Snapshots of Colorado

I recently spent about a week in Colorado, so I'd like to share some pictures of the various types of Colorado flora I encountered.

Colorado Springs Xeriscape Garden

One of the issues of gardening in Colorado is the low level of rainfall and the need to conserve water. I knew the term xeriscape means "dry gardening", but I hadn't been aware that the term is actually trademarked by the City of Denver Water Department. Xeriscape gardening is promoted by utilities throughout the state, and there are several xeriscape demonstration gardens. I visited one in Colorado Springs, in a beautiful location overlooking Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak. This garden guide gives some of the principles of xeriscape gardening.

Florissant Fossil Beds

The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is an amazing remnant of the great redwood forests that once existed in Colorado. These forests were destroyed in a great volcanic eruption in the Eocene, and the fossilized remains were found all over the ground when the first European settlers arrived. In addition to being a great resource for the discovery of fossils, this is also a great place to view Colorado wildflowers. Many of the wildflowers are labeled, and the visitor's center has a guide they hand out on request.

The flowers below include Indian Paintbrush (Castillega integra), a very common flower in the high meadows, some type of thistle, yellow Potentilla, and Milk Vetch.

Locoweed is in the legume family and often stores selenium from the soil which can be poison to horses and cattle. I believe the second photo shows Sneezeweed and Fleabane.

Another view of vetch, both closeup and in a mass.

Okay, this picture is just for fun. We went on a trail ride on Mount Princeton, and my friend's horse showed us that he liked wildflowers too!

Spruce, Pine, and Aspens

Here's a typical upland scene with spruce and pine. On the right is a stand of ancient stunted bristlecone pines near the treeline on Pike's Peak.

The main type of deciduous tree in the mountains is the aspen. Aspens send up sprouts from their roots, so all the aspens in a large grove may all be genetic clones. In the fall, the aspens turn a beautiful shade of bright gold, which makes a great contrast with the dark green spruce and pines. On the right, you can see large black splotches up to a certain point on the aspen trunks. This shows where the elk have eaten the bark in the winter, when everything else is covered with snow.

The ponderosa pine has the unique feature that it grows in spirals, as you can see from these dead trunks.

Watch (and listen to) the wind blowing through these aspen trees near St. Elmo Colorado

Mountain Towns

In the old mining town of Leadville (altitutde about 10,000 feet), I saw a number of small street-corner plantings that featured mountain wildflowers and aspen groves.

Breckinridge is a beautiful town built around promenades along the Blue River. In the summer there are lots of trees and flowers, although you're aware of how short the flowering season is when you see tulips and lilacs blooming in late June. In the winter, skiing is king, as you can tell by this bench and planters made of skis and ski boots.

Garden of the Gods

Rocks are everwhere in Colorado - it was the red rocks that gave Colorado its name. So I'll end this post with another type of garden - this fantastic rock formation outside Colorado Springs known as The Garden of the Gods.

Comments

[Bev]

Hi, I just happened upon your blog and was delighted to see the snapshots of Colorado. It looks like you had a wonerfrul trip and certainly took in a lot of the highlights. Loved the photos of the Xeriscape demo garden, isn't that interesting to visit? In 2004 we were proud to be one of the homes on the Xeriscape tour... an example of what individual homeowners can do themselves. We took classes and found the gardeners at the demo site to be very helpful and friendly. We were able to reduce our water consumption substantially by going xeric. Thanks for the interesting post! I feel like I just took a vacation in my own town!