Last Week in June - Don't Miss these Garden Events

'Tis the summer vacation season but if you're not hiking another fourteener or relaxing in a resort endless pool, check out the three following outstanding garden events in the Denver area. And don't forget your hat and sunscreen - the heat is on.

Donna's WONDERFUL Habitat Hero Garden

1) Thursday, June 28, starting at 5:30 pm. Check out this bird and pollinator-friendly central Denver garden at Audubon Rockies’s Habitat Hero Fundraiser.

The event will be emceed by -
- Danielle Grant, 9NEWS meteorologist
- Marcia Tatroe, author and gardener
- Rob Proctor, author, gardener, and host of "Proctor's Garden" on 9NEWS

The party will also include
- Tour of Donna Baker's award-winning Habitat Hero garden
- Silent auction
- Photo booth
- Garden scavenger hunt
- Hors d'oeuvres and drinks

Tickets are $45. Click HERE to purchase. "All funds raised will support Audubon Rockie's Habitat Hero program, which helps communities across Colorado and Wyoming create bird-friendly habitat. By planting gardens with native species, not only are we creating more beautiful and water-efficient communities, we're connecting people to nature."

2) Saturday, June 30, Denver Rose Society Rose Show 7:00 am to 4:30 pm at Denver Botanic Gardens 
FREE with paid entrance to DBG
  

The public and Denver Rose Society members are welcome to enter their roses, arrangements and rose photography for judging in many categories. The theme of this year’s show is “Around the World in 80 Roses.” Registration will be accepted through the morning of the show. The show will be held in Mitchell Hall at Denver Botanic Gardens. Staging and getting your roses and entries ready will take place in Gate’s Court, outside of Mitchell Hall.

Volunteers will be on hand to assist first time exhibitors.
Schedule:
Entries accepted for exhibitors: 7:00 am – 9:30 am.

Judging: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm 

Show open to the public: 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Awards presentations at 3:00 pm. Please note that there is no charge to view the winners, just the entrance fee to Denver Botanic Gardens if not a Denver Rose Society or DBG member.

Click HERE for the official rose show schedule.

With questions on exhibiting or attending click HERE.

3) Saturday, June 30, Native Plant Garden Tour, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

Internet Photo from High Plains Environmental Center

Visit five area private gardens. Gardens may be toured in any order.

CoNPS Member $20; Non-Member $30 Sponsored by Terra Foundation

Marcia and Randy Tatroe: This small 30-year old suburban garden is a Humane Society wildlife, Audubon bird and Xerces insect habitat. With an emphasis on water conservation and sustainability, no pesticides or herbicides are used and all waste is recycled into the garden. A collector’s garden with hundreds of native wildflowers, trees, shrubs, cacti and succulents and edibles, there are at least two dozen mature specimens of native trees and shrubs taking advantage of the diverse microclimates even a small property provides.

Donna Baker-Breningstall: Two log cabins sitting on a half-acre in Observatory Park. All the gardens were created from scratch 5 years ago by the owner who is a Colorado Master Gardener. There is a wildflower meadow with native and non-natives plus a small orchard in this same area. Fruits include blackberries, strawberries and rhubarb. There are currently 15 vegetable beds that grow almost exclusively for the local food pantry. These beds by tour time may become 3 large raised beds. There is a substantial variety of perennials, both native and non-native, in various beds around the property. Mason bee/native bee homes are a feature on the property.

James Marquez and David McCreedy: James and David's little urban yard packs a lot of variety into a small space.  This all-season garden provides year-round interest with well over 1000 different species and cultivars (with around 10% being Colorado natives).  Because it's just seven years old, some plants have yet to bloom.  James has indulged his interests in container and rock gardening throughout the yard.  His 35 handmade troughs highlight some of the smallest and most easily missed plants.  Transition gardens, using space gladly on loan from the next-door neighbors, line the driveways.  Blue Vietnamese pots and David's stained glass stepping stones add color and tie the various areas together.

Jim and Dorothy Borland: This primarily Colorado native plant garden was installed in the summer of 1997 and immediately decimated by hail. The entire garden has been watered only once since that time.  Perennials and annuals move of their own free will even though they were originally planted where it was thought they would do best. The major theme of the garden has evolved somewhat by including plants from similar climates around the world, including 4,000+ Tulipa, Allium, Calochortus and Colchicum species. Visitors are welcome at any time. Enjoy!

Kelly Grummons: Kelly’s garden is a testing ground for new varieties of xeric plants: trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses and annuals. You’ll see numerous Arctostaphylos species in evaluation, over 100 species of western, native cacti, Agaves and Yuccas and many of Kelly’s hybrids and horticultural selections of native and exotic perennials. The garden is dominated now by Dog Tuff^TM African dogtooth grass which is under evaluation and going through maintenance protocols for commercial production. This location is also the home of the mail order website coldhardycactus.com. Kelly has three (soon to be four) greenhouses to produce cacti for the mail order operation.

MORE information and Purchase Tickets HERE. 

Have a great week!