December 01, 2024
I always look for gardens to visit when I travel, and our fall trip up to Denver included quite a few. Happily I was able to squeeze in another during a day trip to Fort Collins, where we spent a couple hours at The Gardens on Spring Creek. Origami-style sculptures by Kevin and Jennifer Box were on display throughout the garden’s 12 acres (the exhibition ended on November 3rd).
These origami sculptures are instantly recognizable to me, having seen them at other public gardens including Missouri Botanical Garden and San Antonio Botanical Garden. I enjoyed their placement among fall asters and other prairie plants at Spring Creek.
The Box version of rock-paper-scissors, with a “paper” origami crane perched on top.
The sculptures exhibited at Spring Creek were created in collaboration with origami artists Tim Armijo, Te Jui Fu, Beth Johnson, Michael G. LaFosse, and Robert J. Lang and based on actual origami creations.
Rock Garden
I remember the rock garden from my summertime visit back in 2019 during the Denver Fling. Fall is a quieter season for it but still lovely. I especially enjoy the variety of conifers they can grow in Colorado.
I covet these silver-blue ones.
A cholla’s bottlebrush spines neatly echo the bushy needles of a blue spruce.
Sempervivum in a mosaic dish planter
Undaunted Garden
The Lauren Springer-designed Undaunted Garden, which had just opened the last time I saw it, was lovely in a palette of silver, gold, and russet.
For contrast, here’s how it looked in June 2019 — a baby garden! In that post, I wrote, “I’d love to revisit her Undaunted Garden again in two or three years to see how it has taken shape.” And now here I was, 5 years later — almost in the time frame I’d hoped for, and maybe even better for a couple more years of growth.
To understand what the “undaunted” is all about, read my review of Lauren’s book The Undaunted Garden. I also visited Lauren’s personal garden during my day trip to Fort Collins. She’s a very private person, so I was especially appreciative for her invitation.
Yellow hollyhocks were glowing like little suns as an origami crane soared against a bluebird sky.
More yellows
Prickly pear and other dry-loving plants thrive among rocks under the intense Colorado sun.
Spiny cholla too
This might be ‘Snow Leopard’ cholla? It’s certainly eye-catching with its dense “fuzz” of white spines.
An autumn tapestry of grasses and perennials
Pitcher sage (Salvia azurea)
Asters and tawny grasses
Prairie Garden
In the prairie garden, muhly grasses daubed mauves amid the greens and tans.
Gaura and muhly grass — probably ‘Undaunted’ Muhlenbergia reverchonii
A creek flows through the garden, a pleasant surprise in a dry-climate garden.
Illinois bundle flower (Desmanthus illinoensis) captivates me with seedpods resembling tiny pine cones.
Even its feathery foliage looks like the needles of a pine tree.
Origami pegasus
The prairie garden was really outdoing itself during this early October visit.
An origami bison among the grasses evoked a ghost bison in the prairie of old.
Grasses in fall flower were catching the light, even at midday.
Pink-flowering muhly grass
Origami horses galloped through gaura and grasses.
What a prancer!
Foothills Garden
In the Foothills Garden of native plants, Fremont’s mahonia (Mahonia fremontii) shone silver-gray against pink rock.
Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) added feathery tufts of pink flowers.
As a shadow passed over the garden, I looked up to see a hawk soaring overhead.
A nearby sculpture, Folding Planes, illustrated the magic of flight of another sort.
Everitt Pavilion and Great Lawn
Looking toward the garden’s pavilion, I spotted a lifelike sculpture of a couple communing on a bench.
A colorful fall border featuring orange and peach dahlias echoed the pavilion’s arched wooden roof.
Glorious dahlias
Amsonia turning gold
An origami boat seemed to stride on stilt-like oars.
Lavender
A metal praying mantis is a permanent artwork in the gardens.
Garden of Eatin’
In the punnily named Garden of Eatin’, a 1-acre garden of edible plants and crops, an origami caterpillar was transforming from larva to chrysalis to butterfly.
Sustainable Backyard
Against the backdrop of a pollinator hotel in the Sustainable Backyard garden, an origami hawk scanned the ground for a little origami mouse.
Nearby, an origami squirrel had hunted up an origami acorn.
Children’s Garden
The children’s garden was packed with schoolkids when I arrived, many of them playing at this stone water table. A giant watering can spills water into it.
A funny garden hose sculpture, seeming to writhe from water pressure, adds to the irrigation theme.
‘Kintzley’s Ghost’ honeysuckle (Lonicera reticulata ‘Kintzley’s Ghost’) always intrigues me. An unusual vine with round, silver-dusted, eucalyptus-like bracts, it’s native in some regions of the U.S. What a beauty.
To read my earlier blog posts about The Gardens on Spring Creek, follow these links:
Up next: The wonderful Denver Botanic Gardens, starting with the colorful entry and Lauren Springer-designed Water-Smart Garden. For a look back at the gardens of Washington Park in Denver, click here.
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Digging Deeper
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