The Return of the High-Altitude Gardener

At long last the High-Altitude Gardener has returned to the Denver Botanic Gardens Web site. This searchable online database features some of the favorite plants of the Gardens’ horticulture staff that are also some of the best plants to grow in this region.

The search interface allows users to type a plants common or scientific name or to select from one or more of ten categories to find plants. 
Read more »

Bright Berries Catching Visitor’s Eyes

Mountain ash

Bright red fruit on Sorbus aucuparia 'Fastigiata'

This mountain ash had visitors stopping and staring and then asking “What is THAT?” yesterday. It is a slow-growing tree  and according to Michael Dirr in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants,

“Upright with strongly ascending branches, dark green leaves, good large sealing wax red fruits…” 

I like the clump form with multiple glossy gray trunks which are also stunning in winter after the leaves drop. It flowers in spring with large flat clusters of white flowers
Read more »

Blue Poppy in Bloom

image and location of Meconopsis

Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ is currently in bloom in the garden on the north side of the Education Building (adjacent to the temporary visitor parking lot).
Read more »

Check out what’s blooming by the new entry

Pieris japonica

With the move of the gatehouse, you can now see a garden that rarely gets exposure, what we have tagged the north bed of the Picnic Garden.
Read more »

Spring blooms here, there and everywhere

Eranthis hyemalis blooming in Shady Lane on Feb. 25, 2009

The Gardens are quickly springing back to life with the 70+ degree days.  I was wondering what was blooming across the rest of the country, so I contacted a few colleagues across the nation to see how their gardens were waking up in comparison to Denver Botanic Gardens. 

Denver Botanic Gardens currently has many species of plants in full bloom or just beginning to bloom. Galanthus elwesii (snowdrops), Crocus sp. and cvs., Iris reticulata and its various cultivars, Cornus mas (Cornelian cherry), Eranthis hyemalis (winter aconite) and Helleborus sp. are all blooming. This morning I witnessed some of the magnolias (M. stellata  and M. x soulangeana) starting to burst from their buds in the Waring House garden as well where they grow in a sunny spot against a south facing wall.
Read more »

Do you smell what I smell?

This past couple of weeks while wandering the Gardens and around Denver it seems that there is another fantastic scent greeting my nose around every corner. The cool spring seems to have slowed down the early blooming shrubs and now we have a profusion of flowers that are lasting longer than usual with the cooler temperatures that keep hitting every week (usually with a few snow flakes) helping to keep the flowers lingering.

At the Gardens, lilacs are just starting to bloom, with their sweet scent wafting throughout the Lilac Garden. And while we’re in the Lilac Garden, you cannot forget to kneel down and
Read more »