You may have noticed the birds are chirping, the flowers and trees are blooming and the air is a-wash in the fragrance of the season. That means the time for spring gardening has arrived. CPR's Andrea Dukakis got a visit at her Denver home from a giant in the horticultural world to get his advice for how to make a garden spring to life in Colorado's unique and changing climate. Panayoti Kelaidis is Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
Some tips from Panayoti for planting:
- Turf grasses for shade: red fescue (Festuca rubra)
- Turf grass for sun: Dog Tuff Grass
- Great smaller trees for Denver: Crabapples, Hawthorns, Hop Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), Utah (Wasatch) Maple, Pinon pine, Gambel’s Oak, Golden rain tree
- Great large trees for Denver: Ohio Buckeye, Yellow Buckeye, Chinkapin Oak, Texas Oak (Quercus buckleyi), Shumard Oak (Quercus shumardii), Burr Oak, Kentucky Coffee Tree, Honey locust (which is bordering on being overplanted)
- Underutilized shrubs: Viburnums, Lonicera korolkowii, Seven Son’s flower Heptacodium miconioides (large shrub), Philadelphus, Lilacs
