Denver Botanic Gardens

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Denver Botanic Gardens

Denver has one of the top-ranked botanical gardens in the US – as our flight wasn’t until the evening, we were able to spend several happy hours there on the day we went home from last summer’s road trip.

My botanical knowledge is rudimentary to say the least, so I haven’t attempted to caption any of the photos in the next two galleries. Click on anything you like the look of to enlarge or start a slide-show.

Possibly my favourite part was the Monet Pool: water lilies galore.

While we were there, the gardens were hosting Stories in Sculpture – 13 pieces from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. If you are observant, you will count 14 sculptures below – the gardens have their own collection and I’ve included one example from it (Dale Chihuly’s Colorado, the first image). If you click on this gallery you’ll find it is, unlike the others, labelled – the sculptor as the title, and the name of the piece in the caption.

Colorado
Goddess with the golden thighs
Without words
Theater set element from Judith
Walking man
Nike
Dawn tree
Wounded Amazon
Standing figure: knife edge
Woodrow
Junge Frau (Young woman)
Hare on bell on Portland Stone Piers
Cavaliere (Horseman)
La grande chiave (The large key)

There is a bistro in the gardens, which we didn’t try, and a café which we visited for morning coffee and lunch, both good, so you could easily spend all day in there. We had a short time left before we needed to leave for the airport and popped into the neighbouring Cheesman Park.

Cheesman Park
Cheesman Park
Cheesman Park

Then we had to go home after three wonderful weeks touring Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. My first post about it was published on September 29, 2016, so it has been seven months in the writing. I’ll need to speed up, because I certainly don’t want to do any less travelling!

Next – Budapest.

Colorado, USA , , ,

66 Comments »

  1. You had such a comprehensive and rewarding road trip! I love this botanical garden: the Monet garden and all the other colorful plants, especially the ones that look like miniature clusters of peppers. I also love the Colorado sculpture (Dale Chihuly is wonderful) and Woodrow. Great last minute visit. 🙂

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  3. Pingback: Denver Botanic Gardens — The Glasgow Gallivanter – Pagosa Springs Colorado Real Estate

  6. Beautiful place.
    I like the sculpures, but I like the flowers a lot more. Some of them are so unusual.

    That’s been a lot of blogging, that’s true, but you had a wonderful experience to share and I’m happy I had the chance to see such nice places… if only vicariously.
    Thanks so much for sharing.

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  9. ‘Without words’ is very striking. I like your style, because I started out thinking I don’t caption plants for just the same reason (it’s Jude’s job, isn’t it? 🙂 🙂 ). But then I do like captions and don’t use them nearly so much as I used to. I love the sensuality of a good garden though and this one is beautiful. Yes- have to get a wiggle on, but then, so much of the pleasure is looking back and remembering. 🙂 Have a happy week, Annabel (and keep warm!)

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    • I’d rather leave off a caption than just put Bird or Flower which is about the level of my knowledge, but on the whole, I do try to title and caption pictures just for my own satisfaction so that I remember exactly what they are. Too many senior moments otherwise!

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  10. What stunning gardens, and a wonderful end to what has been an incredible adventure. Has it really been 7 months since we have been travelling with you in the good ole US of A. Wow! Been so much fun 🙂

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  13. I know of Dale Chihuly! He did an infamous “rock candy” sculpture on the campus of my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Akron. I’m sure his work is more welcome at a sculpture park/garden, but his rock candy (which I don’t think is even supposed to be rock candy, but that’s exactly what it looks like) is seen as a joke at the U of A. I was a student at the time it was made, and we were all pretty upset that half a million dollars had been blown on something so stupid!

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  14. Lovely photos. For me the real green jewels of any town or city are its parks and gardens and I always try to visit them if time allows. Always the problem if you post trips away online are the photos. Apart from sorting them all out they do take up huge space on the computer and I,m always clearing them into external files to create more space for new ones..

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  20. I love botanical gardens and this one looks particularly stunning! My daughter is in Melbourne this week and they have a beautiful example too. That spiky orange thing also rang some bells – I did a blog post on the work of Dale Chihuly a while back and it’s very distinctive!

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  22. LOVE the gardens and the sculptures. What a brilliant way to end this trip.
    I’m now packed and ready for Budapest!

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  23. What lovely photos Anabel. It does look like the sort of place I could happily spend a day. I’m fascinated that all the sculptures (except the Chihuly) look like bronzes. I guess I’m used to outdoor sculptures being made from a much wider range of materials. Was the exhibition specifically of bronzes do you know?

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  24. What a fabulous way to spend your last day, relaxing and full of beauty. I’d love to see some of Chihuly’s work – bit expensive for me though!

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  29. Superb pictures. Like you, my knowledge of botany is not much, but I am just as happy not knowing! The weight of so many Latin names weighing down what’s left of my brain would be too much to cope with, so thank you for the colour and the beauty.

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