June 18, 2026
The gardens in Denver come into full flower in June, or so it seems to me. Each weekend offers another Open Days garden tour, and in between I’ve been soaking up the scenery at Denver Botanic Gardens.
Today I’m sharing photos from my recent visits to DBG, starting with this dreamy scene near the entrance. Mullein spires grab your attention first, but then your eye drifts to round spiky yuccas, mounding grasses, columnar Rocky Mountain junipers, and a big metal sphere, one of Jaume Plensa’s sculptures. So good!
Closeup of the mullein
Let’s start down the perennial walk. Last time, I was distracted by irrigation tubing snaking through these beds because the plants were just coming up. Now it’s looking full and colorful.
Romantic delphiniums
Salvia
More purple salvias
Hot-pink geranium too
Giant pincushion flower standing tall
Bees were loving this one.
In the romantic Fragrance Garden, pastel columns lead the eye through a bed of roses, clematis, and silver-blue foliage plants like blue oat grass.
Roses and clematis scramble up a column.
Sweetly scented roses
Pink clematis and silver artemisia
Yellow columbine blooming in June! So different from its bloom time in Texas.
One more
Rocky Mountain columbine
I’m in love with astrantia’s starry-nova flowers.
Bees were enjoying this one too.
A closeup
There’s white astrantia too, tinged with green.
Purple pincushion flowers in full sun were a bee magnet.
She’s intent at her work.
On an evening visit, under a softer sky, I enjoyed foxtail lily flowers. My Colorado friends are telling me hardly any of their foxtail lilies appeared this year, either due to the drought or the unusually warm winter or the late freeze after a warm winter. It’s hard to keep track of all the weird weather they’re dealing with this year — like everyone everywhere.
These bottlebrush flowers are eye-catching when they do appear.
Steppe Garden pond and rock gardens
By staying until sunset, I’d hoped to see the Jaume Plensa sculptures in the Monet Pool illuminated like they are in the exhibition photo on DBG’s website. Alas, the lights appear to be blocked by pond plants, and only one side of the tête-à-tête was well lit. Oh well.
I highly recommend an evening visit to the garden in summer to enjoy its beauty in softer light and cooler temperatures. I’ll be going back soon.
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