June 13 - 16, 2019
 |
| Denver Fling attendees at The Gardens on Spring Creek, Fort Collins, CO |
To read all our Denver Fling posts, click here.
Denver Fling Planners
 | |
Leigh Pond, April Shelhon, Judy Seaborn, Jennifer Spainhower, Laura O'Connor, of Botanical Interests2019 Sponsor DirectorySponsorsSwag and Raffle donors (who were not sponsors)Who Attended the Denver Fling |
Denver Fling Itinerary
Thursday, June 13
3:30pm to 4:30pm: Stop by our table in the Hyatt hotel lobby to pick up your ID badge and get your swag bag. Wear your badge every day; it is your ticket to board the bus.
If you miss the pick-up window, contact Laura or Leigh at the reception and we'll find a time after the reception to get you your things.
Welcome Reception
At 5:30 PM we'll board the buses at the Hyatt hotel and depart promptly at 5:40
for a short ride to the GrowHaus, a non-profit, indoor farm, marketplace, and educational center where we'll have dinner, welcome past flingers, and introduce first-time flingers, as well as next year’s hosts.
We'll also raffle off a few items here that can be used on the tours!
Friday, June 14, 2019, tours in Loveland and Fort Collins
We start off our tour in Loveland at The High Plains Environmental Center (HPEC), a 76-acre living laboratory and urban environmental park. The director, Jim Tolstrup, who is a registered attendee, will be joining us to answer any questions. Their nursery, where they grow native plants from seed, will be well stocked and we'll have some time to shop.
Then we arrive at The Gardens on Spring Creek, an 18-acre world-class botanic garden grounded in community, education, and sustainability. We'll take the group photo upon arrival. Gardens include: A children’s garden, food garden, rock garden, sustainable backyard garden, xeric garden, demonstration garden, an outdoor music venue, an outdoor kitchen, and Lauren Springer Ogden’s “Undaunted Garden”. Lauren will be joining us!
We’ll tour the gardens and have lunch in their outdoor kitchen.
We’ll tour the gardens and have lunch in their outdoor kitchen.
After lunch we visit two private gardens. Janice deVore’s garden is canopied with tall, mature pines and dotted with several crevice gardens and trough gardens. Jan hand-made the troughs and is also a painter. Her property contains a large collection of plant material and many hidden gems.
At Carol and Randy Shinn’s garden we will see several distinct crevice gardens along with a water feature with wildlife in mind, and a vegetable garden.
The buses will be divided between deVore and Shinn, and both have graciously agreed that we can serve wine and cheese there, before our drive back to the hotel!
Dinner this night is on your own.
Saturday, June 15, 2019, tours in Boulder and Niwot
On our way up to Boulder, we’ll actually start the day in Broomfield, just north of Denver at Botanical Interests seed company warehouse, where we’ll take a short tour of the facility. You’ll learn how seeds get from the grower to the packet and see the machinery involved in weighing and packing.
A grab-n-go breakfast will be served.
The rest of the day is filled with private gardens! Jean Morgan packs a lot of mostly native plants (no lawn) into her small space which is a pollinator haven. The next house called Red Renaissance features indigenous plants to attract butterflies and create a pollination haven for bees including low water plants specifically selected to provide food, shelter, and interest for local and migrating birds.
A grab-n-go breakfast will be served.
The rest of the day is filled with private gardens! Jean Morgan packs a lot of mostly native plants (no lawn) into her small space which is a pollinator haven. The next house called Red Renaissance features indigenous plants to attract butterflies and create a pollination haven for bees including low water plants specifically selected to provide food, shelter, and interest for local and migrating birds.
In downtown Boulder we visit Linda Boley and her “botanical zoo” with flowering rock gardens and a sanctuary for wildlife. In her garden, you’ll see some colorful ornamentals and lots of little crevices and homes for birds and bees.Lunch will be at the very special Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder, which was built by hand in Dushanbe, Tajikistan as a gift to their sister city, Boulder. Colorful and cultural décor includes lots of indoor greenery, and beautifully sculpted pillars throughout.
Tatiana Maxwell’s garden is an "urban oasis" with 600-ton stone walls, a pond and waterfall, flowers, vegetables, fruit trees, and grape arbor.
Then we’ll head over to Niwot outside of Boulder to visit Scott Deemer’s home, where he has cultivated a garden that is the epitome of Colorado – very Alpine-inspired with lots of evergreen trees and rock gardens.
 |
| Seaborn back yard |
Next, over to Mary and Larry Scripter’s garden, designed by Lauren Springer Ogden. The garden mimics the surrounding landscape and backs up to a huge open space, blending into a prairie meadow, including many various species of native grasses.
There will also be a raffle drawing at her house!
Dinner (if you didn’t fill up on the apps!) will be on your own this night.
Sunday, June 16, 2019, Denver
The Denver day of the Fling is jam-packed with high-profile, who’s who of Colorado gardeners that we are so excited to share with you.
Rob Proctor is a gardening expert and author with a weekly gardening segment, Proctor's Garden, on Denver’s local channel 9 news. His expansive backyard is filled to the brim with gorgeous ornamentals, both annuals and perennials, in a beautiful, English-garden style.
The Hamling garden, designed by Ivy Street Design Landscape and Architecture, combines formal architecture with billowing plantings including a significant number of natives, a pond, and an outdoor dining area.
We’ll be touring both gardens of Jim Borland and Keith Funk, the co-hosts of local radio show Ask the Garden Pros for 25 years. Jim Borland’s garden is an impressive Colorado native xeriscape, which he proudly states he “hasn’t watered in years”. The Funk garden will be in the afternoon.
 |
| Sculpture at DBG |
We’ll have lunch at the Denver Botanic Gardens
in their Annuals Garden and Pavilion surrounded by an abundance of stunning flowers of North America.
We'll have plenty of time to tour the wide range of gardens and collections on 24 acres that illustrate a diversity of plants from all corners of the world.
After lunch, it’s off to Panayoti Kelaidis’ home garden in north Denver, which is a mix of cottage, alpine, desert, and veggie!Panayoti is the Director of Outreach for the Denver Botanic Gardens, and a traveled lecturer and a spokesman for the regional Green Industry.
Dan Johnson is the Curator of Native Plants and Associate Director of Horticulture at the Denver Botanic Gardens since 1996. His garden delights with xeric and native plants, cacti and succulents, conifers, annuals, perennials, temperate trees and shrubs, tropicals from the traditional to the rare, and up-cycled artifacts “just for fun”.
On to Keith Funk's home; Keith is also a horticulture specialist whose garden is full of gorgeous ornamentals and evergreens.
 |
| Historic home at Chatfield |
The Denver Garden Blogger’s Fling wraps up in style with dinner, music, and dancing in the Green Farm Barn at Chatfield Farms, an extension of Denver Botanic Gardens. Chatfield is a 700-acre plant refuge and working farm. There will be plenty of time to walk the gardens of Chatfield.