Imagine walking across the high plains desert, no water as far as the eye can see, the tumbleweeds and dust plumes kicked up by the wind the only movement in the landscape. Your path takes you across old concrete foundations that scar the land; reminders of a not-so-distant past. Then you spot it among the tangles of prairie grass and husks of dead trees, growing where nothing has any business being alive: a rose bush. </p> The film “Amache Rose” tells the story of this rose, planted 80 years ago by a prisoner at The Granada Relocation Center, or Camp Amache, the concentration camp in Granada, Colorado, that incarcerated Japanese Americans from 1942-1945. </p> This is the first film created by Denver Botanic Films®</span>, the new film department of Denver Botanic Gardens, and is based on archeologist Dr. Bonnie Clark’s work at Amache. Among the interviews in this short documentary are those of Amache survivors Carlene Tanigoshi Tinker and Minoru Tonai, who recount their experiences in the camp in the vast desert of southeast Colorado. “Amache Rose” has already been showcased in multiple film festivals, including the Denver Film Festival and the Nichi Bei Films of Remembrance Film Festival. </p> That these roses are still living in the high desert of Colorado without proper care or watering for the last 80 years is truly remarkable. Now Denver Botanic Gardens is caring for clippings of the rose in our greenhouses. In March 2022, the Amache National Historic Site Act was signed into law by President Biden, designating the site as part of the National Park System</a>. These are important steps in protecting the memory of Amache and sharing its story, so history does not repeat itself. </p> “Amache Rose” will be screened in the beautiful Sturm Family Auditorium in the Freyer – Newman Center. No additional tickets or reservations needed beyond admission to the Gardens. Check the film schedule</a> for the day of your next visit. </p> Watch the “Amache Rose” trailer</a>.</p> </p> This article was contributed by Film Director and Producer, Denver Botanic Films Billy Kanaly</strong>, who directed “Amache Rose.” </em></p> </p>
Denver Botanic Gardens’ horticulture staff are frequently asked "What is there to see in winter?" The answer is "Plenty"! In addition to the bountiful winter-interest of dormant plants, persistent berries and coniferous cones and needles, there are also numerous indoor spaces to explore to satisfy your plant fix.</p> Immediately inside the lobby of the Boettcher Memorial Center </strong>you will find a beautifully designed planter filled with a variety of foliage plants. This space is a very low-light environment and can be a challenge for the horticulture team, but it also provides inspiration and ideas for visitors who struggle with similar low-light conditions in their own homes. Check back frequently to view new accent plants added for extra color.</p> At the west end of the Boettcher Memorial Center lobby, you will find the entrance to our largest indoor plant display – The Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory</strong>. Home to hundreds of plants, this space highlights tropical plants from around the world. Palms and bananas stretch to the ceiling while species philodendrons, anthuriums and other tropical wonders fill the understory. There is always something in bloom</a> so come back often to observe how the space evolves through the year.</p> At the west end of the Tropical Conservatory, you will enter Marnie’s Pavilion</strong>. Here you will find more tropical plants surrounding a dramatic waterfall and stream. This space is accented with orchids and bromeliads rotated into the space from our behind-the-scenes collection greenhouses. A new addition to this space is a terrarium filled with many forms of butterwort (Pinguicula</em> spp.)</a>, a group of carnivorous plants that trap insects on their sticky leaves. More carnivorous plants can be seen on display in cases just as you enter the Orangery.</p> From January 12 to February 20, the Orangery</strong> will be filled with blooming orchids. This year’s Orchid Showcase</a> highlights not only the diversity of the orchid family, but also the diversity of the people involved in orchid research and cultivation. January is also a wonderful time to enjoy the fragrance of the blooming citrus trees.</p> Don’t forget to visit the Cactus and Succulent House</strong> in the southwest corner of the Gardens. Hundreds of plant specimens are on display in this cozy space.</p> In addition to the numerous plant displays, you can also visit the art galleries in the Freyer – Newman Center </strong>(included with admission) and before you leave, stop by the Helen Fowler Library</strong> (free admission to the library for members and the general public) to check out a book or two so you can continue your plant exploration at home.</p>
Hydrangea quercifolia</em></p> This time of year I am amazed to see spectacular mounds of Hydrangea</em> 'Annabelle' glowing around the metro area. That is one cultivar that has certainly made its mark, although one doesn't see quite as many of them as you would in a more humid part of the country. I've noticed a few other sorts here and there--including small plants of the blue species (I think the jury is still out on these when it comes to our climate however.). There is one particularly striking hydrangea that has really proven its mettle for many, many years at Denver Botanic Gardens. The Oakleaf Hydrangea (according to the USDA)</a> is restricted to just the eight southeastern-most states, and yet the plants shown above have persisted in a dense stand of English Ivy alongside Denver Botanic Gardens' Waring House for nearly 30 years.</p> Blossoms of the typical wild form</p> The common wild form has long, graceful flowers that form a bit of a cone shape up to a foot long. Like others in the genus, the fresh flowers are white, but age a lovely soft green. If you cut them and hang them in a cool dry spot, they can make wonderful dry flowers for the winter too!</p> Hydrangea quercifolia</em> 'Snowflake'</p> Growing alongside the typical form is a more compact flowered and smaller leaved cultivar that looks a bit more like the Eurasian species. It seems to have fared just as well over the decades, and makes for a nice contrast. All forms of this wonderful shrub turn glorious orange and pink in the fall, reminiscent of their native cousin Jamesia americana,</em> that grows everywhere in our mountains (the only member of the family that does).</p> Both cultivars together</p> Here you can see both cultivars growing alongside one another more clearly. Surely, if they can grow well in this most challenging spot, nearly swamped with thirsty ivy, imagine what it might do in a well prepared spot in your garden with some compost and TLC? We have another handful of cultivars of this wonderful plant elsewhere on our grounds--but not enough! Come to think of it, I have a perfect spot in my garden for one... I better go out and get it before you beat me to the punch!</p>
Winecups in Watersmart Garden</p> Strolling around York Street gardens this time of year, you are apt to see a bright rose red plant that resembles a geranium in many gardens. It is apt to be winecups (Callirhoe involucrata</em>), a favorite of many staff and keen gardeners in the area. Not a geranium at all, this is in the Mallow family, and another common name is "Poppy Mallow", although it's no more a poppy than it is a geranium. It is a native plant found sparingly on the Great Plains east of Denver, more commonly in the Midwestern prairies. It is a stellar garden plant that will survive with no supplemental irrigation once established...I see it occasionally as I drive around Denver--but not nearly enough!</p> Winecups in Highlands</p> Here is an amazing planting I found yesterday in Highlands neighborhood--easily ten feet across, completely filling one of those triangular hellstrip corners that are so often weed infested and neglected-looking (making neighborhoods look like slums). Here is a great alternative--a rock, a bit of Russian sage (Perovskia</em>) and an exuberant mass of winecups blooming for months on end--all with no supplemental water!</p> A closer look</p> This mass is growing in part shade--and the mound is almost two feet tallk, as opposed to the first picture in this series taken at Denver Botanic Gardens, in full sun--well less than a foot tall. It does need some room to ramble--but almost everyone has a spot where this can flourish.</p> Callirhoe involucrata v. tenuissima</em> Not everyone likes the hot magenta of the typical form of this species: there is a lighter, more pink form of winecups that is found originally in Mexico--sometimes classed as var. tenuissima. It does have even more finely divided foliage and a neater habit and the flowers often have a striking white eye--here seen growing in the Rock Alpine Garden as it transitions to the Gates Garden in the west. I am especially fond of this form, first introduced to cultivation by Yucca-do a few decades ago.</p> Closeup of tenuissima</em>.</p> You can see if you compare this with the next that var. tenuissima</em> is quite different in effect. Come to think of it, I think I need both in my garden! And I wish we'd see it a lot more everywhere in town: one of the toughest and most beautiful native perennials!</p> Closeup of var. involucrata</em></p> Here is a closeup of the typical form for comparison with the one above--both are really stunning! For sale in better Garden Centers (forget the Box Stores when it comes to native plants)..can be planted any time--just make sure it doesn't dry out in the height of the summer until established!</p>
Purple Mountain sun daisy at City and County Building</p> For over a decade the Master Gardeners of Denver and I maintained a low water garden</a> in front of the City and County Building in the Civic Center of Denver. It was with mixed feelings that I saw this replaced a few years ago with a much simpler, and rather classic garden design. A few days ago, as I drove past, I was startled to see a familiar flash of rosy purple pink: Surely that's not "Purple Mountain Sun Daisy?" I stopped and sure enough, Osteospermum barberiae</em> 'Purple Mountain'--one of the first hardy ice plants to be promoted in U.S. horticulture--was making quite a show. This was introduced to horticulture by Plant Select in 1998</a>--and has gained a steady following across the country over the interim.</p> Closeup of Purple Mountain</p> If you are not familiar with this plant, take a closer look. Photographs have a hard time capturing the distinctive and unique color--somewhere between hot pink and rich purple violet. The color is fantastic, and everyone loves it. There is a slightly darker ring around the disk flowers that make it even more alluring, and it does change hue every so slightly over the days that it opens. The reverse of the ray flowers is a silky bronze color--important because the flowers close at night or in dark weather. And while it blooms most enthusiastically from late April to mid June, there are scattered flowers on this lovely plant all summer long. Did I mention it has leathery, dark green evergreen leaves?</p> Purple Mountain bedded out</p> I take more than a little pride that the park's staff and designers have chosen such a prominent spot to showcase a plant that was debuted at Denver Botanic Gardens in 1991 (a few years later High Country Gardens began to sell this from germplasm they obtained from us). And now I see it popping up here and there around town.</p> Bank planting of Purple Mountain</p> I took this picture of a mass planting at a bank a few blocks from Denver Botanic Gardens a couple years ago--I noticed it's still going strong and blooming spectacularly this year again...</p> I've seen wonderful plantings in Pueblo and Vail--two utterly different environments: the plant obviously has a wide latitude of cultural tolerance. I have friends who have grown it in Massachusetts and California. Truth be said, it does seem sensitive to fungal or bacterial damage in some gardens. If you've had trouble with 'Purple Mountain', do try Osteospermum</em> AVALANCHE (see below).</p> Osteospermum AVALANCHE in the Mordecai Children's Garden</p> If you have never visited the Children's Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens (thinking it was only for kids), do not pass go, do not collect $200 Monopoly dollars--get yourself down there pronto! You will find amazing spreads not only of this gorgeous South African, but of all manner of wonderful montane and alpine plants that thrive in theCildren's Garden's green roof soil mix.</p> Denver Botanic Gardens can be proud indeed to have debuted such an important and uncanny group of perennials. The annual Osteospermums are well and good--but these hardy sorts make plush groundcovers, and bloom for months on end. Perhaps you should include a few in your garden? Who doesn't need a little Purple Mountain majesty above one's fruited plains!</p>
Fraxinus americana 'Autumn Purple' (White Ash)</p> "Disaster in slow motion" is a phrase that has been applied to many phenomena including global warming, the collapse of biodiversity, chronic drought...and most recently it's been appled to the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis</em>: henceforward referred to as "EAB") a green beetle from East Asia that was introduced accidentally in wood pallets in Detroit fifteen years ago. Since that time it has infested billions of ash trees in twelve states. The cost for removing dead ash from the urban forests of America is already climbing into the millions for even small cities, and the concomitant issues: thinning of the urban canopy, storm water abatement, air quality--these costs are hidden but real. No wonder when EAB was confirmed in Boulder only twelve weeks ago, arborists and decision makers across Colorado practically panicked. Ashes comprise around 15% of the trees in Colorado's cities: the cost for removing and replacing these trees over a short period of time is truly astronomical and daunting.</p> On Tuesday of this week, several of our staff joined hundreds of arborists from across the state and beyond at a daylong Emerald Ash Borer Management Seminar sponsored by Denver Parks and Recreation, the State Forest Service and Davey Tree. Several local authorities as well as those from some of the first areas affected by EAB gave very informative presentations that helped dispel some of the panic and provide some clear options. Several points that emerged were that because of Colorado's compartmentalization into different river drainages, the progress of the insect will likewise be compartmentalized. Since enough cities are separated by open space where ashes are not present, the progress may likewise be slower. A multiplicity of factors are showing that there are viable options for preserving many ashes with timely insecticidal treatments, and that a coordinated effort could preserve many ashes for a long time--rather along the lines of the strategy pursued with American elms--many fine specimens of which are still standing throughout our region despite the fungal infestation that destroyed nearly all of the elms in parts of the East.</p> Although there are compelling ecological and economic reasons to deplore this latest threat to our horticultural legacy--I came out of the meeting somewhat heartened by knowing so many professionals and decision makers cared, and that there were some practical strategies that will mitigate if not forestall this impending "disaster in slow motion". This link to a paper by Dr. Daniel Herms, Professor at Ohio State University at Wooster</a>, gives a good summary of the methods that will likely be used to preserve many--alhough by no means all--of the tens of thousands of ashes that grace Denver and the Front Range.</p> Ashes to ashes--but not yet quite to dust!</p>
Young Siberian larch (Larix sibirica</em>)</p> You have probably walked by this willowy sapling many times--although I suspect if it were not in fall color, you would have walked by it barely noticing it! There is another specimen or two of Siberian larch at the Gardens. This one is west of the Western moongate just outside PlantAsia. If you're a tree fancier, you might linger for a moment and think, "A larch from Siberia--I suppose there are larches there." As botanic gardens mature they often focus more and more on recondite research issues, or more global conservation concerns almost forgetting what most people expect. Visitors who come are usually curious about plants. How wonderful it would be if they would realize that the modest specimen at the Gardens often represents a major plant where it comes from. So it is with this larch which covers literally millions of acres across the breadth of Asia.</p> Enormous mature larch in the Altai Mountains</p> Here you can see what heights Siberian larch is capable of attaining in the wild! I was very fortunate to have had Plant Select underwrite a trip that Mike Bone and I took to Central Asia in 2009. One of the many highlights was seeing thousands of enormous Siberian larch everywhere in both Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Unlike our native tamaracks in both New England and the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, their Siberian cousins often grew on steep, sunny slopes rather than wet streamsides and bogs. They formed open forests all the way to dry treeline, but could be found also isolated on surprisingly dry areas in the higher steppe, growing among sparse grasses and sage. This specimen was enormous.</p> ! Siberial larch alongside explorers</p> Here you can see Mike Bone on the right with our guide Vladimir Kolbintsev, leaning on that same giant tree. I doubt I will be around to see the saplings planted at Denver BotanicGardens attain half this size and girth--but it would be fun to do so!</p> Rugged larch on the Austrian road</p> When we finally reached the summit of what they call the "Austrian Road" in the Kazakhstan Altai (built by Austrian prisoners of war) we saw a rugged tree in the distance we decided to investigate...</p> Giant Siberian larch on summit of pass</p> We could scarcely believe our eyes as we approached--this one had even greater girth, and the most rugged habit. We could see the highest peak in Siberia (Mt. Belukha) from the pass. Not far away (near the very heart of Asia, equidistant from Indian, Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans), this area experiences unbelievable cold in the winter, and the winds on this alpine summit must be hurricane in force for months on end. And yet here it grew, almost solitary, as picturesque as an ancient oak in Windsor Great Park.</p> Larch cones</p> The needles are so fine and soft, the cones are so delicate that they belie what must be ironclad toughness in the tree itself. I have always felt that larches would be a wonderful addition to Denver's parks and streetscapes because of their airy look and toughness. Siberian larch I fancy would be the best choice, although I know of almost no commercial sources. Unfortunately, our local landscape contractors aren't familiar with larches. I know of several instances where larches have been removed in winter because it was supposed that they have died when their needles fell. It would take quite a campaign to educate our local populace about them. But I think it's worth doing!</p> Larch cones</p> Another glimpse of the nearly golden cones in the late summer. Makes you want to look inside them!</p> Our larch near PlantAsia</p> We end where we began, with our still very modest larch. Seeing the venerable specimens in Kazakhstan, one can appreciate how these might one day grow to be massive and imposing. More to the point, perhaps, one is humbled to realize that every one of the tens and thousands of accessions of plants at Denver Botanic Gardens has a compelling story much like this one. The world of plants is infinite!</p>
Asian dogwood (Cornus kousa</em>)</p> "Asian dogwood? Surely photographed in Oregon, or perhaps New Jersey?" Nope--taken at Denver Botanic Gardens last June. There are several specimens--this one in the Rock Alpine Garden, but also at Waring House that reliably bloom late every spring.</p> Cornus kousa</em> tree in Rock Alpine Garden</p> You are not apt to find many dogwoods elsewhere in Denver--but staff at the Gardens are fond of "pushing the limits" and trying plants that are generally considered marginal, or unsuited to our windy, steppe climate. Time and again we succeed!</p> ]Engelmann's cactus (Opuntia engelmannii</em>)</p> "Surely this picture was taken in Arizona? Mexico?"--a big bushy prickily pear loaded with fruit?Taken at the Watersmart garden where this clump is easily a yard high and twice that across!</p> Bull Bay (Magnolia grandiflora</em>)</p> "This tropical looking magnolia must have been photographed in Mississippi? Or California? Surely these evergreen magnolias can't possibly be hardy in Denver?": there is, in fact, a comparatively huge specimen in the courtyard of a public school in Jefferson County--but you can find several of these all around Denver Botanic Gardens. This one bloomed beautifully in July in the Victorian Secret Garden (it would have been nice to have one of those models nearby to pose with it?)</p> Dragon Arum (Dracunculus vulgaris)</p> "This huge-flowered black aroid must be from some Subtropical country? Turkey perhaps?" No, Virginia--the black arum in the Rock Alpine Garden where this is self-sowing. Here it is very hardy indeed and seems to love growing in Colorado. You won't want to linger around these clumps when they're in bloom, however: the smell is pretty strong!</p> Texas Agave (Agave havardiana)</p> "And this huge Century Plant? It must be from the Davis Mountains of Texas?" That may be where the seed came from originally, but this hefty specimen--over a yard across--is in the Watersmart Garden in front of the Conservatory--and may well bloom in a year or two!</p> Drakensberg gladiolus (Gladiolus saundersii</em>)</p> "And this African Gladiolus--are you telling me this is hardy too?" Coming as it does from the highest Drakensberg it should not be surprised that this beautiful gladiolus is root hardy in Colorado--despite its exotic looks.</p> Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron</em>) in south Metro area</p> Not many Denverites would believe that there are giant sequoias around the city: Denver Botanic Gardens is not the only entity that "pushes the limits" around here--lots of private gardeners do too. Here a number of the staff who are keen on trees recently visited what may be the largest in the immediate Metro area, although the State Champion is in Grand Junction. We have a whole grove of these in the Gates Garden that are approaching this one in size. Despite many sub-zero winters, these seem to show no winter damage.</p> Crevice garden</p> "Surely this picture was taken on Mt. Evans? Such a natural outcrop has to be in the hills, right?" Wrong again--this is one of a half dozen wonderful crevice gardens that have been built in the Rock Alpine Garden and Children's Gardens the last two years which are one of the best ways of growing tricky alpine plants.</p> All these exotic plants and garden styles are examples of how gardeners seek to "push limits" and grow what they perhaps shouldn't try to. Of course, a Botanic Garden is the logical place to do this experimentation since we have the room and knowledgeable staff to study up on plant needs.These exotic plants offer a great contrast to the more extensive collections of native and adapted xeric plants we are so famous for showcasing. Nevertheless, time and again we have been shocked at how well "marginal" plants perform--sometimes better than "tough" natives! Almost three decades ago staff planted Hesperaloe parviflora on the site of what was to become the Watersmart Garden: I remember scoffing as I walked by "Surely this plant from southern Texas doens't have a hope here"...within a few years it proved its mettle, and now there are thousands thriving all over the Metro area--all because we pushed some limits at the Gardens! </p> </p>
Scott Skogerboe and mystery maple...</p> Everyone should have a hero. Scott Skogerboe has always been one of mine: Head of propagation at Fort Collins Nursery Wholesale</a>, he and his boss, Gary Epstein have been the force behind most of the woody plant introductions of Plant Select</a>. Here he is standing in front of...well...you shall have to wait and see (I have my crafty ways of making you read all the way to the bottom of my blog posting!)....</p> Amur maple at Box Store</p> This is NOT the same maple as the one with Scott above--this is an Amur Maple (Acer ginnala</em>) I photographed today (October 20) on West Colfax in front of a Box Store which I am NOT</em> endorsing (although I confess I did</strong> by 50 of awesome plants while I was there...). As the name suggests, Amur maples originate in the Amur river region of East Asia, the river that separates Manchuria from Siberia. No wonder the tree is so cold hardy! But that area is also Maritime--and the soils are podzoils: generally acid, more like the soils of our upper Midwest and New England. So of course, Amur maples in Denver are frequently chlorotic, and usually not recommended by horticulturists "in the know". No one bothered to tell the landscape architects, who filled the vast parking lot of this box store with them--and each and every one of them are blazing in DIFFERENT colors, and looking mighty healthy!</p> A whole ROW of frickin' amurs</p> Here you can see bits and pieces of a half dozen Amur maples in blazing color---looked like a regular conflagration! Each was robust, and each a very different shade of flaming red and orange (and some yellow and one or two green--this picture doesn't show them quite right--I'll show some closeups to better demonstrate a wonderful quality that is being increasingly denied people: namely, the wonderful biodiversity and variability that comes with seed grown plants.</p> Yellow-orange Amur</p> Although most of these maples were an unalloyed scarlet-vermilion, one was more orange-yellow in tint...</p> Green leafed Amur</p> Right alongside all the red ones, one had barely begun to turn and was still mostly green</p> Bright vermilion Amur Maple</p> But of the several dozen Amur maples around the parking lot, most were this flagrant, bracing, wonderful red color that we all love so much in the species. I have seen dozens of Amur maples all around Denver looking this good--there are some massive ones near Denver Botanic Gardens (and I have a pretty awesome specimen in my own garden too--hee hee)...but for every stunning Amur maple, there are usually a few gnarly, miserable things that look awful year around and hardly color up in fall. I have a hunch some of these are simply inferior plants, and others are probably growing in particularly bad sites with more alkaline soils, perhaps, or other environmental problems...Here, you should generate a drum roll and have the summon the cavalry with trumpets! Woo hooo!</p> Acer tataricum</em> at Fort Collins Nursery Wholesale</p> Last Friday, while visiting Scott at Fort Collins Nursery Wholesale, I espied a furiously red small tree in the distance--the same one pictured at the beginning of this posting with Scott standing in front. This is a superb, red-fall coloring Tatarian Maple--a sib to the Plant Select Introduction, Acer tataricum</em> Hot WingsTM</a>. I have observed around town that Hot Wings Maple has been quite reliable about turning a wonderful reddish purple color in most sites. And since it is a selection of Acer tataricum, it will thrive in far more alkaline pedocal soils ("Tatarian" refers to "Tatary"--the archaic term used for "Turkestan", the designation for the portions of Czarist Russia in Central Asia--namely contemporary Kazakhstan, Kirghistan, Uzbekistan and the smaller neighboring "stans" that are now mostly independent states, but formerly parts of Russia and the Soviet Union. Mike Bone and I found Acer tataricum</em> several times in Kazakhstan--many of them with the bright red samaras much like the Plant Select clone...</p> And here's the rub--you can go to almost any nursery in Colorado (in fact around the United States, Canada and Europe as well) and find Hot Wings in several convenient sizes--which you can purchase and plant in your garden and get not only spectacular fall color, but a shapely small tree the rest of the year which has brilliant red fruits for much of the summer--which look as bright and dazzling as flowers for an extended period: it is apt to thrive for you on acid or alkaline soils, and once established in Colorado thrives with almost no supplemental irrigation: what's not to love?</p> One of the great ironies of Colorado horticulture is that the ultimate seedsman (Scott Skogerboe) has also developed a number of clonal plants that will one day greatly outnumber the millions of seedlings he has grown in streetscapes and gardens around the world. Such are the ironies of our crazy modern world.</p> A piece of me wishes we could have developed a seed strain of red-winged maples so we could enjoy the wonderful biodiversity that thrilled me earlier today at Home Depot as I wandered through the Amur maples (imagining what they must look like in their native habitat right now, with the last few Siberian Tigers slinking through them nearby)--wait! What was that orange flash I caught out of the corner of my eye!? For a brief second I felt like Derzu Uzala</a> (you must rent this dazzling Kurosawa classic if you've not seen it yet) and a moist Siberian breeze caressed my cheek.</p>
