The Neophyte Gardener has been on lots of garden tours with me. Sometimes The Dubious Gardener and The Reluctant Gardener accompany us but this day we were on our own. Just when we thought we were done for the season we spotted this tour in the paper and headed for the mountains. This was called The Rich People's Garden Tour. No it wasn't, we called it that. First up, a gorgeous adobe house and garden at about 7,200 feet above sea level.
Nice flagstone fire pit. These are okay in the mountains where I expect it to smell like a fireplace, but down in my neighborhood they stink. And I always think my house is on fire.
Lots of stone outcroppings on the property that they've used very well. I think the aspens were all quaking and that's why the top of the picture is blurry.
Just in case there wasn't enough stone they bought the entire installation of sculptures that were displayed at the Denver Botanic Gardens a few years ago. They're scattered around the property. I'm liking this stone mama and her chicks.
They also had a peacock, peahen, and a bunch of chickens in this enclosure. I'd love a peacock roaming around my yard. Wonder if they'd be a match for the raccoons?
The color on these yarrow! There's something about the high altitude setting that just makes colors glow. No Photoshopping here.
They let us inside the house in order to get to the rooftop garden. I gaped open-mouthed at the furnishings but we were moved right along. That wasn't part of the show. Ever seen a Christmas cactus like this? We hadn't. Look at those long fronds hanging down with one brilliant, fringed bloom at the bottom. I asked the owners (very nice people) what it was. They said, "some kind of Christmas cactus."
I've never seen so much Kentucky Bluegrass in my life (but I've never been to Kentucky.) We were instructed to park on it. Eeek, seriously? I felt bad.
Lovely rushing creek bisects the property.
The outdoor dining table overlooks the creek. Nice antlers!
More rock outcroppings. And the ubiquitous clay ollas. We like this a lot in Colorado.
How about those columbines!
That's some serious stone stacking.
We got lost on the way to this garden situated on a flat meadow. The GPS took us to the top of God-knows-where-mountain and wasn't the least apologetic about it. After making our way up and down a few burro trails we finally pulled up to this owner-maintained garden. We'd left the serious money behind but this was no slouch. I'm a sucker for these dovecote birdhouses. This one was full of Barn swallows.
Nice pond with evergreen plantings surrounding it.
They had a huge enclosed vegetable garden called The Garden. The wall sculpture below the sign let us know why it was enclosed.
Some serious twig work for a tomato cage.
Throughout the day, we heard garden visitors questioning each other about the identity of various plants. When no answer was forthcoming The Neophyte Gardener supplied them. Did I mention she's become The Expert Gardener over the years? As a result, people just ignored their friends and started asking us all the questions. She made me proud. Every once in awhile, just to save my own pride, I'd throw in an answer to something pretty obvious. Oh, that's Monarda, also known as Bee balm. (Believe me, I know people who can't identify a common robin.) So, this went very well until we came to this plant below. The landscaper told us it was campanula? Huh? The owner at this garden also said campanula? When I think campanula I think sweet bellflowers hanging their little heads, not a burst of fireworks flower. But I guess it could be a variety called Freya, just introduced last year. What do you think?
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12 comments:
I'm guessing it is Campanula glomerata, which has upward facing flowers in clusters. Good post. When it comes to garden tours, I sometimes get annoyed at checkbook gardening. Not that I expect everyone to do all the work themselves, necessarily, but sometimes I get the feelinf some people see the garden as just another expensive ornament. I especially don't like gardens that are all about filling the yard with furnishings just as fancy as the ones inside. Anyhow. Nice that you have a Neophyte Gardener, my boys have never been all that interested.
Hi Garden, in that neighborhood the garden IS another expensive ornament. But I did get the impression that the owners really loved their plants, they just have some extra coin for the pretties. Since most of my garden kitsch comes from garage sales I was astonished! Thanks for your comment!
I agree with Gardeninacity, C. glomerata. The hanging "Christmas Cactus" plant looks like an epiphyllum. Garden tours can teach us all kinds of interesting things! I tried checkbook gardening once but found that using a shovel yielded much better results especially in heavy soil.
Good one, Outlaw! So that hanging plant is an orchid cactus? Very cool, didn't know there was such a thing. And I think you and Gardeninacity are right about the campanula.
Beautiful gardens, love the stone sculpture in the first one and yes that is definitely C. glomerata. I'd love to have been on that garden tour with you. We were just on a Garden Conservancy Open Days last weekend and I need a sabbatical from my own garden right now. LOL
In regards to that "type of Christmas cactus," it is actually an epiphyllum cactus. It took a few years for my mother and me to find that out. Meanwhile, we had this hanging forest of stunning flowers.
http://mattslandscape.com/
Let the addiction begin. ;)
So nice to find you blogging again!
This was a really ice tour with so much to see. Those roses on the arbor...spectacular.I love the hardscape and the home. You don't see that around here.
Deanne, I like sabbaticals from my own garden too. Love to see how others interpret their own vision. Thanks for the c. Glomerata I.D.
Cayenne, love that thought of a "hanging forest!" Epiphyllum it is!
Laura, thanks, nice to be back!
Garden walk, though I love the plants, hardscapes really speak to me as the backbone of a great garden.
I'm pretty sure I've seen campanula like this.
I love the creative names you've given your friends and fellow garden tourists.
There's so much I enjoyed about these gardens you featured today though, oddly enough, it's the hardscaping that caught my eye the most. That and the blue glazed pots sitting atop the stacked wall.
Love it all!
PS Thanks for stopping by my tour today. I have a few more days of posts from the tours as we visited nine gardens in one day and I can't whittle the number of photographs down to just a few. It is painfully time consuming though so in the future I just might be able to combine a few together. I hope you'll stop by for some more.
Shirley, I agree that the hardscaping is what really made these gardens. We kept seeing more of that campanula as we kept looking. I think that particular variety was introduced last year so no wonder. I love garden tours and look forward to reading more of yours! By the way, the names I gave my gardening companions do describe them perfectly!
I have several c. glomerata in my collection and it certainly looks identical :)
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