Denver Botanic Gardens - Part 1

One place high on my list of sites I wanted to visit on our trip to Colorado was the Denver Botanic Gardens.  We passed on visiting the gardens when we first arrived in Denver and planned to visit on our way back home.  Of course, in the intervening days, Denver had its first snowstorm of the year and several inches of the white stuff were dumped all over the gardens.  Consequently, by the time we made it there, the gardens were definitely not at their best.  Even so, they were beautiful.

Our first stop at the gardens was at the conservatory where the more tropical plants are kept.  No snow there!

They had a lovely collection of orchids, shown growing in natural settings.  One nit that I had to pick with the DBG was a woeful lack of labeling on too many of the plants.  That was true of the orchids, also.

Whatever this beauty's name, its blooms were spectacular.

  I loved the color of this slipper orchid.

Another beauty.

This one certainly stood out amidst the greenery.

This one was quite small but you could hardly miss it.

The orchids existed in a jungle-like environment that featured several waterfalls.

The environment also had a large collection of a diversity of tropical plants, some of which were familiar to me and some not.

Several of the tropical plants showed fantastic blooms.

I was surprised to see this huge morning glory vine climbing a rock in the enclosure.  It's the same one I'm growing in my garden this year!  I have to admit, though, that theirs looks a bit more healthy than mine.

The orangery was adjacent to the tropical plant space and, in addition to the citrus trees there, it featured an extensive collection of succulents.  I was delighted to see them.  I've become a big fan of succulents this year.

Some of these looked very similar to the ones I have in my garden.

I especially loved the use of other plants with the succulents, like this pretty variegated geranium.

The most fantastic sight in the orangery was this fruit of the Buddha's hand citrus.  I wonder what the fruit tastes like.  Have you ever tasted one?

This was only the beginning of our visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens.  More to come!