Thank you to EVERYONE who helped make our plant sale a success!

We could not have had a successful sale without all the awesome volunteers who gave of their time and energy!

Morning Volunteer Sessions Underway in Gardens

by Erin Eisen HAS President

We had a bit of a false start for garden volunteering this year due to the snow and colder temperatures. Luckily, the temperatures for the second week of April looked better, so we started working in the garden then.

We have much to do: cutting back perennials, weeding, picking up debris that has blown down into the garden from the trees, etc. We also have our new vegetable garden (located in the Demonstration Garden) to plant up. Board member Eva Regan has taken charge of the planning and planting of the vegetable garden — if you have a particular interest in this area, let us know!

Our current volunteer hours in the gardens are 9 a.m.-noon:

• Tuesdays we are at the Demonstration Garden with Rob Lucey leading.

• Wednesdays we’re at the Heritage Garden where Terry Webb heads activities.

• Thursdays we’re back at the Demonstration Garden with Louise Conner heading up the projects.

If you would like to get outdoors and help a good cause, sign up to volunteer here.

NOTE: We adjust our hours when the weather gets hot — usually starting at 8 or 8:30 a.m. We will let our volunteers know ahead of time. Also be watching your email for possible cancellations if the weather should take another freezing, snowy or particularly damp turn.

See you in the gardens!

Dishing the Dirt on Soil Testing
by Barb Valenti, HAS Trustee

We recently held a class, “Soil: The Foundation of a Successful Garden” by Joan Nusbaum. She highly recommended having your soil analyzed before creating a new bed, be it vegetables, lawn or perennial garden bed. This lets you know the baseline (e.g., pH, nutrients, type of soil, etc) before you start amending or improving your soil.

Before planting our new vegetable beds in the Demonstration Gardens, we sent off for a soil test. The results came in and we learned that the composition of the soil is very good. It is high in organic matter, high in all macro and micro nutrients, but just a little low in manganese.

There are several options for obtaining an analysis of your soil sample, including:

• Colorado State University’s Soil, Water, and Plant Testing Laboratory (SWPTL). They offer comprehensive analyses of soil, water, plant tissue, manure, compost, and other agricultural material for $35 per test. The web page is: https://agsci.colostate.edu/soiltestinglab/ and address for mailing or dropping samples is:

Soil, Water and Plant Testing Lab

CSU Spur Terra Building

4780 National Western Drive

Room T-316

Denver, CO 80216

Phone: (970)491-5061

Email: soiltestinglab@colostate.edu

• WardLaboratories: 

https://www.wardlab.com/services/soil-health-analysis/

Their routine test gives the same info as CSU lab for $22 per sample.

• Weld Laboratories: https://weldlabs.com/ 

Their routine test provides enough information, in almost every case, for home gardeners for $20 per sample.

Plant Select 2023 Introductions

by Diane Engles, HAS Member 

Plant Select^® is a nonprofit collaboration of Colorado State University, Denver Botanic Gardens and professional horticulturists. In their words: “Our mission is to seek out and distribute the very best plants for landscapes and gardens from the intermountain region to the high plains and beyond.”

Plants are trialed and tested for 2-5 years at Denver Botanic Gardens, Colorado State University, and public and private gardens. There are six new introductions for 2023.  Four of them are native to the western and plains states. Check them out below — for more detailed information click on the links. 

TUSHAR bluemat penstemon (Penstemon xylus) is a tough small penstemon from the Tushar Mountain range in Utah. It has lavender-blue flowers from June to July and steel-blue foliage. This xeric penstemon loves gritty soils and full sun. Its size makes it ideal for rock gardens, troughs and crevice gardens. Its evergreen foliage is a bonus in winter gardens. It is hardy to Zone 5a. 

Ultra Violet Salvia (Salvia ‘Ultra Violet’ ^{PP 21,411}) is an exciting addition to the Plant Select program from horticulturist Lauren Springer. This western salvia is cold hardy and compact growing 18-24 inches tall and wide

It has iridescent, deep purple flowers that add a pop of color in the late summer garden. It starts blooming in July and will offer flowers into the fall. Ultra Violet Salvia is xeric, easy to establish, and is both rabbit resistant and deer resistant. It is hardy to Zone 5. 

TIDY Littleleaf Peashrub (Caragana microphylla ‘Tidy’) is a large shrub or small tree, depending on how you choose to train it. It has airy, bright green, fern-like foliage. In the spring, it produces showy yellow flowers. It can be used as a windbreak, bird habitat or landscape tree. It was selected for reduced suckering, making it a perfect courtyard tree with a southwestern look. This tough xeric plant takes heat and cold in stride and is hardy to Zone 4. 

Shimmer Evening Primrose (Oenothera fremontii ‘Shimmer’ ^PP19,663) is a great pollinator plant attracting bees, sphinx moths and butterflies. It has cheerful, large, lemon-yellow flowers that bloom profusely in late spring and re-bloom in the summer and fall, filling the evening air with a beautiful scent.

SILVER TOTEM® buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea ‘Totem’) has an upright, columnar growth habit, making it ideal for many uses, including accents, privacy hedges, colonnades lining walkways, or for shielding unsightly parts of a yard (like a telephone pole). In the spring, it produces small clusters of tiny yellow flowers before its narrow, silvery green leaves emerge. It’s a great choice for sunny, dry locations. It tolerates heat and drought, but does equally well in moist conditions. The flowers of SILVER TOTEM®  are female, tiny, yellow, and bloom on the stems before the leaves emerge in spring.

Bellina Pink Cornflower (Psephellus simplicicaulis) is a well-behaved, small-scale groundcover slowly growing up to 24 inches wide that produces bright pink pincushions from spring through summer. It has frilly, matte green leaves that have a silver hue on the underside. The showy, bachelor button-type flowers have pale pink centers. 

It is ideal for rock gardens and borders. Its foliage is short at 4 inches but the flowers grow 8-10 inches high making them good for cutting. Bellina Pink Cornflower is hardy to Zone 5.

Photo credits:  Plant Select^®