January 06, 2025
As much of the country, including Texas, tucks into flannels and wool socks to stay warm this week, let’s float back in time to the golden days of a Colorado autumn. In late September last year, I made two visits to Denver Botanic Gardens, one of my favorite public gardens in the U.S. Today I’m kicking off a 7-part virtual tour.
Denver is a pioneer in xeriscaping — Denver Water actually coined the word xeriscape back in 1981 — so it’s nice to see a dry garden of native and adapted plants upon arrival. Yuccas, grasses, and other low-water plants grow in a gravel garden between the street and sidewalk.
Entry garden
Closer to the entrance, hot-colored annuals and perennials take over in a sunset-hued bonanza.
This is a more typical botanical-garden display, not a xeriscape certainly, but it’s a crowd-pleaser.
I admired salvia…
…gomphrena and jewels-of-Opar…
…and luscious dahlias.
Dahlias and salvia
A red-leaf redbud echoes the rosy hues of gomphrena and coleus — so good!
Roads Water-Smart Garden
I bypassed the showy perennial walk near the entrance and made a beeline for the Roads Water-Smart Garden, my favorite area of DBG. Designed in the 1990s by Colorado plantswoman, designer, and author Lauren Springer (whose personal garden I visited later), the Water-Smart Garden “shows off the flower power of drought-tolerant plants and demonstrates ways to group plants with similar watering requirements. It brings together plants from Colorado and other semi-arid regions of North and South America, the Mediterranean, South Africa and Central Asia,” according to DBG’s website.
Combining spiky and soft texture, bold forms, and rich foliage and flower color, it’s always stunning.
Feast your eyes on these low-water beauties.
I swear I walked this gravel path for 30 minutes, taking in all the views.
I love muhly grasses in autumn.
Agave and cholla are good in any season.
Garlic chives remind me of home.
So does autumn sage (Salvia greggii).
So good, right?
Really, there’s no bad view here.
California fuchsia
All of those images were taken on the gravel path running though the Water-Smart Garden, which offers the best views. But you can also enjoy one side of it from the main walk, which sits a little below the sloping garden.
Lucky Denver gardeners to have this example for their own water-thrifty gardens!
Amphitheater
Directly across is a grassy amphitheater, where DBG hosts a summer concert series. Again, lucky Denverites!
Up next: DBG’s Steppe Garden, Ornamental Grasses Garden, and woodland solarium.
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