The Gardens on Spring Creek

  Bee Balm What’s Blooming:   Plans for a Wildflower Garden by Sherry Fuller, Horticulturist and Curator, Gardens on Spring Creek   Wildflowers are popular now for good reason: they are often drought tolerant, easy to maintain and provide food and habitat for our native birds and insects. In this article, I’m using the term wildflower loosely to mean herbaceous native plants with showy flowers. Here are a few things to consider when planning to grow your own wildflower garden from seed. Choose a location:  Most showy wildflowers native to our area prefer at least six or seven hours of sun a day.  They won’t thrive directly under a large tree or on the north side of a building in the shade.  And while most are quite drought tolerant, they will still need water to get established. An area irrigated with a lawn system will usually work to get plants started but will ultimately be too much water for native plants. An area accessible with a hose would be ...

  Christmas cactus ( Schlumbergera x bridgesii What's Blooming:  Holiday Cacti by Bryan Fischer, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek   Holiday cacti have intrigued me since I was a kid. Particularly, I’ve been fascinated to see how common they are in the homes of family and friends, yet how poorly understood they are, both in identification and in care requirements. This post seeks to demystify these ubiquitous, durable and exceptionally long-lived houseplants, for our benefit and theirs alike. While they are true cacti (family Cactaceae), the plants we call holiday cacti today did not originate in the desert as many would expect.   Rather, they grow as epiphytes in tropical and subtropical South American rainforests, meaning they live on the bark of a host tree.   They differ from parasites in that they glean no nutrition from the trees upon which they grow.   As a result of their origins, all holiday cacti perform well in homes with indirect li...

Winter squash previously grown in the Garden of Eatin' What’s Blooming: Winter Squash and Pumpkins by Mary Miller, Community Garden and Outreach Coordinator, Gardens on Spring Creek With leaves changing and the first hard frost behind us, the season of winter squash and pumpkins is upon us. The array and diversity colors, shapes and sizes of winter squash is stunning, and the taste, texture and color of the flesh of the different squashes is equally diverse.   While many people are familiar with the most popular varieties of butternut, acorn, delicata and spaghetti squash, there is a dizzying number of other excellent varieties.   Let’s dive into the wonderful world of winter squash – also known as hard squash.   Botanically, pumpkins are the same as winter squash, though . . . . we know as a pumpkin when we see it!   Members of the cucurbit family of crops include summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and gourds along with winter squash.   H...

  Sundew ( Drosera ) Growing Carnivorous Plants by Bryan Fischer, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek   Last winter, I made the ill-fated mistake of dropping a large Mangave on my carnivorous plant collection. The event was crushing in more ways than one. In homage to the collection that was, I wanted to share regarding my experience growing these quirky plants. Not just the ubiquitous Venus fly trap, carnivorous plants encompass a diverse and fascinating group of plants originating from areas with very poor soil or water concentrations of essential nutrients. While they still photosynthesize to produce their energy (carbs, like other plants, because even plants can’t leave carbs alone), they use insects to supplement the limited nutrient spread provided by the relatively nutrient-poor soils or water in which they grow. I had long ago given up on cultivating carnivorous plants after killing my fair share of Venus fly traps and pitcher plants, among the most common...

  What’s Blooming:  Preserving the Harvest by Selena Kunze, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek           With the first dip of nighttime temperatures in late summer, vegetable gardeners start wondering when the “big harvest” will happen. Tender crops (tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers) cannot survive frosts (32-36 degrees) without protection. Root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets) and cold crops (kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower) can handle frosts, and some even become sweeter after a frost or two. So, when should you harvest?  If a short-lived frost will be followed by a couple weeks or more of nighttime temperatures in at least the 50’s, you can cover tender crops with old bed sheets, floating row cover or newspaper for a night or two. If nighttime temperatures are forecast to remain in the 40’s or lower, it is generally a good time to harvest tender crops because they won’t be growing or pr...

What’s Blooming: Hops  by Selena Kunze, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek and City of Fort Collins of Parks Department  Whether you are a home brewer, are drawn to the ornamental beauty of the plant or just enjoy the fragrance, hops continue to be popular in home and public gardens alike. Hop plants are a great ornamental climber along fences and pergolas, for shade in a sitting area, or as a privacy screen, and the hops cones add a distinctive flavor and aroma to beer and food. As a horticulturist with the City of Fort Collins, I have the privilege of caring for the hops at The Gardens on Spring Creek and at Twin Silo Park.   Hops (Humulus lupulus) are perennial plants that die back to the ground in the fall and come up from the crown of the plant each spring. If you’re looking to add these to your own landscape, you can purchase hop varieties as rhizomes (an underground stem that sends out roots and shoots) or as potted plants from local nurseries or home br...

  Rocky Mountain Junipers in Colorado Springs A Second Look at Rocky Mountain Junipers by Bryan Fischer, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek Easily overlooked, the Rocky Mountain juniper ( Juniperus scopulorum ) has almost become what vanilla is to ice cream – classic and effective, yet so widely used few of us ever take note of its presence. The compelling, enhanced natural juniper trees in the “ Mountain Wildwoods” exhibit give us pause to reconsider this notion. What if, just because we can grow a species of plant almost anywhere doesn’t mean that we should?  Would that help us better appreciate the juniper for its natural merits, rather than the disheveled, over-sheared green blob we see in parking lots everywhere? Often, the more unusual a plant is in our landscapes, the more noteworthy it becomes. This is especially true if we do the Rocky Mountain juniper the service of picturing where one might naturally find it in the wild – on lean, gritty soils, with limited ...