Wedding in the Romantic Gardens (Photo by Scott Dressel-Martin)

Denver Botanic Gardens will host its inaugural wedding showcase on Thursday, Sept. 16, from
5-9 p.m. More than 40 wedding professionals will be available in locations throughout the Gardens. From wedding planning and formalwear to food, wine and floral design, the Gardens’ Wedding Showcase offers solutions to all types of wedding needs.

Brides can find the dresses of their dreams, see photographers work and get a preview of Denver Botanic Gardens one-of-a-kind wedding sites. Additionally, we are offering the opportunity to pre-book 2011 wedding dates at Denver Botanic Gardens on that day. That’s two weeks before we open our books to the public.

The wedding showcase is an event that makes it simple for brides to plan their entire wedding. Each bride’s passport enters her into a drawing for fabulous prizes including a free wedding site or reception site at Denver Botanic Gardens. 

Tickets for Denver Botanic Gardens’ Wedding Showcase are $10 in advance and $15 at the door and if you are a member just $5!

Buy your ticket online here

Vendors include:

• Multiple bridal shops
• Wedding cakes and desserts (wine, champagne and food samples from  Catering by Design, the Gardens’ exclusive caterer)
• Photographers
• Videographers
• Limousine and party buses
• Wedding favors
• Decorators/florists
• Musicians
• Wedding officiants
• Salons
• Wedding planners
• Invitation designers
• Event/wedding caregiver

Zinnia 'Profusion'

I’ve always been a gardener who has looked down my nose a bit at annuals—those flowers that need replanting every single year. Aren’t they a bit pedestrian, invented for those folks who don’t have the good sense to buy a perennial and watch it come back year after year?

Except that they are gorgeous. And in the heat of August, they are at their peak, providing absolutely endless color right up until frost. So this week, an homage to the annual:

Explosion of Yellow

• Traditional: What could be more ordinary than marigolds and brown-eyed susan (Rudbeckia)? But look how splashy they are when they are artfully placed! Another fairly common annual, the zinnia (here, Zinnia ‘Profusion’), adds vibrant color to the All-America Selections Garden.

Celosia

• Less Traditional: Cockscomb (Celosia) comes in several varieties; some look something like fuzzy flames, while others twist in interesting ways.

Gomphrena 'Fireworks'

Gomphrena is another favorite, but check out Gomphrena ‘Fireworks’ which grows taller than the usual. Both of these plants belong to the Amaranth family. See them in Lainie’s Cutting Garden and the AAS Garden.

Amaranthus tricolor

• Pretty Darn Strange Looking: Take a peek at Amaranthus tricolor, to see yet another member of the family. Also called summer poinsettia, its green leaves turn vivid colors as summer heats up. See it in the border just north of the Monet Pool. It is a very different plant from Amaranthus cruentus or Amaranthus caudatus, both of which you can also see in the Gardens, in the Sacred Earth Garden and elsewhere.

Castor Bean

While you are looking at the tricolor, be sure also to check out the Suessian castor bean plant (Ricinus comunis) and artichoke (Cynara cardunculus).

Favorite lunch spot this week: Sit on the berm overlooking the All-America Selections Garden, to enjoy the patchwork of color.

Gardens to spend time in: For color, Lainie’s Cutting Garden is fabulous, as is the AAS Garden. Don’t miss the vegetable garden—Le Potager—which is brimming with beautiful veggies and flowers.

Here I am with a friend at the Children's Garden. Photo by Scott Dressel-Martin.

Last Monday, after several years of planning, the Mordecai Children’s Garden had its grand opening. Over the past week, the new Children’s Garden has been filled with the joyful sounds of imagination and discovery as children and grownups alike are reconnecting with nature. I am one happy marmot, enjoying the company of my many new friends. Melissa Gula, our Children’s Garden Program Coordinator, convinced me that I need to blog to let you know about all of the fun things that are going on at this new Children’s Garden. Come and join me on a journey through this amazing new garden.

The Children’s Garden provides a place for our youngest visitors to put their curiosity to work as they observe plant patterns, pick up and take a close look at pinecones and seed pods, and weave natural materials to create a nest for a bald eagle. A favorite among visitors has been the Mist-ery Forest, where children have been using their muscles to dig through our giant digging pit. Also a favorite in the Mist-ery Forest is Springmelt Stream, which provides an ideal place to cool off on a hot summer day. Children of all ages have enjoyed taking off their shoes and getting their toes wet as they splash about in the cool stream water. The stream provides endless opportunities to experiment with sinking and floating objects and redirecting the flow of water.

Marmot Mountain and Pika Peak are both an instant hit with the kids. Photo by Scott Dressel-Martin.

Along with these everyday adventures you find in the Children’s Garden, daily
drop-in programs are available for you to investigate natural processes even further. Last week, visitors had the opportunity to learn why different birds have different beaks, how a tree grows, and what the insides of a plant look like. More fun is scheduled to open late in September when Pipsqueak Pond and Sagebrush Stage will be open for exploration!

Location:
York Street
On top of the parking structure

Hours:
9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily

Admission:
Free for Members
Included in regular admission for non-members

Did you love your grandma while you were growing up?  Of course you did!  She was wise and loving and wanted nothing more for you than for you to be happy, healthy and to grow up to be a good person.

In her quest to help you attain these qualities, she undoubtedly soothed your brow when you were sick and perhaps offered a cup of hot tea that was sweetly flavored with lemon and honey when you had a sore throat.  A subtly spiced chicken soup was probably on her menu when you had a cold.  She might have taught you how to hand sew a dainty sachet that you could fill with lavender to put on your pillow at night (and, guys, don’t snicker; you know you would have eaten this activity up, as well).

Grandma absolutely had a method to her sweet madness.  All of these tasty foods and fun craft activities were offered to help you attain that healthiness that she always wanted for you – honey to soothe your throat, hot tea and soup to help you sweat out your cold, spices to speed up your recovery time, and lavender to help you sleep.  It’s hardly news anymore that nature offers us a plethora of ways to heal our bodies and soothe our soul.

The Gardens offers you a way to become your own Grandma (or Grandpa) by learning some of these ancient and effective healing arts that you can easily create for yourself at home.  Join us for any of our three remaining classes in our HERBCRAFT series.  C’mon, it would make Grandma proud.

Tuesday, Aug 24: Herbal Tincture Making, Infused Honeys and the Digestive System
Learn the art and science of creating herbal tinctures and infused honeys. Discover how you can use holistic remedies to achieve and maintain digestive health and grace.

Tuesday, Aug 31: Herbal First Aid and Infused Oils and Salves
Learn ways to use herbs and essential oils to treat acute symptoms. Create your own travel first aid kit in addition to an herbal infused healing salve. Learn to make sun-infused herbal oils.

Tuesday, Sept 7: Sleeptime Remedies and the Nervous System
Learn how to look deeper for the causes of disrupted sleep and which herbs to ally with to nourish and soothe the nervous system. We will create aromatherapy pillow mists, dream pouches, and an herbal dream balm.

Cost: $55 non-member, $48 member

Phlox paniculata

Evenings are a wonderful time to be here in the Gardens: cool, relaxing, and low key. You have about six more weeks in which to pack up your picnic and head on over, so don’t miss out. You know that, come winter, you’ll be longing for those endless warm evenings…

Flowers that may not stand out during the daytime really seem to pop at night when the shadows are long and dusk is falling. Come take a look at these:

• White: Traditionally, a Moon Garden is a garden all in white, that glows under the moon. We don’t have a Moon Garden here per se, but we have plenty of white flowers to admire.

Allium sativum

For instance, take a look at Allium sativum, a late-season Allium whose delicate white flowers grace the Perennial Walk, as well as a number of other gardens. 

• White: You can’t miss the Phlox paniculata with its prolific blooms. Though it comes in all kinds of candy shades, the white is my favorite. See some really impressive ones in the Romantic Garden.

Obedient Plant

Also note the Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana), the stalks of which, the story goes, will bend any way a florist wants it to go, hence the name. See it in the Birds and Bees Walk.

Mentzelia

• And More White: In the Laura Smith Porter Plains Garden, catch a glimpse of the wild looking Mentzelia, which only opens in the evening.

African Daisy

And see the eye-popping white African daisy (Osteospermum ‘Asti White’), tucked into the All-America Selections Garden.

Favorite lunch dinner spot this week: Of an evening, there are so many lovely spots for a picnic, it is hard to choose! Try the hill above the Amphitheater, or a bench in the Japanese Garden; the lawn in the Romantic Garden, or anyplace you can find to spread out.

Gardens to spend time in: I must put in a plug for the brand-spanking-new Mordecai Children’s Garden. This amazing place has already delighted hundreds of kids, and is a terrific place to watch kids having a good time!

Buttonbush

Here are a few plants you might be curious about this week:

Goldenrod

• Stalks of Color: Do not underestimate the ordinary goldenrod (Solidago var.) for color and texture this time of year. (And it’s ragweed that will make you sneeze, not goldenrod!)

Polygonum

Also admire the tall version of Polygonum (Polygonum affine) with its long-lasting, salmony-red flowers; find it along the Perennial Walk and in the Romantic Garden. (Not to be confused with the pink, droopy, and delightfully named Kiss-Me-Over-the-Garden-Gate—Polygonum orientale—which you can find in the Gates Montane Garden.)

• Is It a Sunflower?: Not quite! August is the month for sunflowers and their look-alikes. Check out these two:

Prairie Dock

Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) grows in the Rock Alpine Garden. It has large leaves at the base, with thin stalks of yellow flowers waving above.

Compass Plant

Also look for Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum), so named because the leaves tend to point North and South in order to expose as little surface a possible to the sun’s heat. The flowers, on the other hand, follow the light, as do most sunflowers. Find Compass Plant in the Ornamental Grasses garden.

• And Other Oddities: In the Plains Garden, you can view Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) with its spherical, white flowers.

Globe Thistle

For spherical blue flowers, catch Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro) in bloom in the Birds and Bees Garden, and just past bloom in the Perennial Walk. And be sure to gawk at the Moon Carrots (Seseli gummiferum)–yes, Moon Carrots–blooming along the ridge in Birds and Bees.

Moon Carrot

Favorite lunch spot this week: Grab a bench in Sacred Earth Garden, hidden among flowers taller than you are, and within sight and sound of running water!

Gardens to spend time in: Once again, Lainie’s Cutting Garden is breathtaking. Woodland Mosaic Garden and Gates Montane Garden offer a cool escape from the August sun.

Denver Botanic Gardens is thinking of you…thinking of your budget…thinking of what’s on your plate (literally)…thinking of what you might like to have on your plate (this time, both literally and figuratively)…and thinking that we might just have a nice way to enhance all of these things for you.

Starting next Tuesday night (Aug. 17), the Gardens will be hosting the 2010 Sustainable Food Film Series which will feature four critically acclaimed films that all deal with the significance of food’s role in the health of communities.

Because we recognize the importance of this subject for our own community, the Gardens is offering the films at no cost to you.  But wait, it gets better and even cheaper than “free”…

Each event will be hosted by the ever-generous Chipotle who will supply your plate with some deliciously spicy appetizers to enjoy with your deliciously free film.  And, truly, while popcorn is nice, wouldn’t you rather have guacamole?

Take a look below to see some additional special highlights, co-hosts and guests for each film event.

While the films are free, we do ask that you register for your ticket(s) online to ensure your place in the festivities, as space is limited.

Tuesday, Aug. 17
FRESH
Supported by Chipotle
6:30 p.m.: Eco-conscious fashion show with designs by Zavella
7:00 p.m.: Film

Tuesday, Sept. 21
FOOD FIGHT
Supported by Chipotle
Co-hosted by Slow Food Denver
7:00 p.m.: Film

Saturday, Oct. 2
Family friendly event!
WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE
Supported by Chipotle
11:00 a.m.: Film

Tuesday, Oct. 19
THE GARDEN
Supported by Chipotle
Co-hosted by Denver Urban Gardens
7:00 p.m.: Film

Botanical Illustration in Pencil

Mon., October 18 – November 22 (no class on 11/8), 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Instructor: Marjorie Leggitt

For more information and to register, please click here.

(Illustration by Marjorie Leggitt)