Paradise redux (Rock Alpine Garden part 2)

Telesonix jamesii

The Rock Alpine Garden has gone from strength to strength under Mike Kintgen's baton: I shared pictures from early May in a previous blog post--but this Spring was so gentle, protracted and wonderful I couldn't stop snapping. The garden contains thousands of taxa--I seem to be doing more vignettes and vistas than usual. Hereby follow a lot of pix I took on May 28--a time I've always thought was "peak bloom" here. The Telesonix is in a trough: the garden operates on every level! 

Overlooking the "Limestone Cliff" bed from the top of the garden...

Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) and a moss saxifrage paint a wonderful picture on one of innumerable crevice beds.

Iris spuria ssp. halophila in a wonderful pale yellow form.

I believe this is Dianthius neglectus on one of the many crevice oiutcrops.

A gypsophila? Mike has added so many plants--I need to visit more often!

I think I captured Echinocereus reichenbachii va. baileyi at its very apogee of bloom...One could specialize in nothing but various forms of the lace cactus. Oh yes, Jeff Thompson's done that!

I recall a time when lemon lilies (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) were seen in gardens all over the Front Range. This is the only clump I know still persists.

A wondeful ensemble near the entrance to the garden: that Verbascum is apparently a sterile hybrid. There is no justice in the world!

Next to it the putative Salvia "heldreichiana" reigns supreme. Apparently sterile, it's probably a hybid. Wish I knew the parentage.

On the dry north beds of the garden a Phlomoides, gas plant and Geranium make a wonderful combo.

More Mediterraneans looking very happy indeed.

Polygonatum humile running rampant beneath the giant white fir.

A froth of Saponaria ocymoides (a dwarfer form than most) paints wonderful swaths of pink and white in early summer.

Caught weeding, Mike not oversees this incredibly complex garden, but seems to be everywhere in the summer months doing outstanding field botany. I believe the pink in front is Dianthus cruentus. 

A closer at the pink...

A white flowered Saponaria ocymoides decided to perch on a boulder rather than soil...                                 

I love the sempervivums providing a perfect foil for the Alyssum and other heat tolerant groundcovers..

Dictamnus albus has definitely settled in!

Zizia aurea

As have the Golden Alexanders--which go back to my day!

Daphne oleioides

I wish I could take credit for the monster daphnes--but I am pretty sure ike put these in...he has been Curator for over 2 decades!

Some wonderful silver Saxifrages around the corner.

Packera aurea

And he's established a great patch of this Eastern Senecio in a shady spot near the Gardens' entrance.

Another couple of remnants from my day--a wonderful patch of Genista (sagitallis) delphinensis blooming yellow, and a Yucca harrimaniae that thinks it has permission to become a tree...

An enviable patch of Physaria in another new crevice garden near the entrance. He told me the name and I forgot. I'll bet he'll tell me when I send the link to him...

I could and should go on: this acre was not only my entree to my career, it has been a kaleidoscopic laboratory where I've watched thousands of taxa come and go--and spent some of the most enchanted moments of a lucky life here. To watch as this remarkable gentleman raises it to new heights--what can I say? It's one of the greatest blessings of my life.

A quick look back...(half a year anyway)

California coast highway en route to Eureka

2025 began with an action packed tour to the Bay area where I spoke to 3 groups (Western chapter NARGS, San Francisco CSSA and Sacramento CSSA) visited dear friends in Marin, Sacramento, Eureka and East Bay--notably my brother and his family in Castro Valley: I should have done a half dozen blog posts about this fabulous trip. But didn't! I must go back and do more blog posts--at least about Fort Ross! Someplace I've dreamed of visiting all my life--thank you Robin (Parer)!

Volunteers filling orders for NARGS seed exchange at DBG

And why, prithee wasn't I blogging? Coordinating sixty volunteers as we fillled almost 700 seed orders with thousands of kinds of seed gobbled up most of the rest of January 2025 (as it is poised to do again starting today this year,,,)

Nature reserve in Chicago

February saw a return to routine, if you ignore a quick trip to speak at Illinois' biggest Horticultural trade show in Schaumberg--and visits with two more good friends there--and a quick jaunt to Madison to visit my son...

Early March featured a visit to Niagara falls thanks to dear friends Barbara Cooper and Bella Seiden who invited me to speak to Toronto's dynamic Rock Garden and Hardy Plant group. Normalcy seemed to return just in time for the annual Tree Diversity Symposium near my birthday with a notable visit from Sean Hogan I did manage to post about. Little realizing that two days later we would experience to loss of Brian Vogt--my beloved boss of 18 years--and the most extraordinary leader I've been privileged to know closely.

              Fritillaria nigra                                                            Fritillaria caucasica                                           

April was one of the gentlest ones ever when it came to weather, but T.S. Eliot knew better: on April 3, my eldest nephew Anthony (Doni) Taylor died from anaphylactic shock from a bee sting in Boulder. He and Brian were two men nearest and dearest to my heart: losing them both within a few weeks was a shock. Jan and I had already purchased tickets to go to Italy mid month--fulfilling a lifelong yearning to visit Ravenna and Rome (for my first time ever). The trip was healing and high Spring in Italy was a dream come true. 

Apse mosaic in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna

We returned to a garden in full bloom, and the craziness of the local Cactus and Rock Garden club sales in Denver.

Vignette from the extraordinary garden of Elisabeth and Rod Zander

May began with an lecture tour through New England (thanks to the Connecticut Horticultural Society). New England in high Spring is a powerful tonic, and staying with friends and family in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York was incredibly fulfilling. Seeing so many great gardens (I only posted blogs about a fraction of them) was an incredible opportunity. Visiting John O'Brien's unbelievable nursery (I wanted to buy everything, but settled on quite a few items--which he refused to accept payment for) and several days with Darrell Probst--a friend of decades and one of America's greatest hybridizeers--not to mention seeing my nephew Peter (Tachi) Taylor and his husband Harry Rodriguez' re-new home nearly finished--these are highlights of a lifetime, not just a trip. Oh yes! Joe Pyeweed Nursery garden in full spring glory--perhaps the most perfect garden I know of....

Physaria didymocarpa on Dead Indian Pass, Wyoming

June was pretty much nonstop activity: Denver Botanic Gardens hosted the American Public Gardens Association in early June. I led a field trip to Boulder Gardens with an unforgettable lunch for the whole busload at the Dushanbe Teahouse (underwritten by a dear friend). Mid June we helped organize the North American Rock Garden Society's annual meeting in Cheyenne with great speakers and field trips (hosting Connor Smith--a Scottish born gardener who curates Utrecht's fantastic rock garden was a special treat), and finally leading a week trip to Northwestern Wyoming for NARGS--peak flower and a great group of people!)--that was really enough activity to fill a whole year. And mind you--we're only half way through...I can't resist posting a small album from this miraculous month below.

The exquisite crevice garden at Cheyenne Botanic Gardens in full bloom for the Conference!

Dushanbe teahouse in full glory!

Calochortus uniflorus

At Suzi Brown's lovely Louisville garden for the APGA tour

Katy and Gary Bohn's fantastic garden north of Boulder on our Rock Garden Club tour--forgot to mention we did that too!

Vignette from Anne Smith's great Boulder garden on the RMC tour in June


Saxifraga oppositifolia on Beartooth Pass

Connor Smith in front of Dryas octopetala (avatar of the Scottish Rock Garden Club)

Believe it or not, the last half of the year was even busier! Trips to Central China, Chile--not to mention criss-cross the USA and some big projects at home and work...If I can come up for air in seed shipping season, I will attempt to share that too.

But this must do for now. Happy New Year!

Rock Alpine Garden in May 2025 (part one)

Adonis vernalis

 This post would have been 3 times as long, but Blogger gagged: they wouldn't let me post all the pictures. So I shall have to do several posts to do the garden justice. These are all pictures I took on May 9 of this past year of the Rock Alpine Garden, which has been brilliantly curated by Mike Kintgen for several decades now (and more)--but where I got my start in professional horticulture. Most of the plants I show were planted by him--but he's honored my legacy by leaving some hoary individuals I will point out. The Adonis was his for sure: boy am I jealous of this specimen!

Convolvulus assyriucus

This choice bindweed and the hen and chick are holdovers from my time (practically the Pleistocene it seems!)

Penstemon hallii

I grew this once elsewhere in the garden: this round is Mike's--many penstemons are ephemeral.

Primula vernalis

There are big spreads of cowslips (and oxlips too) in several areas--the toughest of the Primula clan for us. These persisted in a shady bed at my parent's Boulder home without supplemental irrigation. 

Pulsatilla albana

Mike has created many intimate areas in the garden--crevice gardens and tufa beds--that provide much better habitat for small plants than the original garden afforded. 

Papaver croceum

Here is one such cluster of smaller rocks that show off this cousin to Iceland Poppies that tolerate our summer heat far better,

Vista from the top of the garden

\Gnarly clumps of Turkish Dianthus anatolicus

Erodium chrysantthum

Enormous clumps of this Greek endemic date back to the first years of my work: easily 45 years old and a yard across blooming pretty much non stop.

Glaucium sp.

Several species of horned poppies occur in this garden (I'm pretty sure we were the first public garden to grow them). This is a particularly good deep orange form--possibly G. acutidentatum.The truly crimson form of G. corniculatum still eludes us...

Phlox subulata cv.

Not sure which clone--but a good one!

Acanthus syriacus

A hoary clump of this species that goes back to my day, incorrectly labeled as A. dioscurides, which still eludes us!

Salvia nutans

I'm crazy about sages--but this is one that Mike first fouind...

A wonderful form of Iris sanguinea (or siberica?)

Daphne x 'Rage Lundell'

These ginormous daphnes came from a rooted cutting sent to me by Joel Spingarn (who got it from the great Swedish gardener for whom it's named) nearly 50 years ago. The lower was a cutting rooted from the one above. So much for daphnes being short lived.

Iris lactea

Mike has mercifully retained a few of these Central Asian iris--which had spread far and wide. 

May and June are the most floriferous months in this garden--which was my focus for nearly two decades in the last Millennium. One of the great blessings in my life was working here--and another is to see it now in even more capable hands. Happy New Year!