holiday palettes as opposed to more unique combinations, which colors are available in each size of bulb and more. We also think about the plant material we are decorating: would a garden look better with lots of colors, or would it be better to only select one or two colors?</p> How do you decide whether or not to decorate certain trees or plants? </strong></p> We work closely with the Gardens’ horticulturists to determine which trees and plants can be decorated. Some trees have fragile bark or branches or may be healing from a heavy spring snowfall, so we avoid those trees and exclude them from our design. For other trees, it comes down to basic logistics: if the trunks and canopies cannot be reached by ladders, buckets or climbers, then we won’t be able to decorate it. Finally, there are some areas where we would love to add more trees, but we’ve maxed out our electric power in the vicinity and don’t want to risk blowing a circuit.</p> Why are certain gardens not open during the event? </strong></p> While we’d love to open the entire property for Blossoms of Light, there are some realities of operating a night-time event in a snowy city that we must accept. Certain pathways are difficult to keep clear of snow, ice and water. We also consider how wide a path is and whether or not it is paved. Welcoming thousands of guests each night can cause crowding on narrow pathways, and unpaved paths would get messy very quickly!</p> Blossoms of Light is open every night through Jan. 3, 2020. Advance purchases are highly recommended to get the best price and to ensure admittance on your desired date. </strong></p> Get your tickets today!</a></p>
Colorado Gives Day was December 10 but it’s not too late to make your gift to Denver Botanic Gardens.</p>If you already made your gift, THANK YOU! The difference you make is profound.</p>Your gift will help nearly 40,000 children make strong connections to the natural world. Denver Botanic Gardens offers more than 500 annual programs for children ages 18 months to teens, including school programs, summer camp, home school, Scout and Head Start offerings. Sensory plant explorations and hands-on activities allow children to connect with plants in exciting, educational and healing ways that will last a lifetime. Your gift can help grow the next generation of champions for plant and environmental conservation.</p>Even though Colorado Gives Day has passed, you can still sustain your support of the Gardens by scheduling a recurring donation</strong>. Your recurring donation to Denver Botanic Gardens is support we can count on! When you use this option, you are making a commitment to donate a particular amount over a specific period of time. You can give as little as $10 per week, month, quarter or year. Simply set up your donation schedule and your deductions will happen automatically, straight from your credit card, debit card or bank account. You can also elect to cover the processing fees for your gift, making your gift go even further. To learn more about recurring donations, contact Rob Price at 720-865-3528.</p>Colorado Gives Day donations are accepted at ColoradoGives.org</a>, which features the missions, programs and finances of more than 2,500 Colorado nonprofits. Each organization’s online profile is screened by Community First Foundation to ensure specific standards are met before they are added to the program.</p>
From April to October, I and two other botanists, Daniel Bradley and Lysa DuCharme, traveled around the state on a seed-collecting mission. Armed with a list of over 100 native plant species and a well-worn road atlas, our goal was to search for large populations of these species, monitor their development throughout the summer and collect seeds when the time was ripe.</p> We were contributing to Seeds of Success (SOS), a national native seed collecting program led by the Bureau of Land Management. The 34+ million seeds collected over the course of the 2019 season will be cleaned and sorted at the U.S. Forest Service's Bend Seed Extractory in Bend, Oregon. Ultimately, they will be used for research, conservation and ecosystem restoration in support of the BLM's Native Plant Materials Development Program.</p> We traversed much of the 8.3 million acres of BLM land in Colorado and made collections across 10 western slope counties. Our travels extended from Walden to Cortez, bringing us to the wild horses of the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area, the lush orchards of Palisade and the red sandstone alcoves of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.</p> We collected seeds from 16 native species, including the dust-sized seeds of basin big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata</em> ssp. tridentata</em>), the twirled pipe cleaner seeds of mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus</em>) and the fluffy tufted seeds of Indian ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides</em>). Given the wet spring this year, many species around the state were abundant with flowers, which meant plenty of seeds to be collected during late summer and into the fall.</p> Denver Botanic Gardens will continue collecting seeds for the SOS program next summer, when a new trio of botanists will roam the state, searching for seeds.</p> This blog post was written by Audrey Dignan, seasonal botanist in the Research & Conservation Department.</em></p> </p>
In anticipation of the completion of the Freyer – Newman Center, which will house a newly constructed library, research labs and art galleries, Denver Botanic Gardens is hosting teen-only focus groups with teens ages 13-18. The new spaces in the Freyer – Newman Center will provide opportunities for expanded innovative community and educational programming.</p> In order to learn more about opportunities teens would like to see here at the Gardens, we are holding small focus groups on Sunday, Nov. 24 to learn more about how the Gardens can better support and engage our teen audience.</p> If you are a teen or know a teen interested in becoming more involved at Denver Botanic Gardens this opportunity is for you!</p> Interested? Here’s what you’ll need to know:</strong></p> Focus group sessions will take place at the Gardens’ York Street location on Sunday, Nov. 24 from 1:30-3 p.m., or 3:30-5 p.m. You will only be required to attend one session.</li> Each session will consist of 5-10 teens ages 13-18 and will be 90 minutes long.</li> During the focus groups, teens will be led through guided, informal conversations and activities that concentrate on the hobbies and interests of teens, what they like to do in their free time and why.</li> As a thank you for their time, teens will receive a $25 Amazon gift card upon completion of the focus group session. </strong></li> If teens participate, they agree to be recorded during the session (audio only). A release form will be provided for a guardian’s approval and signature.</li> </ul> Next Steps:</strong></p> Fill out the Teen Focus Group Inquiry Form to submit your interest in participating. Inquiry forms must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. </strong>Space is limited in our focus groups. The focus groups will be filled on a first come, first served basis.</li> </ul> Teen Focus Group Inquiry Form</a></p> A Gardens staff member will reach out to you by Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019 to confirm your focus group session time.</li> </ul> Questions?</strong> Email familyprograms@botanicgardens.org.</p> </p>
While many may prefer the bright and garish flowers found in the height of summer, November’s offerings come in a different form – persistent fruit. You might be familiar with orchards of apples, peaches or pears that were harvested in late summer and early fall. This month’s tour will look at fruit that lasts through the autumn months, often past the holidays, offering ornamentation that differs greatly from the strings of lights that one can now see around many of the trees at the Gardens in preparation for Blossoms of Light. This tour will take you through the Gardens to see some common and uncommon types of persistent fruit.</p> First, upon entering through the Bonfils-Stanton Visitor Center, look to your left behind the lowest basin of the waterway in the Welcome Garden</strong>. Three mountain alders (Alnus</em> </em>incana</em> </em>ssp. tenuifolia</em>) line the west side of the water. Their fruit is conelike and woody and forms from catkins that are eye-catching as the male flowers blow in the breeze in early spring. In nature, this native tree that is a member of the birch family is an indicator of riparian areas and is frequently found alongside cottonwoods.</li> In the O’Fallon Perennial Walk</strong> there are several roses showing off their brightly colored hips. These shiny, fleshy, red or golden colored fruits are often found in clusters, like in the Rosa </em>‘Tuscany Superb’ that is about 1/3 of the way down the brick walk on the east side. Rose hips are often an ingredient in teas or vitamins as they are high in vitamin C, but these hips will likely be consumed by hungry birds in the coming months.</li> Continue to the end of the Perennial Walk and then west through the Romantic Gardens to Woodland Mosaic</strong>. In the large garden bed north of the solarium you will see a tall tree with many bright red-orange clusters of small fruit so heavy that they are pulling the branches downward. This European mountain ash (Sorbus </em>aucuparia</em> </em>‘Fastigiata’) also has golden fall color in some years. While the common name is ash, this is not a relative of the ash trees (Fraxinus </em>spp.) that are impacted by the emerald ash borer that has recently been in the news. These fruits are a food source for birds in winter.</li> Proceed to Sacred Earth</strong> where there are two trees with persistent fruit. First, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga</em> </em>menziesii</em> </em>‘Fastigiata’) has brown cones which contain small edible nuts like the ones found on closely related pine trees. The grove of Douglas-firs can be found on the north end near the waterway across from the Hive Garden Bistro. Follow the walkway around the horseshoe-shaped pool and you’ll come to a large upright evergreen tree, a Utah juniper (Juniperus </em>osteosperma</em>). Look closely and you’ll see many blue berry-like cones which are also forage for birds.</li> Looping back to the main walkway between Sacred Earth and Dryland Mesa, follow the pathway south and take a right to walk towards the Laura Smith Porter Plains Garden</strong>. Before rounding the corner to head north, look to your right to see a small tree with numerous foot-long, thin capsules hanging and blowing in the breeze. The desert willow (Chilopsis</em> </em>linearis</em>) is more charismatic in summer when it blooms with clusters of large pink flowers. It is a member of the family Bignoniaceae</em>, which includes catalpa and trumpet vine, which also have similar long narrow fruit.</li> Continue north along this path and turn east at Le Potager, past Monet Pool to the Darlene Radichel Plant Select® Garden</strong>. To your left you’ll see a narrow upright evergreen tree with many brown cones hanging downwards near the ends of the cascading branches. This weeping white spruce (Picea</em> glauca </em>‘Pendula’) is part of the Plant Select® program and was only planted in this garden four years ago.</li> Follow the path until it comes to the next major juncture. Turn right to walk down Shady Lane</strong>. While you walk down this long sidewalk, look closely at the trees that line both sides. Fifteen different types of crabapples (Malus </em>spp. and cultivars) line this walkway and many of them are swathed with small fruit. You may notice the fruit vary in size and color. These are another fruit that are favored by birds that visit the Gardens in fall and winter. Unfortunately, many of these fruits also fall on the sidewalk, so they are considered one of the messier of our trees that have lasting fruit.</li> Our final stop is right outside the main door of the Boettcher Memorial Center</strong>. Look to the left of the door that leads into Offshoots Café and you’ll see stems with large flattened pods on them. These pods, as you might suspect, are members of the pea family. The plant is called bird of paradise (Caesalpinia</em> </em>gilliesii</em>) but it is quite different from the tropical plant that also goes by this moniker. This shrub is native to South America and produces a bright yellow flower with bright red stamens that extend well beyond the flowers.</li> </ul> Now that you’ve completed the tour, you are at a perfect spot to end your visit with a walk through the Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory or to warm your hands with a hot drink at the café.</p>
My time here at Denver Botanic Gardens has been nothing short of profound expression. As a spectator in the Gardens, it feels like a dream. Through the eyes of a summer intern, I am a dreamworker—carefully curating the vision embodied by the Gardens. This institution emphasizes the importance of connection and cooperation across fields, so that everyone finds their place of resonance, through a multitude of approaches to plants and nature.</p> My focus for the summer was in tissue culture, which allows for the propagation of plants that are difficult to produce through traditional means. Clonal production is achieved through promoting the growth of pre-existing meristems. Seed germination can be improved with more precisely controlled conditions in vitro. Tissue culture involves sterilizing plants and establishing them on an agar-based media complete with nutrients, sugars and plant hormones. This media provides all components necessary for growth, eliminating the need for light and promoting growth regardless of weather or season. Tissue culture can be used to remove virus and disease from highly desirable or rare plants, to exponentially increase the amount of plant material available and to fully nourish all environmental needs for otherwise tricky plants.</p> I spent the summer working with Erodium absinthoides </em>in vitro. This plant is highly desirable for the Plant Select® program for its luscious ground cover and purple flowers. However, it has proven to be difficult to get into tissue culture. Its growth pattern makes it harder to clean contamination hidden in the plant crevices. We tested different sterilization methods such as bleach concentration, time spent soaking to kill bacteria and fungi, and single versus multiple sterilization techniques. We found a lower bleach concentration at a longer time has proven to be more effective.</p> From there, we moved the Erodium</em> into the next stages of tissue culture where we encouraged new types of growth. These stages promote shoot and root growth using increased cytokinins and auxins, respectively. These are naturally occurring plant hormones that when added affect where a plant directs its energy. In this stage of tissue culture, called callogenesis, we used a form of plant growth called callus. A callus is made up of undifferentiated plant cells, meaning that the cells have no designated role in the plant system yet, so they can be manipulated to form the desired plant tissue by adding the proper hormones and concentrations into their media. Through this process we are able to narrow down the hormone concentrations that are most effective in the Erodium absinthoides</em> tissue culture protocol, so that it may be mass-produced for the Plant Select program and growers everywhere.</p> Outside of the tissue culture lab I also worked with the National Agricultural Technology Institute of Argentina (INTA). The Gardens has partnered with them to receive their seeds and test germination protocols for highly desirable plants. Our climate and environment in Colorado are very similar to that of Argentina because they are both steppe regions. An abundance of alpine plants and microenvironments dominate both ecosystems, making us an ideal candidate to compare cultivation techniques and maintain botanical preservation efforts. This is one of the main goals of the Gardens—to serve as a site of collection and conservation for plants around the globe. Being a part of this project only reinforces the role we have as humans to collaborate internationally for the wellness of all.</p> This blog post was written by summer intern Krista Kingsbury. Krista is a recent graduate from the University of Florida with a degree in Botanical Research. Her interests lie in learning more about the innate wisdom of plants and of nature itself. She is a yoga teacher and aspiring herbalist; through these means she seeks to understand the human connection to nature. </em></p>
