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 too 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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Shakespeare’s plays are “evergreens” of the dramatic arts: they always have something to say to the current time. I was so pleased to learn that Pik*Nik Theater is going to put on a performance at the Gardens. Their performance of Much Ado About Nothing is set in the 1940s. It makes perfect sense to think about the prince and company returning from war. In Denver, it will be July 17, 6 p.m. at Denver Botanic Gardens.
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Scott Dressel-Martin is the Gardens’ official photographer. He has his own business, which keeps him hopping from shoot to shoot and client to client, generating wonderful photographs of many subjects. You’ve seen his work all over www.botanicgardens.org, and on this blog, and in the Gardens’ newsletter and multiple books. If I could hang only photographic art on my walls, I’d still be out of space after Scott’s portfolio.
However Scott is also an instructor at Denver Botanic Gardens, and very popular one: not just for his botanical photography, but because he has invested himself in the Gardens, its staff and its members. He radiates back the same enthusiasm that people feel for the plants, and art and community, and he teaches you how to see it photographically.
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Andrea Wulf, author of Founding Gardeners
Andrea Wulf has plumbed a rich story line of gardens and botanical exploration, following the shipments of plants and seeds from American colonists back to royal Britain, and the subsequent flowering on both sides of the Atlantic. With a lecture titled ”Revolutionary Gardeners: Britain, America and the Seeds of Exchange,” her appearance at Denver Botanic Gardens on May 10th promises a ride through botanical history including appearances by the founding fathers.
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Eugenia Bone, author
This year, the Bonfils-Stanton Series has enjoyed a great deal of success by drawing a large audience. And its terrific to see some of that success go to a Colorado author whose work appears in the Denver Post and the New York Times. This Thursday, July 29, Eugenia Bone speaks on The Kitchen Ecosystem at Denver Botanic Gardens at 7:00 p.m.
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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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Denver Botanic Garden's green roof
This is the week for the Green Roof for the West Symposium! On Thursday, June 17, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Denver Botanic Gardens opens its doors to a regional conference with international speakers. The Gardens and its co-hosts (the U.S. Green Building Council – Colorado Chapter, Colorado State University and UC-Denver College of Architecture and Planning) have been looking and working towards a reprise of last year’s sucess. This year promises to be as forward-thinking and informative as the first ever symposium, also held at the Gardens. The registration price is $125 for the entire day, and current students with valid ID pay only $30. Includes continental breakfast, box lunch and beverages.
The symposium will feature a full day of in-depth sessions, presented by leading green roof experts and designers from across the U.S. and around the world.
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Hummingbird perching in the Lilac Garden
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Hummingbird perching in the Lilac Garden
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!
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