A Garden Visit in the Mile High City

Photos by Rick and Nickie Lazarick

A bright, warm October day gave WTGC member Rick Lazarick and his wife Nickie a lovely opportunity to explore Denver Botanic Gardens. During their October 12 visit, they spent more than two hours strolling through its themed gardens, enjoying the plant collections, art, and thoughtfully arranged spaces.

The York Street gardens bring a remarkable variety of plants into a 24-acre setting in the heart of Denver. Collections range from plants adapted to Colorado’s dry climate to internationally inspired landscapes, ornamental gardens, shady retreats, and water gardens.

Rick appreciated the manageable scale, describing it as “a compact, relatively flat, very walkable inner-city garden.” The distinct garden themes gave their walk a succession of new plants and settings to explore.

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“The Japanese Garden was our highlight,” he shared. Known as Shofu-en, the Japanese stroll garden draws inspiration from Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and features character pines transplanted from the foothills. It offers a distinctive connection between Japanese garden traditions and the surrounding region. Rick also admired the substantial bonsai collection, noting its relative youth in the long-lived world of bonsai.

Art added another dimension to their visit. Among the features Rick pointed out was a glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly. The artist’s work, Colorado, is displayed in the garden area known as the Ellipse.

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Throughout the grounds, Rick noticed the care given to the visitor experience. He described the gardens as “impeccably clean,” with Halloween decorating underway. He and Nickie also appreciated the many opportunities to sit and enjoy their surroundings.

“At 5,000 ft in altitude, we very much appreciated the frequent benches for resting, far better than most gardens we’ve visited,” he wrote.

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The dahlia displays held special meaning for Rick, a dahlia grower and exhibitor who was the top horticulture exhibitor at WTGC’s recent Color Me Autumn flower show. He brought a grower’s eye and appreciation to the blooms he encountered in Denver.

As Rick put it: “I loved the fact that they featured dahlias in their decorative garden!”

Our thanks to Rick for sharing his observations and photographs from a memorable October outing. His visit offers plenty of inspiration for WTGC members whose travels take them to Denver—and a reminder of how much pleasure a few hours in a garden can bring.

Learn more at Denver Botanic Gardens.