The first private garden on the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling tour (June 2019) was located in Fort Collins, about an hour north of Denver. From the street, cottage garden favorites greeted us. Owner Jan Devore planted the small front garden with Rosa glauca and purple irises — nearly black ones adding drama — framed by a backdrop of soft pines and weathered wood siding.

Moody purple iris

Rosa glauca may be my new favorite rose thanks to those dusty blue leaves. It looks great paired with blue fescue.

The front is lovely, but Jan has put her heart into the expansive back garden, which unfolds beneath towering pines and segues into a sunny pond garden overlooked by a rustic gazebo.

Beneath the pines, hostas, ferns, and other shade lovers create a cool oasis for anyone needing an escape from the intense Colorado sun.

A mounded bed creates an opportunity for a cascading stream…

…that feeds a good-sized fish pond. Jean of Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog gazes into its depths.

Koi and goldfish dart beneath gold and copper lily pads that glint like coins atop the dark water.

A flagstone patio surrounding the pond provides a display space for some of Jan’s many containers.

She has a lot of hypertufa bowls of all sizes planted up with alpine succulents — perfect for the dry but relatively cool conditions along the Front Range. They look especially nice mingling with a collection of conifers.

So very Colorado.

A small gazebo tucked to one side of a serpentine lawn path enjoys long views across the garden. Note the mountains in the distance. Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

Kalanchoe still life

Blue iris and more pots, including a cute round bowl filled with a grassy tuft of something.

The back garden is quite large at three-quarters of an acre (formerly a “wasteland of dead grass and an aspen tree,” Jan said), and it slopes sharply downhill. Looking back up the lawn path you have a view of the gazebo and the house.

What plants this garden firmly in the Denver-area gardening tradition, as I soon learned, is a striking rock garden. Located on the sunny side of the pines, it’s planted on a large mounded bed studded liberally with boulders, which create planting pockets for dry-loving plants. A Japanese-style bamboo screen divides the shade garden on the other side of the pines from the sun-drenched rock garden.

Flowering cactus tucked amid the rocks

Jan has been devoted to rock gardening for the past 15 years or so, after her earlier passions for bonsai, English-style lushness, and daylilies dried up. Rock gardening is well suited to high, dry gardens abutting the Rocky Mountains.

Soaking up the sun, or watching the skies for rain?

I love geum’s cheery, orange flowers, but planting it next to an orange-leaf shrub takes it to the next level. What is this — ‘Orange Rocket’ barberry, maybe? Ninebark?

Austin has orange cosmos, but there’s just something about geum.

It was irresistible to other bloggers too.

Up next: The striking crevice gardens and colorful front garden of Carol and Randy Shinn. For a look back at the rock garden at The Gardens on Spring Creek, click here.

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Digging Deeper

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