July 05, 2026
Last month, five Denver-area gardens were open to the public during an Open Day sponsored by the Garden Conservancy. Five more garden tours — yippee, I’m in!
My first stop was Keith Funk’s garden in Centennial, a south Denver suburb. Keith is a gardening expert who hosts the long-running radio call-in show “The Garden Wise Show With Keith Funk.” I’d seen his garden during the 2019 Garden Fling (here’s my post about it) and remembered it being colorful and immersive. It still is.
Keith’s garden sits at a busy street corner near the entrance to his neighborhood. He’s used several design strategies to pull focus away from passing cars and into the garden.
First, visual ka-pow! A flowering rock garden extends the length of the property and rises toward the house, offering a tableaux of colorful perennials, groundcovers, and other waterwise plants.
Dazzling fuchsia ice plant
‘Dara’ Queen Anne’s lace
White penstemon
An agave with curling, thread-like filaments
Another of Keith’s strategies for making the street vanish is moving water. The contrasty light of late morning makes it hard to see in this photo, but that’s a grotto-like waterfall on the right, which spills into a little pond behind the yellow broom. Another waterfall cascades into the pond from the left. You can see both waterfalls in this video I shared on Instagram.
Penstemon
More penstemon with Queen Anne’s lace and purple coneflower — a pollinator buffet
Purple coneflower
A few more
‘Southern Charm’ verbascum
On the shadier side of the corner lot, at least in the morning, bear’s breeches was flowering.
Kinnikinnick, aka bearberry, creeps over colorful boulders.
Lady’s mantle and blue flax add more color.
Lady’s mantle
One more of the pair
Keith’s garden is built around large pines and other trees, which offer shade on a hot day.
This combo caught my eye: a purple smoke tree, a ferny sumac, and a drooping tree with silver-white leaves. Beautiful!
Heading into the back garden, I admired a royal-purple clematis.
A bench is tucked into a perennial border with lady’s mantle
Astrantia, one of my favorite flowers
Variegated yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata ‘Alexander’). Keith says it needs moist soil but isn’t invasive like purple loosestrife.
Geum, a beauty that also prefers moist soil
One more
A metal crane hides among the geum.
A stone patio off the back of the house features an Italian-style fountain and a collection of potted plants, including a big banana.
Patio seating surrounded by summer-loving tropicals
Rose campion in white and hot pink, with another shady bench along the wall
Back out front, I admired this hidden patio in the center of the front garden. What a perfect spot to sit and observe the neighborhood without being on display yourself.
Shade-loving ferns and hosta make a green ring around the patio.
Along the house, plants from Keith’s garden were for sale. How nice is that? If I weren’t in the midst of a move, I’d probably have filled up my trunk. But for now I’m simply observing and trying to absorb as much as I can about plants that grow here.
My thanks to Keith for opening his lovely garden. If you’d like to see an earlier visit I made to Keith’s garden, click here.
Up next: A pocket-sized garden with “waves of foliage, flowers, and fragrance.”
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