Denver Botanic Gardens
Lush greenery, with a walkway across the scene
A view inside the Denver Botanic Garden's covered tropical greenhouse.
TypeBotanic
LocationDenver, Colorado
Coordinates39°43′57″N 104°57′39″W / 39.73250°N 104.96083°W / 39.73250; -104.96083
Area23-acre (93,000 m2)
Created1951
Websitehttp://www.botanicgardens.org

The Denver Botanic Gardens is a public botanical garden located in the Cheesman Park neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. The 23-acre (93,000 m2) park contains a conservatory, a variety of theme gardens and a sunken amphitheater, which hosts various concerts in the summer.

Location

There are three diverse locations that are part of the Denver Botanic Gardens as a whole. The main location, and the formal garden, is the York Street location in east-central Denver. Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield (near Chatfield State Park) features natural meadow and riparian areas, as well as a historic farm and homestead.[1] Mt. Goliath, on the route to Mount Blue Sky, is an alpine wildflower garden (along hiking trails).[2]

The Denver Botanic Gardens, along with nearby Cheesman Park and Congress Park, sit atop what used to be Prospect Hill cemetery. Although the majority of bodies were removed in 1893, the interred continued to be removed as late as the 1950s. As recently as 2010, graves were uncovered during renovation of the park's irrigation and sprinkler systems.[3][4]

The Gardens

Denver Botanic Gardens features North America's largest collection of plants from cold temperate climates around the world, as well as 7 diverse gardens that mostly include plants from Colorado and neighboring states.[5]

The world's first Xeriscape Demonstration Garden was created at the Gardens in 1986, and 2 years later its name was changed to Dryland Mesa. It was based on the "7 Principles" of Xeriscape, and includes drought-tolerant plants from the arid West and Mediterranean areas.[6]

The Japanese Garden is called Shofu-en—the Garden of Wind and Pines.[7] It was designed by Koichi Kawana[8] in collaboration with Kai Kwahara.[9]

The York Street location of the Botanic Gardens opened Denver's first publicly accessible green roof.[10]

The Denver Botanic Gardens also boasts the first conservatory in America that was made entirely of concrete and Plexiglas panes, each of which were designed to channel condensation to the sides of the walls so it would not drip on visitors. The Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory was awarded landmark status in 1973 [11]


In 2020 the Gardens published Firsthand: Creating Gardens for All People, commissioned by CEO Brian Vogt, researched by Karen Peters, Davis Benson and Dan Obarski, and published by Beckon Books. The book won the Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Silver Award in the Coffee Table book category in 2021.[12][13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Location". Archived from the original on 2010-12-04. Retrieved 2010-10-08.
  2. ↑ "Denver Botanic Gardens Mount Goliath". Archived from the original on 2010-12-04. Retrieved 2010-10-08.
  3. ↑ Howard Pankratz (2008-11-07). "Old grave halts work at Denver Botanic Gardens". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  4. ↑ The Denver Post (2010-11-01). "Four preserved skeletons unearthed at Cheesman Park". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
  5. ↑ Kelaidis, Panayoti. "Creating a Sense of Place", editor Holly Shrewsbury, Gardening With Altitude: Cultivating a New Western Style, Denver Botanic Gardens (2006), ISBN 0-9777375-0-0, p. 9
  6. ↑ Johnson, Dan. "Going Native in the Gardens", editor Holly Shrewsbury, Gardening With Altitude: Cultivating a New Western Style, Denver Botanic Gardens (2006), ISBN 0-9777375-0-0, pp. 33-35
  7. ↑ "Denver Botanic Gardens". Archived from the original on 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  8. ↑ "Koichi Kawana". Archived from the original on 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  9. ↑ Kelaidis, Panayoti. "Creating a Sense of Place", editor Holly Shrewsbury, Gardening With Altitude: Cultivating a New Western Style, Denver Botanic Gardens (2006), ISBN 0-9777375-0-0, p. 21
  10. ↑ "Denver Botanic Gardens York Street Location". Archived from the original on 2010-12-04. Retrieved 2010-10-08.
  11. ↑ "Internationally Inspired Gardens". Denver Botanic Gardens. 2015-07-30. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  12. ↑ "Firsthand: Creating Gardens for All People - 2021 Silver Winner". Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Awards. May 14, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-04-14.
  13. ↑ Firsthand: Creating Gardens for All People. Beckon Books. 2020. ISBN 978-1-935442-76-9.
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