With orange spines on its leaves and bright purple flowers, porcupine tomato (Solanum pyracanthos) looks like it’s from another planet. I spotted this one at Denver Botanic Gardens. This is Part 7 and my final post from my visit last September.

Crossroads Garden

Let’s start near DBG’s entrance, at the Crossroads Garden, where potted aloes and other Dr. Seussian plants cluster under hail-damaged light globes.

Shaggy-trunked yuccas stand upright like meerkats amid sunflowers and other fall-blooming perennials. Behind them, juniper hedges as tall as tsunami waves border a long, showy perennial garden.

Yucca starbursts

O’Fallon Perennial Walk

Sunflowers glowed like tiny suns during my morning visit.

The bees were pleased.

The raunchily named hairy balls plant was growing nearby.

You can see where it gets the name.

Looking back at the tropical conservatory’s diamond-patterned roof

Grasses catching the light

Artemisia (I think), feathery and touchable

A gorgeous combo: yellow sunflowers and ‘Black Lace’ elderberry against a shaggy juniper hedge

Sunflowers and melon-colored agastache look pretty together too.

Rosy inflorescence of an ornamental grass

Agastache and verbascum

El Pomar Waterway

The El Pomar Waterway is a long channel of water lined with flowering grasses.

A sage-green wall follows the waterway, which is punctuated by cobalt pots of cacti and succulents — a surprising sight. How do they keep these dry-loving plants from getting soggy feet? They must sit high up in the pots, separated from the water.

The plants’ unique forms are shown off against the stucco wall.

The grassy ribbon leads to a blue-tiled water wall…

…where orange cannas smolder.

Shazam!

Romantic Gardens

Nearby, the Romantic Gardens offer roses and other “romantic” plants in beds accented with Little-and-Lewis-style columns.

Asters in full bloom

The columns give a Mediterranean vibe.

The Ellipse

The formal Ellipse garden features an elliptical raised pond. Bristling in the center is a glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly called Colorado.

And that wraps up my 7-part series on Denver Botanic Gardens! I hope you enjoyed the fall tour through their beautiful gardens. For a look back at DBG’s Monet Pool, Japanese Garden, and bonsai display, click here.

You can also find posts I’ve written about Denver Botanic from earlier years on my Must-See Gardens page.

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Digging Deeper

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