Tag: Botanic gardens

DENVER BOTANICAL GARDENS     (Check out Photo Gallery for additional photographs)

The Denver Botanical Garden in Denver is considered the largest and finest botanic garden in the country. Located in downtown Denver on York Street between 9th and 11th Street, Denver’s Botanical Garden transformed an old cemetery in the center of the city. The gardens opened in 1959 as a year round attraction. The Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory was dedicated in 1966 as a tropical and sub-tropical exhibit building. It became a Denver landmark in 1973.

The gardens and conservatory buildings continued to grow remaining environmentally friendly with water conservation and biological pest control. Today, there are three locations; Denver Botanical, Chatfield and Mt. Goliath.

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The Denver Botanical Gardens was my choice to explore. I have been to other gardens in the past but this landmark was immense, educational and beautifully designed.

There are Six Gardens and a total of 61 areas to explore all of which are unbelievably stunning.2015-09-10 03.21.09

  • There are eleven Facilities from the Visitor Center to the Discovery Center, Waring House, Greenhouse Complex and Science Pyramid to name a few.
  • There are 17 Gardens of the West with floral species all named by plaques next to the variety.
  • The Internationally Inspired Gardens housed the Bonsai Pavilion and Tea Garden surrounded by a Tea House and Japanese Garden. The Rock Alpine Garden and South African Plaza had indigenous plants representative of that locale.
  • The Ornamental Gardens is the largest collection of fragrant flowers, herbs, rose garden, orangery with indoor waterfalls, scripture garden, romantic gardens with seating under a canopy of fragrant floral vines defining an alcove area, a sensory garden and the victorian secret garden.
  • The bees and birds walk through the oak grove, shady lane and woodland mosaic was the Shady Garden. On a warm day, this area was a welcome relief.
  • The Water Gardens with the garden waterways, four towers pool and the Monet pool was soothing with the sound of movement of the water.

While at the Gardens was an exhibit THE NATURE OF HORSES by Deborah Butterfield; (May 23-Oct,18, 2015). Deborah connection to horses traces back to her youth. She attended the University of California and received an MFA. Her focus and inspiration in art was with horses both abstract and in a unique way. Her ‘horse sculptures’ are abstract and combines sticks, mud, metal and wood. The use of these natural materials led her to bronze casting. Excluding one, all the horse sculptures throughout the Gardens are bronze cast from her original wooden assembled horses. They are a marvel to behold. The intricacy of her work is unlike any other in design and emotional aesthetic appeal.

Like really STINKY, rotten eggs smells? You should have been at the Gardens to experience the CORPSE FLOWER and Garden. This plant began as a seed in 2002 and was transferred to the Gardens in 2007. It was  repotted on 5/2015.  After May, it began to grow more than 2″ per day and reached a height of 5’3″. The Corpse Flower (titan arum) opened on August 19, 2015 with a foul odor that lasted 48 hours and then closed. A video of the progression of this ‘blooming’ can be seen at their website.

The Offshoot’s Cafe provides food and beverages with picnic tables under enormous trees. Shady and a great place to converse with others from all over the world.

Study programs and services are offered year round…’see, smell, touch’….

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The Denver Botanic Gardens and two other Gardens have activities planned seasonally the entire year. I highly recommend that you place these Gardens on your ‘must see bucket list’ if you travel to Denver, Colorado.

Denver Botanical Gardens

www.botanicgardens.org

10th and York Street

Denver, Colorado