Break out of the boardroom and host your holiday party in a winter wonderland!</p> What better way to celebrate the end of the year with friends, family or colleagues than surrounded by beautiful holiday lights that make you feel merry and bright? With five unique spaces</a> to choose from, there are options for all sizes!</p> From intimate parties to cocktail receptions to large groups, our team can help you find the perfect location to delight your guests. We also feature spaces that are indoor, outdoor or both. Booking availability is from November 19 to December 18 and January 3 to 8, so reserve your space now and treat your guests to the most spectacular holiday party in Denver!</p> Bring your holiday cheer to our amazing gardens this holiday season – we would love to have you! Contact us for more information at private.events@botanicgardens.org</a> or call 720-865-3551.</p> </picture> </div> </article> Marnie's Pavilion balcony</p>
Succulents are incredible creatures. Their fleshy, spheroidal, animalistic forms reach to us. They are hairy, waxy, spiny, thick, weird and familiar. The same adaptations that make them champion survivors also attract us. These creature features break our tendency toward plant blindness through a dimensionality and existence in space that we understand. We judge them as separate from their floral brethren and honor them as other beings.</p> Plants with succulent adaptations occur in every climate and bioregion on earth, and steppe regions are no exception. The Steppe Garden is particularly rich in succulent life forms, and they’re easy to spot and commune with if you know how to notice them.</p> Begin your exploration by walking through the Shady Lane entrance on the northern side of the Steppe Garden and veer to the left. These crescent moon-shaped beds are part of our South African steppe collections. Take the gravel path and look down. You’ll notice a huge variety of different Delosperma</em>, including my personal favorite, Delosperma obtusum</em>, called the dwarf purple ice plant because of its purple flowers, but also because of the dark purple tint of its leaves in winter. Circle around the bed to get a clear view of our South African succulent outcropping, an entire bed dedicated to displaying the diversity of cold-hardy succulents from that region. See if you can spot our two cold-hardy aloes, Aloe aristata</em>, which forms a tight rosette of dark green leaves, and Aloe striatula</em>, which dies to the ground every year, only to shoot up new leaves with the warmth of spring.</li> In the next bed to the south, notice the spiny Ruschia intricata</em>, a small, almost shrubby succulent that creates huge thickets in the South African Karoo. Continue walking toward the Science Pyramid and look in the direction of the canal. There are several succulents that are very important to the North American steppe in this section; the ball cactus Escobaria vivipara</em>, the banana-leaved yucca, Yucca baccata</em>, and the Colorado state cactus, Echinocereus triglochidiatus</em>.</li> Now, walk across the bridge to Patagonia. Just through the entrance, on the southwestern face of the large stone formation, notice a pot full of different species of cacti that occur in the Patagonian steppe but aren’t cold-hardy enough for us to grow outside. Just behind that pot, you can inspect a crevice garden built for several species of Patagonian cacti, notably Gymnocalycium gibbosum</em> and several different species of Austrocactus</em>.</li> After leaving Patagonia, return to the center of the Steppe Garden. If you choose to, climb the turf-covered berm and look to the north. You should have a perfect view of the planting bed surrounding the amphitheater and a dozen different candy-colored Delosperma</em> cultivars spilling around the concrete bench. Otherwise, retrace your steps and find your way to the central planters. Peek between the cracks in the stones and you might see Orostachys spinosa</em>, a succulent from Middle Asia whose structure almost resembles a spiny green sunflower.</li> Approach the final planter, known as the living stones bed, and prepare yourself for a succulent explosion. Surrounding the planting bed is a collection of pots filled with South African succulent specimens that have to be brought into our greenhouses during the winter. The planting bed itself is full of succulents in the plant family Aizoaceae. These plants, commonly known as living stones and perhaps most famously represented by the genus Lithops</em>, have adaptations of color and form that help them avoid predation by blending into their surroundings. There are several dozen species of living stones in this bed, so be sure to slow down and really explore the space. Look around, through and under the grasses for hiding succulents. Calm your mind and attune your eyes.</li> </ul>
</p> I like the fact that bronze can look like stone, mineral, wood, fabric or plastic. It can become something else. -Yoshitomo Saito</strong></p> </p> Tokyo-born artist Yoshitomo Saito started working in bronze in 1983 while living in San Francisco. Based in Denver, Saito is inspired by natural forms with delicate lines and textures. The craftsmanship and painstaking attention to detail in his sculptures are an expression of the artist’s reverence and profound respect for the natural world. </p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Yoshitomo Saito, millionyearseeds</em> (detail), bronze, 2011-2021. ©Yoshitomo Saito. </p> Seeds are among the natural forms that fascinate Saito. His installation millionyearseeds</em> includes a variety of seeds, as well as banana peels, peppers, acorns and other small natural elements. In rendering these tiny pieces of nature, he celebrates the wisdom of life that is contained within each one. Seeds may be small and common, but each has a purpose for the creation and expansion of life. </p> In his work, bronze appears as a featherweight medium. The fine texture of the original object is evident, highlighting the care and attention given to each piece. This high level of detail is achievable through the process of lost-wax casting. </p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Yoshitomo Saito, Cheikh Lo</em>, bronze, 2020. © Yoshitomo Saito. </p> Lost wax casting </h4> The lost wax casting process, in use since 3,700 BCE, remains essentially the same today. The artist creates a “negative” plaster mold of the object they want to cast. The object is removed, wax is poured into the mold and dumped out, leaving a thin, hollow layer of wax around the perimeter. The artist adds thin wax sticks to the perimeter of the wax reproduction, creating channels for the metal to flow through and trapped gasses to escape. This wax form is then encased in a plastic or ceramic mold, and the wax is melted away.</p> Bronze is melted down at a temperature of 1,675 ˚F and poured into the plaster mold. This step requires safety precautions including goggles, a face shield, respirator, coveralls, apron, insulated gloves and shoe coverings. When the bronze has cooled, the plaster mold is removed or destroyed to reveal the cast bronze. The supports are removed and typically a polish or patina is applied. A patina can be created naturally through the oxidizing effect of the atmosphere or the artificial application of chemicals. Saito often uses patinas to emulate an object’s natural color – browns for trees and acorns, green for peppers, red for pomegranates and so on. One notable exception to Yoshi’s patination process is Gateway</em>, which is both painted and patinated. </p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Yoshitomo Saito, Gateway</em>, bronze, 2019. © Yoshitomo Saito.</p> Watch this video</a> about Saito’s bronze casting method.</p> Of Sky and Ground</em></a> is on view in the Freyer – Newman Center’s Kemper Family Gallery from July 24 – November 28, 2021. </p> </p>
I have fond memories of being a child and walking next to Grandpa as he rototilled the garden. There is something comforting about the smell and texture of newly tilled soil. As an adult, though, I’ve learned that leaves the soil exposed to wind and rain and the resulting erosion can be devastating. </p> The best way to prevent erosion is to “armor” the soil, i.e. keep it covered. Cover crops, as their name suggests, are a great way to do this. Plant some rye and vetch seeds in the fall as you are putting your garden to bed for the season. In the spring, knock down the growth or mow it and the residue will increase organic matter as it decomposes. The natural mulch will also shade the soil, keeping it cool and reducing evaporative water-loss. </p> </picture> </div> </article> Chatfield Farms CSA</p> The cover crop roots will produce exudates, or food for microbes and fungi in the soil. Those microbes and fungi are bringing nutrients to plant roots and establishing the foundation of a complex ecosystem in the soil. The result is a stable soil, full of spaces for new roots to grow, and allow water and oxygen to infiltrate. </p> Having a garden full of plants and living roots, instead of clean-looking, bare soil takes some getting used to. Especially if, like me, you have grown up tilling your soil every year, but the benefits are worth it. If you would like to learn more about soil health, look at the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Soil Health home page</a>; How to Create a Soil Community</a> from Rodale Institute; or this Planttalk</em>® Colorado</a></strong> from Colorado State University (CSU) Extension on using cover crops. </p> To see a variety of cover crops in a larger area, come down to Chatfield Farms where you can see sorghum-sudan grass, vetch, rye, winter wheat, crimson clover, buckwheat, pacific mustard and triticale, among others. Using cover crops at Chatfield Farms is part of our soil management plan but also has several other regenerative benefits including additional habitat for beneficial insect predators, pollinators and cover crops can provide competition to weed growth which helps farmers with the never-ending task of weed mitigation. </p>
