Jan/Feb 2025 E-Magazine
Winter and some Front Range snow finally arrive.
While having brunch on a balmy Christmas Eve morning with my meteorologist friend, Matt Kelsch, he commented that while it isn’t that unusual to have many warm days in December on the Colorado Front Range, what is unusual is to have so many warm nights. So, even though I have a nasty respiratory virus and still have to go outside to feed horses day and night, I feel somewhat relieved that winter has finally arrived.
I still have purple Peruvian potatoes and beets in the ground under thick leaf mulch and the veggie garden is more or less ready for spring with added compost and mulch, and the drip lines coiled up. My main task has been to fence out the rabbits who are eating everything. I’m one of the few on my street without dogs so they must consider this a safe space. Between the chicken wire and row cover I protected most shrubs and young trees but not before I discovered some of the established clematis stems were bitten off at ground level, and the aronia, sumac, my biggest black Nanking cherry, and even some rose bushes were rabbit-pruned. It’s an ongoing challenge.
I know the hellebores will be among the first flowers to appear in the next several weeks. I have dark red ones and pink ones and the chartreuse foetida which reseeds everywhere but one of my favorites is a low growing white one that I picked up at a Denver Botanic gardens plant sale years ago. (Unfortunately I’ve lost the tag and can’t remember the exact variety.) Hellebores are easy to grow and great for dry shade, except probably not some of the fancy, double ones.
I met Kirk Slowe when he sold me an iMac computer years ago and he became a trusted software (& hardware) troubleshooter for me. I could always count on him in the throes of a deadline when I was losing it. Kirk is originally from Guyana, a biodiversity hot spot that he often returns to, and sometimes our computer sessions had a lovely background of chirruping insects and birds that he’d send photos of too. He now lives in Longmont, where he still does computer work but is also reclaiming a plot of ground by planting all native species. He is also having a photo show of plants and insects (“Bees, Butterflies and More”) at the Center for the Arts in Evergreen, January 8-Feb 1st.
Marilyn Raff has written some short plant profiles for our 2025 newsletters. The first (below) is on Fernbush, a terrific shrub for our climate.
Fernbush – Chamaebatiaria millefolium – zone 4-8
by Marilyn Raff:
A Colorado native, the Fernbush, a tough and durable plant, is an ideal deciduous shrub for a rockery or as a specimen plant for a dry, full sun location. For decades I grew it in my rock garden, among Penstemons and Eriogonums and other xeric plants. Or plant it among shrubs, like blue mist spirea. The Fernbush is roughly three -four feet high and wide, larger if it receives more water. It produces pretty clusters of white flowers which release an attractive scent, especially when you work in the area and may rub against its foliage. The flowers appear in summer and continue through August. Read full article on Fernbush »
In this January & February newsletter Keith Funk covers the definition of heirloom plants, sowing wildflower seeds, when to start veggie seeds indoors, plus roses and Japanese beetles.
Here are two additions to my list of online hard-to-find seed sources from our December newsletter:
1. Grand Prismatic Seed – A tiny company in Utah offering crazy hard-to-find regional natives & flowers/plants mostly used for dying
2. MASA Seed Foundation – Locally-adapted organic vegetable seeds for the Colorado Front Range
Wishing you all a happy, peaceful New Year and a great year in the garden. We’ll send out another newsletter in March.
– Jane Shellenberger
Gardening Events
Check out our Colorado Gardener Calendar for lots of upcoming events including gardening classes, webinars, conventions, seed swaps, and presentations.
Do you have some Colorado Gardening events to submit to us?
