October 13, 2026
Sculpture in a garden combines two things I love: art and plants. Make it colorful, and it’s even better! So when I heard the Chromatecture exhibition at the Gardens on Spring Creek was ending in September, I texted my friend Beth and we drove up to Fort Collins to check it out.
It was good timing. The gardens were full and colorful and accented with mosaicked pillars by Colorado Springs artist Pard Morrison. “Influenced by the colors, textures and rhythms of the living landscape, Morrison transforms elements of garden design into bold patterns, striking contrasts and dynamic forms,” explained the Garden.
We started our garden wander with prairie plants, which is Beth’s special interest.
And no wonder, with asters and grasses exploding with fall color.
Tall verbena adding purple lollipops
A fizzy scrim of ruby muhly grass
Golden lace (Patrinia scabiosifolia) and a purple aster make an electric combo.
Velvety hibiscus petals
Ruffled sea kale and ‘Tiny Wine’ ninebark contrast in color and texture.
As we headed out to the prairie garden, liatris seedheads and ruby muhly grass mingled beautifully. The cresting-wave roof of Everitt Pavilion is seen in the distance.
More flowering grasses along a stream
Now we were in the Prairie Garden proper, which was painterly with grasses and late perennials in bloom.
Another Chromatecture pillar — a sort of digitized camo — stood in the garden, calling attention to the greens and reds of the plants.
And blues
Hello yellow
Illinois bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoensis) always charms me with its pine-cone-shaped seedpods.
Cute, right?
At the far end of the prairie garden, a zigzagging boardwalk leads through a wetland garden, where stormwater and runoff is managed.
Cattails and other bog plants grow here.
Sunflowers too
A grasshopper rests on one of the flowers, watching me watch him.
A Chromatecture pillar stood at the very back, awaiting discovery.
Each pillar was accompanied by an excerpt from a Mary Oliver poem. This one, from “The Lily,” reads:
or, maybe,
it says nothing at all
but just stands there
with the patience
of vegetables
and saints
until the whole earth has turned around
and the silver moon becomes the golden sun–
as the lily absolutely knew it would,
which is itself, isn’t it,
the perfect prayer?
Back in the prairie garden
Gaura
Yellow coneflower
A wide view
This shades-of-blue pillar has dashes of yellow, echoed in the garden by yellow flowers and yellow-green feathergrass.
On a bench near the pavilion sits a bronze sculpture of Fort Collins philanthropists Bob and Joyce Everitt, after whom the pavilion is named.
I’m not typically drawn to traditional figurative sculpture, but this one is sweet.
Beth and I didn’t have time to see the entire garden on this visit because — special treat! — esteemed designer, plantswoman, and author Lauren Springer joined us for a tour of her Undaunted Garden. I’ll show that garden in my next post. Let’s end this one with a Sour Patch Kids-colored Chromatecture pillar and a froth of pink agastache. I can’t wait to grow agastache in my own future garden — next year for sure.
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