Friday, December 27, 2019

The Gardens on Spring Creek, from the 2019 GBFling

We're traveling back in time to June 14th and the GB Fling visit to The Gardens on Spring Creek, in Fort Collins, Co. The good news for the community is that the garden is under expansion, the bad news for us "Flingers" was that meant the rest rooms were closed. A fact we realized only after our buses (with their gross, but functioning toilets) had pulled away....

Our gracious Fling hosts had arranged for a porta-potty, but it was late in arriving. You should have seen the line by the time it showed up! (I was at the front). But enough potty talk...

Because of that construction there were only two parts of the garden we were able to explore, one was the (also under construction) Undaunted Garden designed by Lauren Springer Ogden.

Lauren was supposed to meet us at the garden but do to an accident in the days before (busted kneecap, ouch!) she was a no-show, poor Lauren.

The garden is designed to be a showpiece of plants native to western North America and non-native plants adapted to local growing conditions: "The primary purpose of this three-quarter acre xeriscape garden is to demonstrate how to garden appropriately and beautifully in a drought-prone region".

Did someone say drought-prone?

Ah, but the verbascum don't care!

Other plants that caught my eye include this fabulous Salvia cryptantha (thanks to Bob and Caroline for the ID).

A knock your eyes out bright delosperma.

And this (to die for) Sedum 'Purple Jazz' (or so it was ID'd for me)...

The Undaunted Garden was not short on rocks.

Nor was the rock garden, the other area we were able to explore...

The gardens we saw during the Denver Fling all seemed to seamlessly incorporate hypertufa planters. I found it very inspiring.

Pulsatilla vulgaris

Agave! It's a 'Neomexicana'.

And that beauty over yonder is a Yucca baccata.

The shrubby conifer makes a nice backdrop for the bloom.

I love all the creeping mounds of green we saw during the Fling. I'm not going to pretend to know for sure, but the maybe an Arenaria?

Perhaps Arenaria alfacarensis.

The color on the sempervivum tucked into the ravine is pretty fabulous.

Oh wait! Lunch is served. While I wandered around taking photos everyone else was queuing up to eat. I best go join them.

The group photo was actually taken when arrived at the garden, but it seemed like a fitting way to end this post. Oh, and I've got many more Fling memories yet to share.


All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

10 comments:

  1. I love that purple sedum. The Arenaria is interesting too - I'll have to look into whether it can grow here.

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    1. I really wish I could grow the arenaria — my garden is just too wet though.

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  2. I have been a big fan of Lauren Springer Ogden since her first book Undaunted Gardens came out. It's too bad her unfortunate accident kept her away. Would have been very interesting to hear her speak to her design. Great photos!

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    1. Ya we were all bummed she couldn’t make it. What a horrible reason to be kept away though.

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  3. Nothing so exciting as an up and coming garden - too bad about LS Ogden's injury. I hope she's back to it without too much of a hindrance. Knees are esp. important to gardeners!

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  4. That was an awesome place! I really enjoyed it...especially the rock gardens. The porta-potty rescued us. ;-)

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    1. If that porta-potty hadn’t shown up, well, I don’t want to think about it.

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  5. Sedum 'Purple Jazz' is so cool, so is the structure under which you had your lunch. Very impressive. After some effort I located you among the flinger in the final photo, with Alison next you... such a fun picture. Being inspired by the hypertufa containers, should we expect new creations in the near future?

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  6. so much to appreciate here! that delosperma is amazing, as is that field of rocks. What a wonderful event :)

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