NOCO in Full Bloom

Nothing compares to a midsummer stroll among the flowers, taking in the sights and scents of tropical blooms filling oversized planters and spilling from hanging baskets overhead. If you listen closely, you’ll hear the bees buzzing from bloom to bloom, and you might even be greeted by a graceful butterfly or a hungry hummingbird.

Finding these whimsical escapes isn’t hard in Northern Colorado, where every city and town is painted with nature’s color palette this time of year. Consider this your summer scavenger hunt for our region’s most beautiful annual flower displays.

Colorado State University’s Annual Flower Trial Gardens

The CSU Trial Gardens are widely known for their annual and perennial flower displays in front of the University Center for the Arts in north Fort Collins. The grounds come alive with vibrant pops of color every summer, creating an idyllic scene for family photos, picnics and mental health walks. They’re also studied by horticulturalists and college students who share a passion for discovering which varieties will thrive in Colorado.

“One of the main purposes of the CSU Trial Gardens is to evaluate and observe hundreds of different annual and perennial plant varieties and how they perform in our unique climate,” says Chad Miller, associate professor and director of the CSU Trial Gardens. “It’s not surprising that the growing conditions here on the Front Range can be intense and variable. These trials help homeowners and consumers identify plants they might want to grow, while also aiding industry professionals and horticulturists in making informed decisions about what to grow and sell.”

This year, Miller is especially excited about a smaller variety of scented geranium, which he says looks like “gumdrops in the garden.” He also loves an annual called “didelta” for its silvery-gray, oval-shaped leaves that add texture to colorful pots and flower beds. Those are just two of the plants on his long list of favorites.

“Others are tithonia, or ‘Mexican sunflower,’ which are bright orange and have soft, velvety leaves—they’re pollinator magnets—and oenothera, which are like a Missouri primrose, with bright, sunshiny yellow carpets of color,” he says. “We’ve also got an ornamental flowering tobacco called ‘nicotiana,’ which I like because it’s dainty and the flowers dance above the foliage.”

The CSU Trial Gardens are free to visit and accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Miller says, so anyone can stop by to get ideas for their own garden or simply enjoy the flowers.

“A lot of folks use the bike path to get to the other side of campus, and when I’m working out there, I get to hear people say, ‘Thanks for all the work that goes into this,'” Miller says. “It really meets the mission of CSU and is a great community asset. It’s one of the top tourist destinations in Northern Colorado.”

Old Town Fort Collins

As you head north of the CSU Trial Gardens, you’ll start to see more planters brimming with colorful flowers and cascading greenery. Those are the work of Mike Brunkhardt and his crew of about a dozen horticulture technicians.

As a senior supervisor with the parks division for the City of Fort Collins, Brunkhardt is in charge of the city’s horticulture, which includes beautifying the city’s trails, streetscapes and medians. It takes his team three weeks to plant the annuals downtown every spring, resulting in about 45,000 annuals planted there every year. But it’s a year-round effort that starts in the fall.

“Usually around September or October, our horticulture technicians begin the design work for the following year,” Brunkhardt says. “They’ll visit the CSU Trial Gardens to see what varieties are doing well in our climate and see if there are varieties that are new to the market during the testing phase. Every year is different, whether it be different textures, colors, varieties or combinations of plants. We leave that up to the creativity of our designers to decide.”

This year’s annual displays add shades of purple and orange in many places, plus pops of pink and yellow, Brunkhardt says. Some of his favorites are the three beds on the north side of Old Town Square as well as the ones inside the Square that showcase flowers of varying colors, textures and heights. Plant enthusiasts should keep an eye out for the Cannova Leopard Gold canna lily, Fireworks gomphrena and Autumnale fuchsia varieties, he says, along with snake plants and Petra crotons, two common houseplants that make a statement in annual flower beds.

“The canna lilies are yellow and spotted, so they look like leopard spots,” he says. “Those are really unique. I’ve never seen them in our designs before.”

Brunkhardt is also proud of the annual pots in Oak Street Plaza, an area that was recently enhanced with more perennials to create an oasis of horticultural interest. Some of his favorite annuals in the pots this year are the Banana Musa (Ensete maurelii), trailing dorotheanthus Mezoo and Angel Wings senecio. But mostly he likes the atmosphere the plants create and the enjoyment they provide for onlookers.

“The flower displays have such a positive impact on our community,” he says. “They create a beautiful, memorable space that’s free and open for everyone to enjoy. It’s a social equalizer: Everyone can bring their family and enjoy the beauty of downtown.”

The Gardens on Spring Creek

With 12 acres of botanic gardens right in the center of Fort Collins, The Gardens on Spring Creek bursts with color in the summer as hundreds of perennials and annuals show off their blooms. The scenery changes every year, with new annuals emerging around the welcome area, children’s garden, outdoor kitchen and “color walk” leading to the stage where bands perform throughout the summer.

“My favorite displays are always the ones right in front of the stage,” says Kelly Kellow, greenhouse and butterfly house horticulturist at The Gardens. “When you’re sitting at a concert and looking up at the singers, you have these beautiful flowers that are right below them. It’s the perfect photo opportunity.”

That display features peachy calibrachoas, maroon petunias, purple-blue salvias and bright orange and magenta dahlias with black leaves, a combination that mirrors Northern Colorado’s beautiful sunsets. Along with those stunners, Kellow planted some lesser-known annuals in an area called the “Undaunted Garden,” including a trumpet-like double purple datura.

“Those are super fun and unusual annuals I found at one of the garden centers here in Fort Collins,” she says. “You just don’t see them anywhere, and that’s why I was like, ‘I have to get these.'”

Kellow grew all the annuals in the children’s garden in house, from the craspedia Golf Beauty to the Candy Corn dahlias with yellow, white and orange petals that resemble the Halloween treat. She also grew Fireball French marigolds specifically for the “crescent” bed, an area kids often soak with the water feature.

“The marigolds love water, which is perfect because the kids can dump water on them and they will never die,” she says.

Admission to The Gardens is free for members and costs $12.50 for non-member adults and $10.50 for non-member seniors/military, children and students with an ID. In addition to the gardens themselves, visitors can experience The Butterfly House (a greenhouse with more than 300 butterfly species) and sign up for classes, buy concert tickets and submit volunteer inquiries at fcgov.com/gardens.

Downtown Loveland

Loveland is known for its arts scene, and in the summer, that includes dozens of flower pots that are planted through the Bloom’n Hearts of Downtown program. Run by the Loveland Downtown District, the program invites businesses to sponsor a flower pot, which is then designed, planted and maintained throughout the summer by Kelly Badger Rodriguez, owner of Garden Graffiti.

“We primarily do the pots and hanging baskets for downtown Loveland,” Badger Rodriguez says. “We start with the soil, then we add fertilizer and a polymer that helps retain the water. From there, it’s the maintenance of feeding them, pinching them back and giving them some love so that they grow and fill in really beautifully.”

When designing the pots, she takes into account the different colors, textures and heights of each annual and how they might look together. It’s a concept she refers to as “thrillers, fillers and spillers,” meaning that her designs typically feature a showy plant as the centerpiece, mounding plants that fill in the gaps—”you’ll see coleus in almost all of the pots,” she says—and trailing plants that fall down the side of the container.

Some of her favorite annuals she planted this year are the “cosmic zesty purple” Benary’s Giant zinnias displayed in front of the Cloz to Home boutique. In several other pots, she tried out chenille pendula plants, a striking red, Dr. Seuss-like annual that resembles fuzzy caterpillars hanging over the edge. Throughout the downtown, she also planted a lot of big, native-looking daisies called “argyranthemum” for added height and colorful blooms in shades of yellow and red.

“They’re similar to a lot of the wildflowers if you were to go hiking in the foothills,” Badger Rodriguez says of the daisies. “We like to bring a native feel into select areas, and they’re also drought tolerant once they get established.”

Along the 5th Street parking lot by Verboten Brewing, she planted four large pots she’s particularly proud of. In fact, she named the one in front of Josh & John’s “The Selfie Pot” because it’s so Instagram-worthy. Other nearby displays incorporate yellow begonias and craspedia, the tall flowers that resemble yellow ping-pong balls. Though they are all different, the common thread between Badger Rodriguez’s pots is her love for interesting plants that others might not have seen before.

“Flowers, dirt and soil have always been a big part of my life,” she says. “It’s an incredible blessing that I get to do this for a living.”

North Lake Park & Benson Sculpture Garden

Loveland’s North Lake Park in the summertime is a treat for art enthusiasts and plant lovers alike. If you’ve visited the park recently, you might have noticed colorful annuals accenting the many sculptures that make Benson Sculpture Garden an internationally recognized art destination. Those displays were designed by Emily Weakland, the volunteer program gardener for Benson Sculpture Garden and owner of Betterland Design, who has a talent for using flowers to animate the sculptures.

One of Weakland’s can’t-miss displays is located at the corner of 29th Street and Aspen Drive, where she planted agapanthus and canna lilies to create a tropical environment around the bronze sculptures of big cats (“Night Shadows” by Tim Cherry). She also camouflaged Cherry’s “Roundbottomus Hippopotomus” (bordering the North Lake Duck Pond) with tall reeds of King Tut and Prince Tut papyrus to mimic the ecosystem of the longest river in the world.

The papyrus grasses “lend their texture and movement to the fun fantasy,” she says. “Curly Wurly corkscrew rush helps populate the ‘Nile’ waters and create a fun peekaboo moment for visiting strollers to discover our rotund creature.”

Weakland’s annual displays have popped up around several other sculptures, offering their own creative enhancements. The magician’s waving wand in Craig Campbell’s “Abracadabra,” for instance, is complemented by colorful cosmos that “add a confetti flourish to his performance,” she says. As the dancer in Barbara Chen’s “Nocturn” lifts her foot for a pirouette, a cluster of Obsession Blue with Eye verbena emerge in her wake. At the feet of Susan Geissler’s “The Potato Man,” Weakland planted Marguerite and Bright Ideas Rusty Red sweet potato vine, and near the nuzzling bunnies entitled “A Friend Indeed,” she planted florets of purple kale, a reference to the fuzzy creatures’ favorite snack.

Aside from coming up with a creative vision for each sculpture, Weakland’s main challenge is finding plants that thrive in Benson Sculpture Garden’s many microclimates.

“Some of the gardens are wet, some are shady and some are dry and hot with full sun,” she says. “If you’re looking for a plant to go in a specific part of your yard, you can get ideas from the different ones we’ve planted throughout the gardens.”

Those who enter North Lake Park from Taft Avenue can’t miss the brand-new sign and a striking flower display that was designed and planted by Angie Moore, horticultural specialist for the City of Loveland, and her team of full-time and seasonal workers. The area is reminiscent of a bouquet, with “lots of randomness” that mixes different textures and colors, she says. That includes colorful zinnias, nemesia, salvia, dusty miller and tall annual grasses that serve as the backdrop of the flower bed.

Fans of Moore’s work can see other displays she designed this year at the Loveland Museum—keep an eye out for the double impatiens that “look like miniature roses,” she says—as well as the South Shore at Lake Loveland (near the heart sculpture), where she planted lots of black-eyed Susans, snapdragons, dichondra and tropical vines that can be seen from U.S. 34. She also planted flowers around the flagpole at the Winona Outdoor Pool and did the raised beds outside the Public Works office, which are filled with snapdragons, petunias and zinnias.

“We have to plant stuff that is very sturdy and is going to withstand the heat and a little bit of dryness,” Moore says, “as well as stuff that will self-deadhead and keep looking fabulous.”

Downtown Greeley

During a summer walk through downtown Greeley, you might notice nearly a hundred new pots containing annual flower displays designed by Happy Life Gardens in partnership with Zach Jordahl, the City of Greeley’s horticultural lead. This year, you can see lots of sweet potato vine and coleus in those pots, Jordahl says, along with evergreens that provide year-round interest. And if you look up at the metal poles in the medians on 9th Avenue, you’ll spot more than a dozen hanging flower baskets with alternating styles—one with vinca vine and the other with tradescantia vine—filled to the brim with calibrachoas, bacopa and petunias sourced from Plantorium Greenhouse.

While Happy Life Gardens plants a majority of the annuals for the City of Greeley, Jordahl works with horticulture students from Greeley West High School to plant flowers along 8th Street Plaza. That area includes three large planters and 15 medium-sized planters the students are in charge of.

“They implemented some gladioli as one of the centerpieces because gladiolus is the city flower of Greeley,” Jordahl says. “Another annual they used was craspedia—those little yellow balls—which I love because it matches the whimsical nature of the art downtown.”

The partnership between the city and Greeley West High School is an ongoing effort to instill civic pride in the students while giving them hands-on experience in everything from the design, soil prep and irrigation installation to planting the annuals. There’s also a goal of engaging youth in the broader landscape and horticulture industry, a field they might enter as adults.

“This is only a small part of their core curriculum, which focuses more on things like hydroponics, greenhouse growing and floral arranging,” Jordahl says, “but this part is neat because all the annuals they planted on 8th Street Plaza are ones they grew in the greenhouse at their high school. Getting the hands-on experience to be able to do it, instead of just learn about it, is really cool.”

Treasure Island Demonstration Garden

If you follow the Poudre River Trail south of Eastman Park in Windsor, you’ll stumble upon the Treasure Island Demonstration Garden, an acre of public land that produces fruit and vegetables for the Windsor Severance Food Pantry and doubles as a demonstration garden full of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees that grow well in Northern Colorado. There’s an emphasis on waterwise plants (primarily perennials and natives), though some annuals, like heat-tolerant zinnias, nasturtiums and dusty miller, also fit that description. Many of the annuals are donated by Gulley Greenhouse & Garden Center.

Bright yellow, red and orange zinnias line the east and west sides of the property, which are always a main attraction for the public, says Christine Ginnity, volunteer and horticulture specialist at the Treasure Island Demonstration Garden.

“When I moved to Windsor close to 20 years ago, this was the first place I went after I got my first iPhone, which had a camera, because the zinnias are just that exquisite,” she says. “One of our long-time volunteers, Joan, collects and sorts the zinnia seeds every fall, then she dries them and brings them back out to the gardens to plant the next spring.”

Other annuals like geraniums add sporadic pops of color, mostly to attract pollinators and make the garden more showy. One of these is the Ace of Spades sweet potato vine, which provides a lush purple backdrop for the Naked Lady lilies (Amaryllis belladonna) that pop up every summer. Annual and perennial groupings are important, Ginnity says, because they complement one another in the landscape.

“We get a little snooty about our perennials, but annuals definitely have their place,” she says. “That’s especially true in the early season when you’re waiting for other things to bloom. It’s an interim activity where you can still plant something, and that just feels good to humans.”

 

Tips for Designing Annual Displays at Home

There doesn’t have to be a rhyme or reason to which annuals you plant—as long as they get the right amount of light, water and space. Lindsay Nerad, a water efficiency expert at Northern Water in Berthoud, offers these suggestions:

• Use thrillers, fillers and spillers. Try fountain grass (thriller), silvery dichondra (spiller) and small, bright flowers as fillers to add dimension to annual pots. Nerad suggests flowers with contrasting colors, like purple and orange, as well as white for smooth transitions.
• Play with airy plants. Whirling Butterflies add visual interest to annual pots because they look like butterflies fluttering in the wind, Nerad says. Their movement draws the eye, making the display more dynamic.
• Mix in perennials and succulents. Low-water plants, such as succulents and some perennials, add texture and variety to annual displays while remaining drought tolerant. Nerad likes succulents for their sturdy structure, Mexican feathergrass for its flowy movement and echinacea for its beautiful purple color.