Continuing with my visit to Denver Botanic Gardens during the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019), here is my favorite installation in the ongoing Human | Nature exhibit: Lights by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir. Five impassive, rough-hewn figures stand amid the grasses of the Plains Garden.

Small holes punched in their chests and filled with glass admit light and seem to glow. Here’s my friend Cat taking a photo and embodying the female gaze.

There’s something a bit eerie about the life-size figures. Their placement amid the short grasses, with a weeping tree looming in the background, enhances the power of the piece.

Shofu-en Japanese Garden

A neighboring residential building becomes a de facto element of the quiet Japanese Garden. Japanese gardens seek to create the illusion of a retreat from the wider world, so it’s interesting to see how the city intrudes on this one. And yet the structure itself has a sculptural, nearly Asian aesthetic — a modern pagoda, if you will — that works with the garden.

A small, mirror-like lake lies at the center of the garden, with a strolling path meandering around it.

Along the path, a bent and anguished figure appears: The Weight by Eric Fischl.

A weeping birch seems to sympathize.

More sculptures

Starry Starry Night by Leon Bronstein sits in a shady dry garden near the bistro where a couple of us grabbed lunch on our day-before-the-Fling visit.

My second favorite sculpture, Jaunty Hornbeam by Joseph Wheelwright, marches through the woods near Cheesman Gate.

Related to the ents, perhaps?

Campfire patio

In one of the gardens I spotted this cool fire pit patio. A circular limestone bench surrounds a natural hunk of pitted limestone. In the center, rusty steel cylinders are stacked like logs.

It would be so great if these were connected to a gas source and can “burn.” Do the employees have sing-alongs here after-hours, I wonder?

From fire to ice — ice plants were blooming everywhere in Denver, and this fuchsia mass was the hottest display of them all. I wish the color had come out a little better, but my camera must have been wishing for sunglasses!

Iris Garden

The gardens in June were still spring-like to my eyes, with irises and poppies in flower.

We learned that a hailstorm had pounded DBG just a few weeks before our visit, but happily the irises and so much else had soldiered on. An undaunted garden indeed.

Rock Alpine Garden

In the Rock Alpine Garden, one of DBG’s most interesting spaces, an expansive crevice garden greets you as you enter. It was newly planted when I visited 7 years ago in 2012.

Here’s how it looked then, fresh and new with baby plants tucked between the stones. Comparing it with the current photo, it looks like more stones have been added since it was first installed.

The wider garden

Here are some of the blogger friends I toured with: Jean, Laura, Diana, Michelle (all the way from England), and Gail. I love meeting up with these fun bloggers from all over the country — and from over the pond! — each year at the Fling.

Birds and Bees Walk

The Birds and Bees Walk isn’t about “the talk.” Rather it’s filled with plants chosen to attract and provide habitat for birds, bees, and other pollinators. A veritable bee palace stands along the trail, with holes drilled into short logs for solitary native bees to nest in.

The camo bark of a lacebark pine (Pinus bungeana)

June’s PlantAsia

A moon gate frames a view of the Asian garden, where another wonderful sculpture is displayed.

Awake by Ann Vrielinck gazes skyward, arms uplifted, taking in the beauty of the world. A model for us all.

Meeting Panayoti Kelaidis

Rock star plantsman, blogger at Prairiebreak, and DBG’s director of outreach Panayoti Kelaidis met us here on Day 3 to give us a quick overview of the gardens while we ate lunch. It was great to finally meet him. Also, his own personal garden was up next on the tour, so look for my post about that soon.

Gift shop

No trip to a botanical garden is complete without checking out the gift shop for a small souvenir. DBG’s is filled with pretty things. I settled on a small bud vase — easy to pack, useful, and a sweet reminder of the Denver Fling.

And look what I found for sale on the bookshelves: my own book The Water-Saving Garden! Thanks for carrying it, DBG! And if you ever need a book about getting rid of thirsty lawns…

Up next: The Children’s Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens. For a look back at Part 1 of my tour of Denver Botanic Gardens, click here.

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Digging Deeper

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