Cheyenne Botanical Gardens

Another Botanical Garden post, this one from beautiful Wonderful Wyoming. This visit occurred on my visit to Casper ,Wyoming to visit my mother. I will post also as I return going back home as my camera battery died on this trip.
As I was contemplating from home on what to share about this garden in the capital of Wyoming, I had just received my first magazine copy of The American Gardener. The American Gardener is the magazine of the American Horticultural Society which I had just received as a new member. (By the way there is a nice article from Thomas Rainer (grounded design) titled Cottage Garden, American Style).
On page 13 there is a call for Nominations for the Great American Gardeners Awards and also a portrait of last year's Professional Award given to Shane Smith, Director, Cheyenne Botanic Garden. So obviously this garden is award winning. Read here about the history of this exceptional garden. So let's proceed.

Main walking Entrance to Cheyenne Botanical Gardens

 The "horns" are made of welded horseshoes and nearby there is a plaque with descriptions of different horseshoe hoof prints. The motif is very unique. This entrance is across the street from  the "Grand Daddy of them All" Cheyenne Frontier Rodeo grounds. This is also the pedestrian entrance to the gardens xeriscape demonstration gardens. As there is little parking near this entrance, I usually approach the garden from the parking lot near the garden greenhouses. 

For some reason xeriscape gardens have always been a draw to me. Maybe I'm just a xero-head or have a lack of water in the brain. I just enjoy the shades of gray green foliage of many xeric plants and their often unique, out of the ordinary aesthetic properties in contrast to many common garden plants prevalent in our suburban american landscapes. And of course many of these plants survive the hostile environmental conditions they thrive survive in. Many do well in the harsh Kansas plains that I garden in. The low grass above is a native species of buffalograss with milkweed seedlings interspersed. Behind the sign is a Ephedra equisetina-Bluestem joint-fi(more photos to come), Nepeta-catmint and Gallardia-Blanket Flower. Pathways are generous and well positioned, even thought the pink transition strip is a little bold. 

 If you read the Wikipedia write up on the garden you know that the gardens are maintained by a large group of volunteers and city park employees.

A xericscape cottage garden. Love those Alcea-Hollyhocks so prevalent in the Rock Mountain Regions.

Alcea-yellow hollyhock, Achillea millifolium, some form of Penstemon I believe, Echinacea purpurea, Perovskia atriplicifolia-Russian Sage, and others.

Stachys macrantha 'Robusta'-Big Betony

'Next Winters Bread' by David Alan Clark-In the pioneer vegetable garden.

But my favorite gardens are the prairie gardens in the xeriscape area.

Castilleja linariaefolia-Indian Paint Brush (Wyoming State Flower), Verbena stricta -Wooly Verbena , Hesperaloe, Panicum and surrounded by buffalo grass.

 Verbena stricta

Aclepias asperula - Antelopehorn Milkweed

Asclepias and Fallugia above.

Another shot of the Ephedera in the background.

And on of my favorites below. Apache Plume-Fallugia paradoxa below. Wow.

Back at Last

Kind of. Upon returning a week ago Monday from our eleven day vacation to Colorado and Wyoming, our laptop computer decides to hibernate. No longer showing it's technological  and digital masterpieces of artistry or data. Arghh. Isn't technology great? Or I should say, ain't it frustrating when you rely on something non-human or human I suppose, that just doesn't work. Therefore I haven't recieved my blog posting fix for two weeks and many ideas and inspirations have dissipated into oblivion. Maybe never to see fruition again. Let's hope not. My son brought his work computer along this week for a visit, so I am posting now.What a treat! I had a general idea about my next blog post ten days ago. However after reading a few posts from my favorite bloggers, I had to respond to Professer Roush's recent post on our visit to his garden. You can enjoy his post here.

I wanted to do full blown posts on many of the Xeriscape/Botanical Gardens I had visited in Wyoming. The gardens were cardoned off in Colorado Springs during the Waldo Canyon wildfire so I couldn't visit those. One of the plants I found fascinating at the Cheyenne Wyoming botanical gardens was the plant pictured below:

Centaurea macrocepha

At the time I couldn't figure out what in the world this plant was with the unusual bloom or seedhead? I had no clue. I plucked a bloom and asked my mother when we reached Casper. She couldn't identify it either. So I kept the bloom along with gathered seeds of other praire plants along our trip. After leaving Casper and visiting Professor Roush's garden in Manhatten, Kansas, we were saying our goodbyes and I spied the plant. The same one. The plant I couldn't identify. Centauea macrocepha! The professor had written a post on this plant previously after a garden tour, view this post here. Needless to say I grabbed two spent seed heads ready for planting. Yes!

Photo from Cheyenne Botanical Garden first visit.

Photo a week later.

A day later at Professor Roush's I recieved dried seed heads ready for next year! These images do not do it justice.
 Destiny I suppose. he he. My visit was a blast, even though it was over a hundred degrees and humid. Photos and stories will follow in coming weeks as I recieve my computer back. When ever you have a chance, visit your fellow garden bloggers as friendships can become real.