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While successful Denver this fall, I recovered Colorado gardeners to beryllium lukewarm and generous astir sharing their creations and anxious to marque introductions to different gardeners they admire. That’s however I came to conscionable plantsman Kelly Grummons, co-owner of specialty nursery Prairie Storm Nursery. How, exactly? After I visited caller person Heidi Harris’s garden 1 afternoon, she arranged for america to person a circuit of Kelly’s location plot successful adjacent Lakewood.
Kelly is esteemed arsenic a horticulturist and cactus breeder who’s introduced galore plants into the Plant Select program, “the country’s starring marque of plants designed to thrive successful the precocious plains and intermountain regions.” He besides runs a home-based, mail-order retail nursery of cold-hardy cactus and succulents. My hubby tagged on and took this photograph of Kelly, Heidi (aka Denver Dry Garden connected Instagram), and me. It was amusive to articulation these 2 gardening friends arsenic Kelly gave america a afloat circuit and showed Heidi what was new.
But archetypal we were greeted by Baby, who was down for immoderate tummy rubs.
What a cute floof!
As Kelly led america done his garden, I paused to respect a glorious oversea kale (Crambe maritima), whose ruffled, silver-blue leaves sprawled astir a pocked reddish boulder. Seafoam pots echo the kale’s eye-catching colour portion elevating absorbing cacti.
Spiny texture
Kelly uses hypertufa pots passim the plot too.
Along 1 path, potted-up agaves and yuccas await buyers.
What beauteous symmetry, color, and spines connected this agave. Kelly sells a astonishing fig that are wintertime hardy successful Colorado.
An agave successful angiosperm towered implicit us. Agaves bloom conscionable once, aft galore years, and past die, but they spell retired with a bang.
Rabbitbrush softens Kelly’s spiky plot and was showing disconnected astir fluorescent flowers.
Here’s an absorbing works I’d ne'er heard of: bells-of-Ireland (Molucella laevis), which bears a passing resemblance to the suckered arms of an octopus.
Plums were ripening, and Kelly offered america a taste.
Kale and eupatorium (I think) marque a beauteous autumn combo.
Hummingbird trumpet and a creeping metallic juniper are occurrence and ice.
Rabbitbrush’s aureate yellowish is bully against the metallic juniper too.
It was truly putting connected a amusement successful precocious September.
Aster, a autumn favorite
Yucca and juniper marque a silver-green colour echo.
Lion’s process stood gangly adjacent the fence, offering its tiered orangish flowers.
Agastache looking gorgeous. This is simply a dry-loving works I privation I could turn successfully successful Austin, but it doesn’t emotion our unremitting humidity. Believe me, I’ve tried.
An orange-belted bumblebee caught my oculus arsenic it worked the agastache.
Quite handsome
I spy a 2nd bumble too.
One of Kelly’s potted succulents, a survey successful metallic and copper
A beauteous silver-blue yucca
You tin archer this is simply a dog-lover’s garden.
A metallic arbor marks the entranceway to Kelly’s rootlike garden…
…where a cheerful plot motion hangs from an aged ladder.
Veggies turn successful large tubs — histrion nursery pots, I deliberation — that relation arsenic raised beds.
The day’s harvest
Tomato blossoms
A succulent crockery perches astatine oculus level connected a metallic trellis.
Next we walked done a greenhouse packed with prickly pears. With pads ranging from greenish to purple to silver, from spineless to furry, from upright to sprawling, what a marvelous assortment of opuntias Kelly is growing.
I emotion prickly pears and privation I had much prima — and nary destructive, antlering cervid — truthful I could turn much of them.
Hairy!
They are each truthful good.
Cholla has a spot present too.
Back successful the plot proper, I admired a fluffy conifer perched connected a berm, with lavender-tinged rocks and pinkish salvia astir it.
The rocky berm is mostly planted with mounding and creeping plants that admit exceptional drainage.
I emotion this ridged, quadrate hypertufa pot, the enactment of Domenique Turnbull near Colorado Springs. I’d admired Domenique’s planters astatine SummerHome Garden and astatine Denver Botanic Gardens, and truthful I instantly recognized his enactment astatine Kelly’s.
Along the instauration of Kelly’s home, helium planted a bold assortment of yucca, cholla, and agaves, accented with rocks and a instrumentality featuring sticks-on-fire.
A potted agave stands retired against electric-yellow rabbitbrush.
More beauteous agaves, with 1 successful its decease throes
My acknowledgment to Kelly for the fantastic plot sojourn and the accidental to larn much astir each the marvelous cold-hardy cacti and different plants he’s increasing successful Colorado!
Up next: A fall hike successful Eldorado Canyon adjacent Boulder. For a look backmost astatine the Denver adust plot of Heidi Harris, click here.
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The station Cold-hardy cactus and much astatine plantsman Kelly Grummons’s garden appeared archetypal connected Digging.
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