Denver Botanic Gardens has North America's largest collection of cold climate native plants and it is home to the world's first Xeriscape garden. This is based on the Xeriscape way of landscaping and gardening. With Xeriscape, the plants and flowers use a system that minimizes the need for water from irrigation to sustain them and makes for a more eco-friendly way of gardening.
The operating hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Denver Botanic Gardens has several locations of gardens for you to visit. The York Street location has the city's first publicly accessible green roof, and the Mordecai Children's Garden allows kids to learn about plants that reside in the center's Rooftop Alpine Garden. They can learn how plants and animals coexist together in nature and can hunt for bugs and race pinecones down Springmelt Stream, an activity center within the Mordecai Children's Garden.
At the Chatfield location you'll see grasslands, beautiful ponds, nature trails, a one-room schoolhouse and a water garden. At Mount Goliath is a mountain area within the garden that's located 17 miles from Idaho Springs and near Arapaho National Forest. Some of the main attractions of Mount Goliath include alpine forget-me-nots, moss campion, fairy primrose, chiming bells and bristlecone pines. You can also go on wildflower hikes at Mount Goliath.
Denver Botanical Gardens also has some worthwhile annual events for visitors. At the Chatfield location you can see the Corn Maze exhibit, which is a maze designed from many corn stalks, and this year you can also view interesting Native American-influenced artwork in addition to the corn maze. The Chatfield location also has a pumpkin festival every October. At this festival kids can visit the children's activity tent and decorate pumpkins, go bowling with pumpkins and outside of the tent the children can get on amusement rides for free. The kids can also get their faces painted and ride on the Barrel Train.
If you want fresh pumpkin for your pumpkin pie or just for outdoor decorations, the Pumpkin Festival also has a pumpkin sale. The prices vary by size but the average price for a pumpkin is $6.00. In November the Denver Botanical Gardens hosts their annual holiday sale, where you can purchase handcrafted items, specialty foods, clothing and gourmet herbal vinegars. In December the botanical gardens has the Blossoms of Lights, where the garden shrubs are covered in one million beautiful lights of various colors. And in May the Gardens has the annual spring plant sale, and you can choose from 12 categories of plants and fresh herbs plus you can receive advice from expert gardeners.
If you have a paid membership to the Gardens, you can check out books and DVDs on gardening from the Helen Fowler Library. Here you'll find all kinds of books about the origins of different plants, which places are the ideal climate for growing these plants, and how to effectively grow and harvest different species.
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