For my final post on the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling, let’s take a look at the garden of Panayoti Kelaidis. Mr. Kelaidis is a substantial presence in the world of horticulture. For starters, he is the senior curator and outreach director at the Denver Botanic Gardens. He’s also an international plant explorer, an author with a variety of books to his credit, and many other accomplishments too extensive to list here.
The first of the Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) are blooming! This is a heartening development, as they are the first flowers of the season in our garden. They mark not so much the beginning of spring as the end of winter.
We’re really super proud of our Clematis ‘Jackmanii’. Every year it climbs a trellis that stretches up about 12 feet, all the way from the ground to the roof gutters.
About 2 weeks ago on a mild February Saturday, I decided it was time to prune our ‘Donald Wyman’ crabapple out front. Some people say crabapples should be pruned right after they bloom in order to minimize the impact on flowering the following year. Even so, I went with February so I could see what I was doing.
Going back once again to the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling last June, let’s talk about the private garden of Dan Johnson and Tony Miles. I loved it. It was relaxed, joyful, and crammed with goodies.
Dan Johnson is a serious garden person: Associate Director of Horticulture at the Denver Botanic Gardens. And yet in the GBF program he says that his main garden goal is to figure out where to put all the plants he has acquired. In other words, he is just folks. Possibly he is having a little too much fun here, but I won’t tell on him if you won’t.
I spent a lot of time over the weekend finalizing my seed and plant orders for spring planting. Though “finalizing” may not be the right word, as I always end up making follow-up orders for every season.
This list would be much longer, but I already ordered lots of stuff that I planted last fall.
From Brent and Becky’s I ordered 25 Caladiums – the white and green ‘Candidum Sr.’ and the more colorful ‘Celebration’. I discovered last year that starting Caladium bulbs inside is much cheaper than buying them at the garden center.
What with St. Valentine’s Day coming tomorrow, I thought I would tell the story of how I met Judy, my blog partner and spouse of almost 35 years.
So cast your minds back to 1983 in Chicago. I was working for a political organization, preparing for a regional conference up in Madison, Wisconsin. Judy was an experienced community organizer and between jobs. More on that later.
On the last day of the 2019 Fling we visited the Denver Botanic Garden (DBG). Its 23-acres are located in an urban setting, not far from downtown – unlike Chicago’s Botanic Garden, which is located in the far suburbs.
After a couple of years of Polar Vortex, this winter has felt pretty mild. There’s been cold, but it’s rarely gotten much below 20 degrees (in my opinion, you don’t have real cold unless it gets below 20). And there’s been snow, but never more than a few inches at a time, and often not even that.
A few days ago Judy slipped into the Back Garden with her camera to take some pictures of the light blanket of newly fallen snow. Her attention was taken by Middle Billy Goat Gruff. He was installed as a companion to the Big Billy Goat Gruff (Aruncus dioicus – the native Goatsbeard) and Little Billy Goat Gruff (Aruncus aethusifolius – Dwarf Goatsbeard), both growing nearby. And you see they have a bridge to cross.
Planting some Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) in our garden may be a pretty bad idea, but I really want to. They’re such beautiful blue flowers, and I love blue flowers. I’d like to plant them at the north end of the Driveway Border, where they would emerge out of the Hardy Geraniums and Nepetas.
Wild Lupine is native, though uncommon, in this part of Illinois. You may know that it is the only host plant for the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly. However, it’s probably unlikely that we will see any Karner Blues. Wild Lupine is also a host plant for Duskywing butterflies. They are more likely to be seen, but they are terribly drab.
gardeninacity 