Yampa river botanic gem
- Yampa River Botanic Park’s rock garden on June 25
One of the most exciting “blowbys” of Denver Botanic Gardens great success over the past few decades has been the burgeoning of smaller public gardens throughout the Rocky Mountain Region. The Plant Select website lists nearly 90 gardens in almost as many towns in Colorado and nearby states that feature just Plant Select plants. Some of these gardens are truly splendid. Yampa River Botanic Park in Steamboat Springs was luminous last Saturday afternoon. I begin with this shot of their alpine garden, with requisite sunbeam (kissed by the sun!)…
Columbine medley by the lake
Aaah! The columbines! Everywhere you wander there there are masses of columbines. Natives, exotics, in every color of the rainbow. Here is a mass by their lovely pond.
- Penstemon davidsonii in the penstemon garden
Is that awesome or what? I have grown many a penstemon, but this mass of a shrubby penstemon from the Sierra/Cascades was truly mind boggling. There is a dedicated penstemon garden (not sure I know another one anywhere else) with many dozens of penstemons busily blooming their lovely heads off, many in vast drifts. Something I envied (as past president of the American Penstemon Society…yes that august body exists and is thriving!)
Allium Moly, "Holy Moly" onion.
I could go on and on about this lovely garden: as you drive into Steamboat Springs on highway 40 from Rabbitears Pass, you will see the sign at the south end of town. That pass, by the way, still has 6′ snowdrifts in the campgrounds and in the sprucewoods, although the glacier lilies were out in throngs where the snow melted.
So if you took my excellent advice in my LAST blog, and got yourself onto the hills, don’t forget that almost every little town you drive through on the way is apt to have a Xeriscape Demonstration garden or even a bona fide botanic garden like this one that is well worth dropping in on after a great day’s hike in the hills.
Paradise was a garden, and Coloradoans are busy recreating horticultural paradises in municipalities everywhere… isn’t that cool? None cooler than Yampa’s gem.
July 1, 2011 at 4:12 pm
In the span of a few weeks the Garden has gone from relatively leafless to a green jungle and the number of plants in flower has tripled. When you visit the Garden don t forget to look up down and all around or you ll surely miss something great………. Tour docent Rod Parke traditionally hams it up during tours by pretending to call 911 and report a chimney fire…..The Gardens dove trees Davidia involucrata and Pacific dogwoods Cornus nutallii are among other trees in flower now.