The Gardens on Spring Creek

  Mason bee carrying mud to nest.  Photo from crownbees.com What’s Buzzing:   Mason Bees by Lydia McCracken, Propagation Intern, Gardens on Spring Creek To gardeners, the first welcome signs of spring might come from the blooms of crocus or grape hyacinth.   But for these plants, one the most welcome signs come from the unsung heroes of spring – mason bees.  Tucked away over winter in their mud and clay nests they were eating, growing, resting for the early work that must be done. As daily temperatures reach 55 degrees, this hero is springing into action and has already been spotted at the Gardens on Spring Creek!  Mason bee entering cavity nest to unload pollen. Sealed cavities are complete nests with multiple brood cells. Mason bees are a non-aggressive solitary bee belonging to the genus Osmia . They get their name from the masonry work they use building their unique nests. Although their appearance varies from species to species, they are often a m...

  What’s Blooming:   Bamboo! by Kolt Herkstroeter, Gardener, Gardens on Spring Creek Winter in Colorado can often be overlooked horticulturally, with a vast array of plants going into dormancy, patiently waiting for the hospitable conditions of spring. Many people look to coniferous plants   to help fill the void of green during these cold, lackluster months. Among a celebration of pines, spruces, junipers and firs, a surprising guest has shown up on the scene. Rarely seen and not from around these parts, bamboo is often used as an indoor plant.   However, it does have horticultural significance in the cold, windy winters of Colorado, and it is here to party. For most Colorado natives such as myself, bamboo is an exotic plant that is infrequently talked about or used in our neck of the woods. For others coming from warmer and wetter eastern areas of the United States, bamboo is typically seen as a tree (even though it’s a grass), weed, privacy screen or just ano...

  Honeybee enjoys the flower of a spearmint plant in the Friendship Growing Garden What’s Blooming:    Friendship Growing Garden by Jessica Clarke, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek   If you have wandered through the Children’s Garden and made your way into the Friendship Growing Garden, you may have noticed that there are still flowers in our food beds. Most of the blooms are growing on perennial herbs such as Mentha spicata (spearmint), Mentha x piperita (chocolate mint), and annuals, like Tropaeolum (nasturtium) and varieties of marigolds such as Tagetes erecta (Mexican marigold). The purpose for leaving the flowers on the plants is to provide highly necessary food sources to sustain our pollinators into winter. Many pollinators, such as bees, butterflies and others, need nectar and pollen as a food reserve for the winter months.   For example, the original queens of a bumblebee hive will die off, and new queens will emerge late summer / fall. In...

  Ericameria nauseosa What’s Blooming:   Fall Perennials for Pollinators by Kelly Kellow, Greenhouse Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek   The wait is finally over and now is the time to appreciate the plants that have taken all season to start blooming.   Fall-blooming perennials begin in August or September and bloom from October to November.   These plants are particularly important for busy honeybees, native solitary bees, bumblebees, hummingbirds, moths and other pollinators, serving as a last-minute meal before the long winter season.     As there are many great fall-blooming perennials, a few stick out in my head as pollinator favorites.   One that has just covered many of the natural areas with pillowy seas of yellow is rabbitbrush or Ericameria nauseosa .   While driving on east Prospect to I-25, I was amazed with all the yellow that was out there by the ponds.   Rabbitbrush is native to our region and does well in ...

  Flashy August Fillers by Bryan Fischer, Curator and Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek I keep a personal Instagram page. Largely, it features whatever flashy plant or plant community has recently caught my eye. Recently, I posted about Oenothera rhombipetala , or Sand Hills evening primrose, a Great Plains native that is widely underused and a great filler plant where an explosive pop of color is needed. Growing as a rosette in its first year, the plant erupts in July of its second season, sending a luminescent candelabra of four-petaled flowers skyward on tentacle-like stems. Despite the flashy photos and juiced verbiage, however, folks saw something else in my post that they seemed to care about a whole lot more: Penstemon richardsonii (Richardson’s penstemon). It’s always a penstemon!   I get it – any plant that will literally bloom itself to death is bound to catch one’s eye.   While the Oenothera does this as well, there is something special about Richard...

What’s Blooming:  Theme Gardens by Andrew Scott, Seasonal Gardener, Gardens on Spring Creek We are well into summer now, and our gardens have been using their flowers to advertise to pollinators: “Nectar here, inquire within! Reproduction, whoooo!!”   In spite of the recent onslaught of sweltering temperatures, all of our gardens are doing well – constantly changing as different plants cycle through vegetative growth, blooming, fruiting and going to seed. While all our gardens are based around specific themes, our Theme Gardens are a more specific collection of native and cultivated plants.   Composed of five gardens, the Theme Gardens are each small enough to be cohesive on its own, but effortlessly blend together to form a collage of colors, heights, textures, scents and pollinators. Plant Select is the first garden one encounters after crossing over the bridge, flanking visitors on both sides of the walkway with displays of Plant Select® plantings.   Spec...

  What’s Blooming:   The Welcome Garden by Selena Kunze, Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek The Welcome Garden was started in 2019 following completion of construction on the new building addition…or should I say it was pulled from the compacted earth, through parched patches of turf and crushed perennials. Initially coined “The Giant Pit”, lovingly of course, the garden began with removal of the suffering remnants of old beds, long unirrigated because of construction and frequently trampled by equipment and workers. The dwarf Forsythia , originally planted by former Curator Sherry Fuller as babies from her grandmother’s shrubs, were carefully dug and potted, while surviving perennials and grasses were relocated to nearby gardens or divided for our annual Spring Plant Sale. Big Daddy , the praying mantis sculpture made from repurposed metal dumpsters by Josh Jones, was commissioned to keep watch over the canal by the Theme Gardens instead, and volunteers painstakingly ...