Lilac Garden’s Stunning Display of Colorful Irises

Irises in the Lilac garden

Irises in the Lilac garden

Like several other bloggers here, I have really enjoyed the irises in bloom in the Lilac Garden.  They’re stunning!  While we all rhapsodize about how colorful the blooms are, and how marvelous the experience is, I keep going back and finding another gem in the display.  (Of course, that is what we all do: whether it’s Lisa’s post or Joe’s or Ellen’s, you see the gems we’ve just uncovered and can’t wait to share, whether its programs or people or plants.)     

For me, its a treat to wander and compare the blooms and colors and impressions they leave on you.  Iris isn’t even my favorite plant (I refuse to choose!) but they were exactly the right display for me when I was out with my camera.  On that day, the lilac were still in bloom, and their sweet scent reached me even before I turned into the garden.  But once inside it was clear that the irises were stepping onto the stage.
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Hummingbird perching in the Gardens

Check out this hummingbird, spotted almost directly overhead in the Lilac Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens. Normally, I’m more interested in the horticultural and botanic than I am in the animals I might happen to see in Denver.  But this bird was twittering away, paused to sit for just a moment on the branch, then leapt from its perch into the air and swooped and dived several times before dashing across the Gardens. I was lucky to enough to share the experience with both adults and children. (Doesn’t it seem like the Gardens is be a great place for children and families in the summer? Look here or read Lisa’s blog.)  It was neat enough to see a hummingbird, to watch it perching with an audience as entranced as we were was divine!