May 2025 E-Magazine
- Jane Shellenberger
- May 2
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
May is bursting with blooms of all kinds and the fruit trees are loaded this year though the honeybees are sparse. In the May newsletter for Harlequins Gardens (harlequinsgardens.com) Eve Reshetnik Brawner says that for her, “cutting edge gardening” means creating habitat. I couldn’t agree more. Creating biodiversity in our yards and gardens, no matter how small, adds up. Stick with climate-appropriate, pollinator friendly plants that thrive here and don’t require propping up with lots of water and chemicals, and plant more natives.
PlantSelect 2025
In addition to a pretty, repeat-blooming lilac, this year’s PlantSelect® offerings include: Rocky Mountain goldenrod (Solidago multiradiata) and RAMBLER™ mountain fleabane (Erigeron formosissimus 'P022S'. The goldenrod is a dwarf variety that Dr. Doug Tallamy recognizes as a “keystone plant” for multiple eco-regions in the West. Keystone plants feed and host “significant numbers of butterflies, moths, and pollen specialist bees.” The fleabane is a mountain native selected by Mike Kintgen, curator of alpine collections at Denver Botanic Gardens, for its short stature and its ability to grow at elevations up to 13,000 feet.
I’m also including another brief native plant portrait of Dwarf Leadplant, Amorpha nana, (above) by Denver gardener extraordinaire, Marilyn Raff.
CCSS & RMC NARGSPlant Sale
Last weekend I went to the annual combined plant sale for the CO Cactus & Succulent Society and the Rocky Mt Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. I picked up some cold-hardy gems that I added to my troughs, a vibrant blue gentiana aucaulis for my neighbor who always swoons over mine, and a lovely dark purple cultivar of the native plains verbena (Verbena bipinnatifida Valley Lavender®), among other treasures. This fabulous huge plant sale at the Jeffco Fairgrounds is always in late April, but you can join either club anytime to reap their benefits.
Last summer I visited Cindy Jones’ farm east of Longmont where she grows all her own herbs and flowers, and uses them to make amazing balms and salves and mists and moisturizers. Cindy, a biochemist with extensive experience in physiology, toxicology, microbiology, cancer research and cosmetic science, has written an article about skincare for gardeners.
Natural science writer and biologist Gary Raham has written a piece for us about researchers who are studying plants that have lived through past climate cycles in search of genetic variations that may help with global warming solutions. Let’s hope that important research like this is able to continue in light of scientific funding cuts by people who don’t understand its importance.
Natural science writer and biologist Gary Raham has written a piece for us about researchers who are studying plants that have lived through past climate cycles in search of genetic variations that may help with global warming solutions. Let’s hope that important research like this is able to continue in light of scientific funding cuts by people who don’t understand its importance.
Our Colorado Gardener web designer, Idelle Fisher, was invited to speak at the Western Landscape Symposium in Pueblo at the end of March. Her presentation, Year-Round Gardening in Colorado, was based on an article she wrote for Colorado Gardener last year and covered cold frames, hoop houses, permaculture, herbs, and edible natives to extend our climate's short growing season. Here's her wrap-up of the conference:
The Western Landscape Symposium was filled with inspiring presentations and speakers focussed on growing in the West. The keynote speaker was Jennifer Jewell, who urged gardeners to value their work just as highly as anything else we do - we all make a difference! "The Top Performing Tough Plants from DBG Chatfield Farms" presentation by Grace Johnson of Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield included tons of slides of her favorite plants and her own closeup videos of the many pollinators on blooms in the field. Some of her selections included: Sunset® hyssop (Agastache rupestris) that hummingbirds love, as well as Colorado desert blue star (Amsonia jonesii) with sapphire blooms from April to early summer. She also recommended another hummingbird magnet, Red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) which you can plant and forget. Other talks included "From Large to Small, Soil Health is in it All" by Michelle Nelson, and "Underused Native Plants", by Irene Shonle, such as Penstemons virens and secundilorus, Abronia fragrans, and the pretty, purple-flowered Britton's skullcap (Scutellaria brittonii).
The exhibit hall was filled with interesting vendors including People and Pollinators Action Network (PPAN), and Penn Parmeter who offered her Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds, all adapted to high elevations as she grows them and collects the seeds on their property at 8,120 feet. I picked up some Spinach, Sugarbowl Clematis, and Clary Sage seeds and look forward to seeing them grow this summer in my Denver garden. - Idelle Fisher
Happy gardening!
– Jane Shellenberger
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