Time to tour!! A garden extravaganza....

This is a season for touring gardens in Denver: next weekend will be an especially busy one (my garden included: check here), but last week I conducted my own tour. I FINALLY visited the gardens of James Marquez (right) and David McCreedy (on the left)--who have created an extraordinary display I have driven by possibly thousands of times (I've driven east on 14th Avenue weekly for decades--their home is a few houses down the cross-street facing East it's not visible from 14th, otherwise I would have seen it and stopped by years ago!)... Their garden is well nigh perfect--every plant seems to grow its best, and the combinations are artful and endless. I could tell that this is a four season garden--worth visiting again and again throughout the year. Which I intend to do!

I asked the proud creators to let me take a picture: I was so distracted, I didn't take nearly enough pictures--especially of views. But I think you'll get the drift that this is a genuine masterpiece.

A Phlomis unlike any I have seen before. One of my favorite genera (ok I have a lot of favorite genera). I've grown a dozen or more taxa--this one is distinct in flower and foliage color. I NEED it!

One of far too few vistas I took--this from the street: I think this shows the artful way the plants gently rub shoulders with one another.

A champion Salvia that they believe rose as a seedling. It seems to have Turkish ancestry--slightly pinnate foliage like S. recognita which grew nearby. But much bluer...I think this is a winner!

Closeup of the flowers on the mystery Salvia, which has risen to the top of my wish list!

Phlomis monocephala

Yet another Phlomis--this one resembling the common P. fruticosa, but proving to be much hardier. Theirs looked much better than my two specimens!

Oenothera canescens

I have failed to establish this local endemic evening primrose. They have it in several spots! Not that I'm jealous or anything!

This looks like 'Paint the Town Magenta'--which I think would be better described as 'Paint the town Vermilion'

A stunningly perfect specimen of Pinus edulis 'Farmy' (or suchlike)--one of Jerry Morris' countless miniature pinon witch's broom selections.

Salvia lavandulifolia showcased perfectly.

More of that dang O. canescens! Just rub it in fellas!

Rosemary. Now Salvia rosmarinus, looking very happy indeed! 

A view toward the street with a robust fireweed in front that must be spectacular all summer...

They have numerous Spuria irises dotted here and there--blooming a month earlier than usual. I am especially fond of this group of irises that doesn't like my sand. They garden on clay, the lucky guys!

One of countless troughs dotted around their garden.

A strange variation on Love-in-a-mist, Nigella damascena--one of my favorite annuals scattered here and there!

Verbascum chaixii and Dianthus knappii

I just realized my yellow "pink" has died out. I want it back! They share my love of mulleins!

Closer look at Dianthus knappii looking very compact.

A glorious Eryngo (variation on alpinum?) Every plant seems to stand out and yet combine with the next--real plantsmanship!

My mother's first name was Artemisia, so I have a vested interested in the genus (yes, I confess...I was a "mommy's boy". Here's one I never saw before (I have to beg a piece come to think of it!)

Ligusticum scoticum--with a bizzare distrubution across the Atlantic--is one of my favorite shade lovers. This is the only other garden I've seen it in!

Another of the innumerable troughs...

Daphne x transatlantica 'Eternal Fragrance'

The picture doesn't do the plant justice: and believe me the fragrance was overwhelmingly sweet!

I believe this is Pinella pedatifida--although my form looks a tad different. A terrible weed in Maritime climates, James and David find it manageable (as do I).

Maybe the finest specimen of Lonicera floribunda 'Blue Velvet' I have ever seen: they planted it themselves--so it is not as ancient as it looks!

They had several 'Itoh' peonies--this one was a new one for me. 

Trifolium rubens

I thought I was the only one growing this in Denver! Mine isn't blooming yet this year--interestingly...

They've joined in on the crevice revolution..

We're in the backyard now--altogether different mood here.

A distinctive trough with an oak leaf inlay

Monardella macrantha 'Marion Sampson" nicely complements the miniature columbine. Their success with trumpet gentians in troughs inspires me to try doing the same...

Now THIS is a true dollhouse yucca (Yucca nana): is that cute or what?

Wonderful edgings of bricks, and compact groundcovers...

I was astonished to see Epipactis gigantea 'Serpentine night' thriving in one of the Woodland beds...

A slightly closer view of this Coastal California form of our native chatterbox orchid. So jealous!

Wonderful troughs full of cacti here and there all over their property,

A venerable clump of Dianthus anatolicus in a trough. They grow EVERYTHING!

I know I missed half the plants that were blooming and a few weeks later there will undoubtedly be a whole new suite of plants blooming (and so on through the seasons). Inexplicably, this garden has never (yet) been featured by the Garden Conservatory. I hope that will be rectified next year...

But I assure you there are a fantastic suite of gardens you can visit the next few weekends in Denver, then Boulder and more beyond (including my own, he says blushing) Just click on this link to find out more: Garden Conservancy tours

Touring gardens is the most benign form of industrial espionage! And totally legal (and moral). Just do it!