Queen of campanulas: from Greece of course!

Campanula incurva

At what point do we declare something a winner? I have grown dozens of campanulas in my day--and I think I love each and every species I've tried. But one has gradually risen to the top in my estimation. 

The flowers are comparatively enormous--very similar to Canterbury Bells (C. medium) only covering a mound of pleasant foliage rather than on a rather gawky biennial stalk.

Here it is at Denver Botanic Gardens' Rock Alpine Garden: it seems to like to grow just about anywhere...sun or shade. It can grow flat on open ground or on a steep slope or crevice.

Here it is trying to take over my new crevice garden at home....

It is incredibly long blooming: you can see the buds coming on and many have passed. Where happy it can bloom for four or five months...

Here is a fine colony at Mike Kintgen's home garden.. I have a hunch many of these are self sown seedlings. The literature says this is monocarpic:  I've had plants that have bloomed three years in succession. Everywhere I've grown it, it seeds around gently so you never seem to lose it altogether...a charming trait. Many of my favorite campanulas are long gone...                                                                                                                            

I end on my favorite planting of this species, when I had it on the side of the waterfall in my garden. I have not seen this in the wild (it's largely restricted to north-central Greece.)  There are only a handful of records of it on I-Naturalist, mostly not far from the coast half way between Athens and Thessalonica. I suspect that in nature it's a chasmophyte, like so many Greek campanulas. High on my list to look for my next trip to my ancestral land.

Meanwhile, I can relish it at home. Look for it on exchanges this winter--lots of wise rock gardeners know and love this plant which is prodigal of seed and beauty.                            

Fantastic symposium in a few weeks! Time to sign up...

 

Rocky Mountain Chapter 

of the North American Rock Garden Society

Symposium, November 9, 2025

Mitchell Hall, Denver Botanic Gardens

[For my PERSONAL take on it, scroll to the bottom*]

Adam Black

Adam Black is Director of Horticulture and Plant Conservation at Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories and Arboretum in Charlotte, NC. He is a lifelong plant enthusiast with a passion for the rare, unusual and esoteric, and combines his experience in the fields of botany and horticulture by promoting diverse landscapes of underutilized species while also collaborating with various botanic gardens, universities and governmental agencies in documenting and collecting imperiled taxa for the purposes of research and conservation. In addition to extensive familiarity of the southern US flora, he has been involved in field work and plant explorations in New Caledonia, Taiwan, The Philippines, Mexico, South Africa and beyond. Plant Exploration: The Passion and the Insanity Bringing plants into cultivation can serve many purposes, including the benefits of increasing urban landscape biodiversity as well as preserving the genetics of species of conservation concern in safe sites. Plant exploration has many ethical, legal, natural, and physical challenges to navigate, but ultimately it is a necessary endeavor that seems to be taken on only by a small collaborative group of the most passionate, adventurous plant nerds who bridge the gap between the fields of botany and horticulture. Join one of these geeks as he chronicles the various exhilarating adventures, unexpected complications, and comical situations he has encountered in both far-flung regions of the world as well as the surprisingly under-explored regions of the US where there are still adventures to be had and significant plant discoveries to be made.

Morgan Cannon

Morgan Cannon is the Northern Colorado Project Coordinator for the National Forest Foundation, based in Estes Park, Colorado. She manages post-fire recovery projects including reforestation, cone collection, and watershed health initiatives across the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. With a background in native plant propagation, seed collection, and alpine restoration, Morgan has worked on ecological projects throughout the Mountain West. These have included long term monitoring projects and hands-on restoration work in the desert southwest (Grand Canyon National Park, Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park) and throughout the southern Rockies. In Grand Teton National Park, she led native plant greenhouse operations, coordinated seed collection and propagation, and monitored high-elevation and sagebrush steppe ecosystems. Passionate about connecting people to conservation through plants, Morgan continues to collaborate with agencies, nonprofits, and volunteers to help build resilient landscapes throughout the Rockies. "Plants in Cool Places": This presentation explores ongoing plant conservation work in Grand Teton National Park, from the sagebrush steppe to the park’s highest alpine ecosystems. Morgan will share insights from monitoring intact and disturbed sagebrush habitats, as well as a re-piloted program focused on sensitive alpine plants and whitebark pine (a keystone species in the region). By examining how these unique sites respond to disturbance and climate pressures, this work helps inform broader strategies for climate adaptation and ecosystem resilience across the Mountain West.

Laura Swain

Laura Swain is a horticulturist at the Denver Botanic Gardens where she specializes in arid-adapted native plant collections, including North American Steppe, Dryland Mesa and Sacred Earth gardens. Laura is incredibly passionate about creating resilient landscapes for the future. She works at the intersection of ecology and horticulture – building human-friendly habitats with a focus in plant-pollinator interactions and low maintenance inputs. Her stewardship practice involves studying plant communities in situ, elevating native species, and highlighting their form and function in the urban ecosystem. When she’s not in the gardens, she’s usually climbing mountains with a big backpack. 

Mark Akimoff

Mark Akimoff is the owner of Illahe Rare Plants, a specialty nursery grower of flower bulbs, geophytes, alpines and rock garden plants from around the world. Over his 25-year career as a professional horticulturist, Mark has worked in many sectors of the industry, from plant propagation at botanical gardens to Historical Garden management, large scale wetlands, riparian and environmental restoration projects for government, and teaching horticulture at the Community College level. He holds a bachelor's degree in Horticultural Science from Oregon State University and studied biotechnology at Montana State University. While his personal interest in plants runs wide, a particular fondness for rock gardens and alpine plants often has him exploring the high country for wildflowers. At the nursery in Salem, Oregon Mark trials many different dryland and xeric plants to better help gardeners adapt gardens to changing climate conditions we are seeing especially in the drought stricken Western North America. The flower bulb catalog that is published every summer, offers an amazing array of diverse geophytes from around the world and one of the largest collections of Fritillaria in North America. With a passion for travel and photography, Mark loves to share pictures of his botanical adventures with garden clubs and groups. Check out the website to see the amazing array of plants that he grows at illahe rare plants online at www.illaherareplants.com 

Fall Symposium - Annual Meeting 8 am - 5 pm Denver Botanic Gardens Mitchell Hall

Symposium Schedule 8:00 Meet and Greet Coffee and treats available 8:30 Business meeting 9:00 Announcements and Introduction 9:15 Adam Black 10:30 Morgan Cannon 11:15-12:30 Lunch 12:30 Announcements 12:45 Laura Swain 2:00 Mark Akimoff 3:00  After Symposium Reception  5:00- (TBD) 

 Members $20 w/o box lunch $35 w/box lunch Non-Members $30 w/o box lunch Optional box lunch: Choose one with your ticket booking. All options come with Boulder kettle chips, fresh whole fruit, and gourmet cookie. Sandwiches also include chef select cold salad. Available before midnight Saturday, November 8th. All-Natural Turkey with Swiss Sandwich House Roasted Beef with Cheddar Sandwich Albacore Tuna Salad Sandwich Mediterranean Roasted Tofu Sandwich Southwestern Salad Plant & Seed Sales 

Mike Barbour will be selling a variety of hard-to-find treasures. Kelly Grummons will be selling a variety of cacti and succulents. Justin and Christin Ruiz of Desert Blooms are selling water-wise plant selections. Alan Bradshaw of ALPLAINS will have a nice selection of seed for sale. RMC purchased two flats of Alpine treasures from Mark Akimoff, and we will be selling these Illhahe-grown plants at the back of Mitchell Hall. Special Pricing for New Members New members joining during the Symposium membership drive receive a discounted ticket price: The cost of the Symposium ($30), the introductory membership ($20), and the box lunch ($15) -- All for $45 – a $65.00 value. Online registration is open. Pay with credit/debit card of PayPal (see below)

*My personal take on it. In these strange times when so much is changing in unpleasant ways, it is a good idea to touch bases with reality. These symposia always rock (and not just because of the "rock garden" society), but because a number of us arm-wrestle to pick speakers who are special in many ways. Firstly, they must keep me awake [I sleep through 87% of most presentations.] I dare you to find me nodding off EVEN ONCE with this lineup. I have heard three of them before: they're riveting. The fourth I have been assured is dazzling. All four speakers dance in the ecotone between Civilization and Nature--that vital zone where some are blessed to reside. While most do not. Come join us as we step one step closer to harmonizing Humanity and the Wild World--the essence of rock gardening

Click here to sign up! https://rmc-nargs.org/events/rmc-symposium/

Friends of many years in China

Hylotelephium (Sedum) spectabile

First of all, let me acknowledge the enormous privilege of travelling to Central China with the International Dendrological Society (IDS). I have been on trips with rock gardeners, perennial garden enthusiasts, cactus and succulent lovers--you name it. The IDS leaders and participants possessed a special passion, and a level of expertise that was humbling. As the season progresses, and as I sift through the hundreds (thousands?) of images I captured, I hope to do justice to the extraordinary woody plant richness we encountered in future blog posts. But why not start out with some old friends--what friend is as old and familiar as 'Indian Chief', 'Autumn Joy' or the other selections of what we all knew as Sedum spectabile for decades?

We saw this again and again in the QinLong and Daba mountains of Central China in September of this year--looking pretty much identical to what's sold at your local garden center.

If anything, the color was even a tad brighter in the wild populations than the older selections in gardens, like 'Indian Chief'. Although this is not a rare or otherwise "choice" plant for plant snobs, most any serious perennial gardener must have one tucked somewhere. I have several--although the annoying mule deer that think my garden is theirs love to chomp off the flowers. Have I ever told you how fond I am of venison?

Esther Kraak and Buddleja davidii

Even more widespread and abundant than the formerly Sedum, the common butterfly bush of our gardens originates precisely in these mountains of Central China. Here one of the very knowledgeable participants from Netherlands is showing off a bouquet she plucked along a trail we followed. The next frame shows these close up.

Of course, this Buddleja has a reputation for being terribly weedy in Maritime climates. We don't have any issues with it seeding in Colorado (that I know of) and some years it doesn't even die down very

far. Unfortunately it does need regular water to grow and bloom well. Oh well! You can't do everything.

I was charmed looking at the flowers up close.

We saw this gorgeous pine everywhere in Central China. I recall finding it quite a few times in Yunnan as well--I-Naturalist indicates that most of its range goes from Shanxi to Yunnan--with a fascinating concentration in Taiwan as well. I first saw this around the turn of the Millennium in a private garden in Moscow (Idaho), I was so charmed I made sure we obtained one for Plantasia, where we now have a superb specimen 30 or more feet tall that produces the relatively huge cones with delicious seed. We found people harvesting seed of this in Daba the Shan range.

A wildcrafter on the Daba Shan range demonstrating how the pine seed is extracted from the cone.

Adrian Bloom

I first met Adrian when he was on a lecture tour to the USA. I recall I drove him to Mount Goliath and we wandered down the trail surrounded with ancient Bristlecone pines (Pinus aristata). What a pleasure to spend two and half weeks with a Horticulture hero (and a friend of many years).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Okay. Fall doesn't suck as much as I thought. Thank you crocuses!

Crocus speciosus* 

I know, I know: I've heard the litany "Fall is my FAVORITE season, so mellow, so soft, so gentle... the trees are even more colorful than Spring!" Fiddlesticks. Fall means Winter, which REALLY Sucks. Fall means damn leaves all over the place for weeks and months. It means it gets dark really early and stays dark late. Fall means cleanup and and and--then what? But then the corps de Ballet of Crocus speciosus begins their dance. In a prior post, with lots of better pictures of this, I suggested they reminded me of  Gluck's dance of the blessed spirits--which fortuitously was playing on our local NPR classical station this morning on my way to work. If you didn't click on the FIRST link, the second will take you to the Gluck--which I suggest playing as a background to these pictures (and perhaps on through Fall and the rest of your life). [I've added a special treat at the end the first 70 people who read this missed!**)

Crocus pulchellus

 

In cultivation this is usually much paler than C. speciosus, but I noticed that when I looked it up on I-Naturalist, a lot of the photos showed plants as dark and otherwise very similar to its more easterly cousin. This species is centered mostly on the Balkans, especially Greece.

We once had a wonderful colony of this at Denver Botanic Gardens that has diminished due to other plants encroaching, perhaps. But I am thrilled to have re-created that colony at the base of one of my rock gardens...I will do what I can to help these persist and spread. These are my autumnal balm, after all...

Colchicum boissierri

Now for a little story (I do have a lot of those, don't I?) I obtained this in 2006 (almost 20 years ago) from Jane McGary. It is either C. procurrens or C. boissieri (I purchased both from her that year--and in any case--they are now synonymized under the latter name. For a "stoloniferous" plant, it's not sending stolons out very fast! I took this one sunny day a week or so ago.

Same plant yesterday--under slightly overcase skies. A lot more flowers. Which is why gardening is so gratifying and fun. The garden changes from minute to minute as light shifts, and let's not talk about weeks, months or years.

A lot of colchicums bloomed last month while I was gallivanting around China, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and Dallas (to name the places I remember) so I missed even seeing them. I have had a half dozen or so crocuses also bloom. But there are always a few more waiting in the wings, to come out and do their dance and cheer me up. I have to admit, it's been a refulgent fall so far. I'm reconsidering.

*If you hadn't realized it by now, I'm a big fan of I-Naturalist (you can even follow my posts on that website at the bottom of my Blog Posts!). But I want to register a HUGE complaint about the Website. All sorts of idiots are posting their GARDEN pictures on the site--which really diminishes its usefulness in my opinion. Check out Crocus speciosus--which seems to have two major concentrations of distribution. The wild ones ring the Black Sea, while all the Northern and Western European are garden plants (and a few yahoos in the USA). I would LOVE it if the Garden photos were a DIFFERENT  COLOR so you knew they weren't wild. I realize the Man/Nature dichotomy is perhaps imaginary--but I'm not quite ready to subsume Mother Nature into the Anthropocene altogether yet. End of another rant. I rant a lot in autumn.

**Special treat:

Crocus speciosus and Impatiens cv.

When Nick Snakenberg, my colleague of many years saw that I'd posted on Crocus speciosus he whipped out his phone and showed me this picture he'd taken recently in his garden. I asked him to share it with me so I could post it here. Nick is our curator of Orchids at DBG, as well as supervising our extraordinary conservatory and most of the greenhouses. Some day [when perhaps I'm a tad more worthy] he may even let me visit his garden--which I have a hunch is a pretty good one!

A glimpse into the future! Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Farms

New Crevice garden at DBG Chatfield

Twice in the last few years my colleagues have built ambitious rock gardens without my input or knowledge. Were I another, I might be miffed, or feel perhaps slighted. After all, I've come off a 3 year stint as President of the North American Rock Garden society. You'd think they'd give me an inkling at least at what they were up to. Since both of these efforts have turned out to be pretty damn magnificent, I'm just going to stay mum and pretend I was really part of the team....Fiddlesticks! What greater honor is there on the planet when your young colleagues outdo you at your own game? Maybe they were waiting to surprise me? They succeeded quite well if that were the case!

Of course we live in the shadow of the "Rocky Mountains" and any botanic garden worth its salt will have rock work since many of the best wildflowers grow and look best alongside rocks. I would like to mete out some credit here--except I don't know who from the remarkable team of horticulturists at Chatfield (under the guidance of manager of Horticulture Jennifer Trunce) to credit. I have been told Erik Howshar was instrumental in the planting design, and know that Grace Johnson (who has managed many of the great gardens at Chatfield) is now overseeing this pretty massive garden. Ryan Keating, an inspired garden designer, helped bring the crevice garden to its present state. The two pictures above show the West (top) and East (bottom) wings of the garden--which extends a long ways in both directions.

One of innumerable gems that dot the garden. I have never seen this in cultivation before anywhere. I note only three records on I-Naturalist. I have never seen it on my half dozen or so visits to Lesotho.

Jamesbrittenia jurassica

Another plant in the same genus I have also not ever seen myself on my trips. It also has only three records on I-Naturalist.

This has been blooming for a very long time...and looks mighty good on 10-10-2025 (our traditional date for first frost, incidentally: fortunately none in sight!)

Jamesbrittenia breviflora

Now I HAVE seen this quite often in the Drakensberg, as have quite a few people on I-Naturalist. Obviously I will be monitoring how these do over the next few

The label says the name. I have me doots that this form will be even as hardy as my collection on the Witteberg spur of the Drakensberg...

Alongside the crevice garden the Labyrinth has filled in very nicely with a wide assortment of rock plants...had to go take a peek. You can catch a glimpse of what the Labyrinth (and crevice garden's back side) looked like if you click this link.

Epilobium (Zauschneria) cana (californica)

This is one name change I am going to resist! 

Alyssum stribrnyi

One of the finest dwarf alyssums loving this new garden.

I can't stop admiring that damn Jamesbrittenia lasutica!

Phygelius capensis

A very happy clump of the high altitude form of Phygelius--doubtless collected in Lesotho by Mike Bone (Associate director of horticulture at DBG) and his team on one of his seed collection trips to the Drakensberg in cooperation with Katse Botanic Gardens.

Delosperma congestum 'White Nugget' resisting binary classification.

Eriogonum allenii

If you do not know this plant, do not pass go. Do not collect $100--click on this LINK and learn more.

I was at Chatfield for a meeting--and naturally had to linger in the magnificent native gardens that embrace the Earl J. Sinnamon Center designed and planted over a decade ago by Lauren Springer and maintained by a series of extraordinarily talented horticlturists. I forgot to note the Latin name on that Helianthus. Sorry! I'll see if I can add it in the next few days--pretty stunning, no?

Aster season

A half dozen kinds of daisies are blazing away in this garden...

Linanthus nuttallii

One of my favorite Western perennials has bloomed reliably for years (and many months within those years)--the best display  have seen of this wonderful phlox relative. It has a new Latin name I have forgotten (or repressed). 

Here is what that same taxon looked like at York Street before my beloved Wildflower Treasures was turned into a Potager. I'm over it. Really. Just ask my therapist.

The Gardens and Conservation committee toured some of the amazing acreage the Chatfield staff are transforming from hideous monoculture of Bromus inermis (Smooth brome--a horrendous Eurasian grass that has been deliberately sown over millions of acres of the West--utterly destroying the native vegetation in the process. Incredibly, it's still being sold and sown). Here is a well established stand of tall grass prairie next to the Wedding gazebo.

I believe this was sown this year. The Research Dept. is managing this process--I have been stunned how there were virtually no weeds whatsoever in any of these beds--and I looked.

I had to chuckle seeing the masses of Coreopsis tinctoria--a plant that's pretty local (if widespread) in Colorado. For the heck of it, I looked it up on BONAP and poor old Nevada seems to be the only state in the Continental U.S. where this doesn't grow natively...boo hoo! There's probably more in these meadows than in all the wild in Colorado! Such is the power of horticulture.

The Gaillardias were none too shabby for nearly mid-October! Incredibly variable in color...

This is one I'd like to save seed on...

Oh yes. Pumpkins!

Oh yes! Between today and Sunday afternoon 30,000 or more people will be coming to Chatfield farms to pick out pumpkins from the vast pumpkin fields. It's not too late to join them tomorrow or Sunday!

P.S. I have not done a proper, statistical analysis--but I suspect that if the respective attendance numbers of Chatfield Farms and D.B.G. York street were to be platted, there would be a year not too far hence when the former may eclipse the latter (provided we continue with the inspired leadership we've been blessed with most of my tenure). I would not be surprised if I were alive to see that year. (Just between you and me, I'm quite sure I will have retired well before that however!). Shall we take bets?