Troughs

[mark smyth]

Nice pond Kevin. do you get little grebes?

[kelaidis]

About 12 years ago I was the party to the creation of a unique trough display at Denver Botanic Gardens, which (alas!) may not persist in its present form: the garden is scheduled to be moved in less than a year. So this perhaps shall be its requiem. I was charged to design it: the concept was featuring different mountain ranges and ecosystems of Colorado. A very talented young man, Mark Fusco, built the troughs in 1999 (I think) or 2000. I did the rock gathering and seed collecting with my now ex-wife, Gwen Moore, who did the rock work and initial planting. The idea was "borrowed" from the wonderful trough terrace at RBG Edinburgh, although the focus on native plants was unique. The plants have thrived and have been a great education for us (we are amazed how many alpines will grow gangbusters in the troughs but be utterly impossible in the open rock garden)...Here you go:

1) Overview of the garden (which I wanted to call "Floristic Plaza" but which was saddled with the name "Wildflower Treasures" (gag me) The Sculpture is temporary (and now gone), by Alan Hauser, a famous American Indian sculptor whose work was featured by us this year.
2) Erigeron (probably just compositus form) and Phlox condensata, one of our greatest successes in these troughs. In fact, it needs to be contained spring and fall. Wonderful fragrance.
3) Telesonix jamesii in the appropriate Pikes Peak trough, blooming as the phlox fades.
4) One of a half dozen authentic stone troughs in the plaza: this one filled with Townsendia parryi, which self sows wildly in this corner
5) Second view of the same trough

I will be doing another batch of five pix in a separate posting...

[kelaidis]

The last five pix (I know they say the postings can take ten, but I've had problems with too many)...

6) Our Mosquito mountain trough features a witch's broom Bristlecone Pine (Pinus aristata) originating in the Mosquitos. The white flower is an Erigeron compositus (we have several distinct races in this garden that seem to stay pure).
7) The shrub in the trough is a witch's broom Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) undergrown by Lesquerella, with Erigeron compositus var. trifidus around the edge of the trough.
Closeup of Erigeron pinnatisectus and Phlox condensata in an alpine trough.
9) Orange wallflower (Erysimum asperum) in a San Juan mountain trough.
10) Physaria eburniflora and Echinocereus viridiflorus in another trough (this one in the Rock Alpine Garden, designed by Mike Kintgen, who manages this garden now)...

Well: you have a taste of these...better come see them while they are still there!

[fermi de Sousa]

About 12 years ago I was the party to the creation of a unique trough display at Denver Botanic Gardens, which (alas!) may not persist in its present form: the garden is scheduled to be moved in less than a year. So this perhaps shall be its requiem.

Hi Panayoti,
do you mean the whole of DBG or just this section is to be moved?
Those troughs do look great.
cheers
fermi

[Tim Ingram]

Panayoti - any chance of moving those troughs to north-east Kent!! They look superb. I have heard so much about Denver and its surroundings but never even been to the States. It must be a real Mecca for rock gardeners. And I am impressed (something I have heard from elsewhere too) of the close and friendly links between Botanic Gardens and horticulturists in North America - there seem to be burgeoning legalistic reasons why this is less true in the UK. An error I think in the overall appreciation of the Plant Kingdom.

[mark smyth]

I'll take the daisies please. You can keep the troughs

[kelaidis]

Mark...you can have all the daisies you want! After visiting the Rocky Mountains back in the late 1970's, Tony Hall wrote that they should be renamed the "Daisy Chain": we have three or four dozen Erigeron alone in Colorado. And some of them are stunners (see attached). Got it as Erigeron algidus, but I have me doots.

As for YOU, Tim: when can we lure you? There is a grueling NARGS lecture series where they trot you around to eight or ten chapters (two days here, one day there, three days here), usually in the autumn or early spring. Not too much fun! But we can probably string two or three chapters together to get you out here: I've seen your pix they are stunning, so you must talk? I would suggest April so you could see the Utah desert in early bloom...a bit late to do this for 2012, but perhaps the next year?

Our botanic gardens are striving to be ivory towers as well: those that succeed are usually cut back fiscally in tight budgets. Denver Botanic Gardens has doubled membership (over 30,000 members and we are not cheap) and visitorship in the last two years of slow economy. We must be doing something right!

[ranunculus]

As for YOU, Tim: when can we lure you? There is a grueling NARGS lecture series where they trot you around to eight or ten chapters (two days here, one day there, three days here), usually in the autumn or early spring. Not too much fun! But we can probably string two or three chapters together to get you out here: I've seen your pix they are stunning, so you must talk? I would suggest April so you could see the Utah desert in early bloom...a bit late to do this for 2012, but perhaps the next year?

Don't listen to him, Tim! (but LISTEN to him)!   The NARGS lecture tours aren't REALLY gruelling and certainly ARE fun with a capital 'F'.
They are magnificent opportunities to meet like-minded folk and visit mind-blowing gardens, both public and private, in the company of some of the nicest and most knowledgable gardeners on the planet.  Grab Panayoti's kind offer with three hands and strike while the iron is hot.  I can recommend the experience and would repeat my 2010 tour at the drop of an invitation.
How could you resist Utah in April or Colorado in October.  Don't give it a second thought my friend!

[Tim Ingram]

I know it would be fantastic, but would need to go to a lecturer's 'finishing school'! Yes, I would certainly jump at the chance in 2013, and equally I would love to get people together in the UK at some time with the idea of trying to wake up gardeners inside and outside the AGS too! (What sort of malt do you drink Cliff?!).

[David Nicholson]

I'm good at carrying bags and things

Cliff will drink anything!

[ranunculus]

I know it would be fantastic, but would need to go to a lecturer's 'finishing school'! Yes, I would certainly jump at the chance in 2013, and equally I would love to get people together in the UK at some time with the idea of trying to wake up gardeners inside and outside the AGS too! (What sort of malt do you drink Cliff?!).

I would love to say Isle of Jura or an obscure distillery, Tim - but, to be honest, David is ABSOLUTELY right!   

[cohan]

Great to see these Panayoti, love the individual mountain themes..
Speaking of daisies, how much do you find the various spp interbreed? I'm drawn to numerous spp of Erigeron and Townsendia etc- some from my region, some from Alplains etc- but I wonder if one has multiple species in the same genus planted (I don't yet), whether any seed they produce is of any value or likely to be hybrid? Rather than producing a lot of mongrels, or have to be deadheading all the time (not likely) I could see sticking to one or two spp each from numerous genera...

[Lesley Cox]

I've always had a passion for troughs and these are wonderful. I especially like the way they are placed in groups, on a base of gravel with some light planting in the gravel around them. Something like that here but I haven't got it quite right yet.

[Lesley Cox]

Still looking for a definitive name for this little viola species. It is NOT albanica, though sold as such in NZ.

Wahlenbergia serpyllifolia is a little beauty but I seem to have lost the 'Major' form though.

[Lesley Cox]

In a different trough is what I have as Primula bella but probably not. The colour taken in the shade is closer to true.