If there were a contest for the "best garden in Colorado", I suspect this one would be muscling near the top of the list: Carol and Shinn have created a remarkable microcosm in a pleasant suburban neighborhood on the fringes of Fort Collins....the pictures that follow were taken more or less in the same order as you see them on a field trip of our Rocky Mountain Chapter on May 16 of 2020....
Yes I know...how dare we have a field trip in this year of multiple plagues (COVID, fires, political idiocy galore etc. etc.). Well our club did--and several dozen people participated (all wearing masks and practicing social distancing). No one got sick and none died, unlike so many gatherings among the nonbelievers....
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| Arenaria alfacarensis nuzzling up to Thuja occidentalis 'Tom Thumb' (I think) |
The garden really is an object you can enjoy for its aesthetics alone--even if you AREN'T a plant nerd--it is so gracefully put together including everything a good garden needs: vistas, endless vignettes, surprises, artful paths: the whole shebang! But for plant nerds like me--it has so much more: this is probably the premier collection of dwarf conifers of any private garden; what's so impressive is that though there are DOZENS (possibly hundreds) they do not glower and dominate as they often do in dwarf conifer specialist gardens, which seem sometimes more like concentration camps for plants with cones. Forgive me, coneheads! But also please nod in grudging agreement.
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What a gorgeous garden. So much in bloom in May. Nice to see Penstemon 'Purple Haze', one of my favourites, and the great variety of species peonies. Thanks for the great tour.
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