Posted January 27, 2012 by Matt Cole, Director of Education
A Tangelo blooms in the Denver Botanic Gardens Orangery in winter.
Winter is busy, and not just for Colorado skiers. Gardeners are planning, dreaming and preparing; growers are tending indoor blooms, and propagators are starting plants to be ready for warm weather: busy! Evergreens are balancing photosynthesis and drought, orchids are delivering on the promise of color and beauty, and seeds are trying to intuit the fine line between germinating to soon and too late: busy! For some gardeners, winter means that their busy, short days can’t hold time to appreciate each bloom and everything that is happening.
You can’t always look ahead either. It was pure chance that I saw this white Tangelo blossom on a snowy day. (The Orangery at the Gardens looks lovely with the orchid showcase throughout.)
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Posted January 26, 2012 by Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator & Director of Outreach
Helleborus niger, blooming January 26, 2012 at my house
There are a number of plants that are clever enough to bloom during the winter months: none
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Posted January 25, 2012 by Nick Daniel, Horticulturist
It’s right around this time of year every year that I start to really crave spring, and all that comes with it. While we all still must wait patiently, beauty and color can still be found in the depths of winter. There are many succulents that love to bloom when the days are shorter and the temperatures are cooler, specifically, succulents hailing from the southern hemisphere.
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Posted January 24, 2012 by John Murgel, Gardener
As the Greek government, its creditors, and the bankers at the International Monetary Fund continue to discuss Eurobonds and interest rates, my thoughts have wandered from the European Central Bank to another sort of bank altogether—the seed bank.
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Posted January 21, 2012 by Featured Instructor
Usually I get to see the look on people’s faces when I give them a bag of delicious produce in winter from my passive solar greenhouse. You should have seen MY face the other day when Cord came home with a large bag of vine-ripened, delicious, juicy winter-grown tomatoes! From somebody else’s greenhouse!
Cord finished building a 44’ state-of-the-art totally sustainable passive solar greenhouse late last August and the owners lost no time in getting tomato plants in the ground soon after. They planted large potted tomatoes in deep beds at the base of the wall of stored water – the thermal mass.
Now, in January, they are 10 feet tall and bursting with tomatoes. Not only were they grown in winter – but with passive solar. And, oh yeah, at 8,000 feet in the mountains!
No tomato ever tasted so good. The juice ran down our chins. I started laughing while I was eating
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Posted January 20, 2012 by Brien Darby, Greenhouse Production Assistant
This time of year, our greenhouse staff, with help from volunteers and other members of the horticulture department, embarks on the task of cleaning the seed that was collected throughout the warmer seasons from the grounds and surrounding areas. In 2011, we collected approximately 600 different species,
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Posted January 17, 2012 by Featured Instructor
Urban beekeeping has been all the buzz, lately. And for as many people that keep bees, there are that many reasons WHY people keep bees.
One of the most important reasons to keep bees is for pollination. Bee pollination is needed for the production of an estimated one-third of the food crops grown in developed countries. When it comes to fruit, the number of bees visiting a plant affects the size, uniformity and amount of fruit it produces. Bee pollination also has an impact on other foods we eat, such as meat
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Posted January 12, 2012 by Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator & Director of Outreach
Who doesn’t love blue in flowers? Do our gardens ever have enough blue? Well…
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