What's Blooming in The Gardens: April

Oxytropis multiceps (the native Nuttall’s oxytrope)

What’s Blooming in The Gardens: April

by Bryan Fischer, Horticulturist, The Gardens on Spring Creek

April often represents the beginning of what truly feels like spring here in Northern Colorado. Warming temperatures – especially warming soil temperatures – are allowing many of our early blooming plants to hit their strides.

Perhaps first and most dramatic among these, is a diversity of alpine “cushion” plants (plants that grow low to the ground in tight mats) in the Rock Garden that are beginning to open their buds. Unlike most plants, which form buds shortly before bloom, many alpine species actually produce flower buds during summer or fall that are held all winter. This allows them to bloom much more quickly when warm weather arrives the following spring.

Draba zapateri

In the Rock Garden, we have royal purple Phlox kelseyi ‘Lemhi Purple’ or ‘Lemhi Midnight’, the electric-yellow broccoli relatives Draba brunifolia, Draba rigida, and Draba hispanica, and the creamy white Draba zapateri – all showstoppers yet under three inches tall. Many more cushion plants will soon follow.

If you’re looking to recreate these looks in your own garden, consider Tiny Rubies Dianthus (Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Tiny Rubies'), available while supplies last through our Spring Plant Sale. A charming cushion of foliage covered with masses of tiny, double pink flowers, this species makes a nice addition to a rock garden.

Penstemon arenicola (sand penstemon)

On the east side of the Undaunted Garden, a diversity of xeric plants are coming into bloom. Among these are Penstemon arenicola (sand penstemon) with its cobalt blue flower spikes in among flowering cacti, like the pink and white Pediocactus simposonii (mountain ball or hedgehog cactus). Shared by both the Rock and Undaunted gardens, the cushion-forming pea relative Oxytropis multiceps (the native Nuttall’s oxytrope) is one of a handful of pink, early flowering legumes in these gardens.

We’ll have a variety of penstemons and other xeric favorites available through our online store for Plant Sale. Look for items tagged “drought-tolerant” to find plants similar to these for your own garden.

We miss having visitors in The Gardens! Hopefully the photos included here will bring you some sense of enjoyment and respite. Don’t worry about missing out – there is always something blooming in The Gardens on Spring Creek, and we look forward to welcoming you back soon!

Hornworms by Brionna McCumber

Gardeners in Colorado may find large green caterpillars with an iconic horn on their plants every summer—these are hornworms! Tobacco hornworms ( Manduca sexta ) feed on common garden crops, often leading to conflict with humans. These very hungry caterpillars are defoliators, damaging plants such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant. While the caterpillars use crops as a food source, which could be seen as negative, the moths provide a critical step in reproduction for the plants via pollination. Carolina Sphinx Moths ( Manduca sexta ), also called Hummingbird moths, are the adult form of hornworm s. They are known for their unique ability to hover mid-flight. Combined with the use of a special elongated proboscis, these moths are especially important for plant species with long tubular flowers that other pollinators cannot access or pollinate. The Gardens on Spring Creek Butterfly House wants to highlight the importance of these specialized pollinators in our...

Winter Watering by Bryan Fischer

O ne of the brightest spots of living on the Front Range of Colorado is its winters. With more than 300 days of sunshine annually, we seldom see extended periods of the grey, chilly, precipitating skies common in so much of the country. It’s not unusual for daily highs to make it above 50 degrees. Much of this we have our elevation and distance from an ocean to thank – our sunlight is more intense than at sea level and our humidity lower, resulting in greater warming during the day compared to regions of similar latitude to our east or near a coastline .  Unfortunately for many landscape plants, however, that same day-night temperature differential spells trouble when paired with our lack of soil-insulating snow cover.  The resulting environment of warm days, frequent wind , and intense sun increases water demand, while low humidity saps the soil moisture reserves that our limited precipitation may provide. As a result, our landscape plants are predisposed to dehydration-indu...

Conifers: Pining for Something Different by Bryan Fischer

Evolving considerably earlier than flowering plants (angiosperms), conifers represent a long-lived and successful lineage of trees classified as gymnosperms. Gymnosperms were among the first true seed-bearing plants and evolved before specialized pollinators existed, so they are typically wind-pollinated. Seeds on these plants are produced between or on scale-like structures (think pine cone scales), rather than in fully enclosed structures, like tomato fruits. Gymnosperm, in fact, is Greek for “naked seeds,” so just imagine what that might imply for the origin of the word “gymnasium” … Long-lived, adaptable and attractive year-round, conifers represent a silver bullet of sorts for our Colorado gardens. Sadly, the overuse of just a few species and cultivars of these plants has given them a bad name. Don’t be put off – judicious use of conifers makes perennial plantings “pop” and provides structural bones during the fall and winter months. Below, find a selection of underused, adap...

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