{"id":5084,"date":"2016-07-08T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T20:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/?p=5084"},"modified":"2016-07-08T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T20:09:10","slug":"a-higher-state-steppe-to-alpine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/?p=5084","title":{"rendered":"A Higher State (Steppe to Alpine)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steamboat<\/a>

Steamboat Lake and Mule’s Ears (Wyethia mollis)<\/p><\/div>\n

We\u00a0just returned last week from a spectacular trip to Colorado that was focused on the North American Rock Garden Society<\/a>‘s (NARGS) annual meeting. \u00a0The theme was ‘A Higher State \u2014 Steppe to Alpine’ and it was in two locations, the Denver Botanic Garden and Steamboat Springs over 5 days. \u00a0It had been a while since we had been to Colorado, so we met with friends and family in Boulder and Golden beforehand. \u00a0I’ll try to give a brief overview of what was a wonderful and relaxing exploration of mountain wildflowers.<\/p>\n

Hiking just outside of Boulder we encountered this\u00a0lovely Calochortus.<\/p>\n

\"Calochortus<\/a>

Calochortus gunnisonii<\/p><\/div>\n

The NARGS meeting began at the Denver Botanic Garden<\/a> where we got a personalized tour of the rock gardens by Mike Kintgen who oversees the Alpine collection.<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/a>

Mike Kintgen at DBG<\/p><\/div>\n

Their garden features a crevice garden which has been established for several years now (long enough to see several successful cushions)<\/p>\n

\"Crevice<\/a>

Crevice garden at the DBG<\/p><\/div>\n

They manage to grow the wonderful Devil’s Claw that we first saw in the Dolomites last year.<\/p>\n

\"Physoplexis<\/a>

Physoplexis comosa in a trough at DBG<\/p><\/div>\n

The Denver Botanic Gardens are not to be missed if you are in Denver. \u00a0In this season they have a spectacular display of Foxtail Lilies.<\/p>\n

\"Through<\/a>

Through the looking glass<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A Sea of Foxtail lilies<\/p><\/div>\n

On our way to Steamboat Springs we stopped at the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens<\/a> in Vail which has newly constructed tufa wall for optimum planting of tiny alpines.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/a>

New Tufa bed at Vail<\/p><\/div>\n

And the outside part of the gardens is quite nice as well.<\/p>\n

\"Betty<\/a>

Betty Ford Alpine Garden<\/p><\/div>\n

In Steamboat Springs we visited local gardens including the\u00a0Yampa River Botanic Park<\/a>\u00a0which right along the Yampa River in a very pretty setting. \u00a0They have built a stunning crevice garden there.<\/p>\n

\"Crevice<\/a>

Crevice Garden at the Yampa River Botanic\u00a0Park<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Another<\/a>

Another view of the Crevice Garden<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Panorama<\/a>

Panorama of the Crevice Garden at the Yampa River Botanic\u00a0Park<\/p><\/div>\n

I fell in love with a little Stachys planted in one of the crevice locations.<\/p>\n

\"Stachys<\/a>

Stachys lavandulafolia<\/p><\/div>\n

We also took several hikes in the trails surrounding Steamboat Springs. \u00a0We drove out through countryside that really summed up what\u00a0steppes are all about.<\/p>\n

\"Steppes<\/a>

Steppes near North Park<\/p><\/div>\n

Just along the side of the road we saw beautiful Lewisia and Shooting Stars.<\/p>\n

\"Lewisia<\/a>

Lewisia rediviva<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A sea of Shooting Stars<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Dodecahedron<\/a>

Shooting Star (Dodecahedron puchellum)<\/p><\/div>\n

One stop near a trailhead into the Zirkel Wilderness area produced a bevy of these very small Ladyslipper Orchids<\/p>\n

\"Ladyslipper<\/a>

Ladyslipper Orchid (Cypripedium fasciculatum)<\/p><\/div>\n

We stayed a few days past the conference and on the last day of hiking we walked up a ridge near the Rabbit Ears pass area. \u00a0The views were excellent, but it was remarkable how you had to pay close attention to see that the hillside was covered with wildflower treasures.<\/p>\n

\"Windy<\/a>

Windy Ridge rich with wild flowers, especially Glacier Lilies, Lewisia, and Larkspur.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Erythroniums<\/a>

Erythroniums galore<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Glacier<\/a>

Glacier Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Lewisia<\/a>

Lewisia pygmaea<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Lewisia<\/a>

Lewisia pygmaea (White form?)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Delphinium<\/a>

Delphinium nuttallianum<\/p><\/div>\n

And a final sighting on this ridge was a very nice ground orchid.<\/p>\n

\"Spotted<\/a>

Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata)<\/p><\/div>\n

All in all, a wonderful trip, with a suitcase full of tiny treasures brought back to Maryland from the plant sales at the conference. \u00a0My thanks to Laporte Avenue Nursery<\/a> and Sunscapes Rare Plant Nursery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, I should mention that the Denver Botanic Garden has published a very nice book on this region of the world (and similar) entitled ‘Steppes: The Plants and Ecology of the World’s Semi-arid Regions<\/a>‘. \u00a0Check it out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u00a0just returned last week from a spectacular trip to Colorado that was focused on the North American Rock Garden Society‘s (NARGS) annual meeting. \u00a0The theme was ‘A Higher State \u2014 Steppe to Alpine’ and it was in two locations, the Denver Botanic Garden and Steamboat Springs over 5 days. \u00a0It had been a while since we had been to Colorado, so we met with friends and family in Boulder and Golden beforehand. \u00a0I’ll try to give a brief overview of what was a wonderful and relaxing exploration of mountain wildflowers. Hiking just outside of Boulder we encountered this\u00a0lovely Calochortus. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,4,1,44],"tags":[11,38,10],"class_list":["post-5084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulbs","category-flowers","category-general","category-wildflowers","tag-bulbs","tag-flowers","tag-wildflowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5111,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084\/revisions\/5111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}