3090 E 4th Ave. Durango

The in-town corner lot had everything Mike and Amy wanted in a garden: nothing. It was a blank slate. So, after gutting the house and demolishing the garage, the same loving ruthlessness was applied to the weedy outside. Drought-loving buffalo grass and 10,000 spring bulbs were planted in the front yard. Subsequently, Mike perfected recipes for deer repellant. Wrought-iron fencing keeps herds out of the back and side yards, which feature specialty and dwarf evergreens, well-adapted Plant Select perennials and rock-garden treasures in a xeric crevice garden, a horizontal rock garden studded with flagstone, an exposed moss-rock outcropping and an experimental shady clay rock garden featured in Summer 2020 edition of NARGS Quarterly. Blooming groundcovers hail from South Africa, Turkey, Morocco, the Falkland Islands and the highlands of the Colorado Plateau. Meanwhile, native and adapted shrubs (and granite birdbaths) welcome visiting songbirds, hummingbirds and butterflies. A flowering “hell strip” flanks the busy and sunbaked street side. Beyond, a network of tawny tight-set flagstone paths takes you through a water-thrifty but verdant secret garden featuring nary a vegetable – because this garden exists not for the kitchen. Instead, it feeds the soul. Mike and Amy have “before and after” posters to show you the transformation over the last decade. You’ll also meet Packera mancosana, a new species discovered in 2008 by area citizen scientists Al and Betty Schneider. This grey evergreen Asteraceae is found in only one place in the world, on a so-called shale barren 75 miles northwest of Durango near Mancos, Colorado. Some 400 Packera mancosana plants are growing strong in the wild.

828 E 6th Ave. Durango

Two years ago Maureen and Dan moved from a large country property with extensive gardens to the heart of old Durango in a house they’d rented out for decades. More than 100 years old, the house underwent a loving restoration, preserving the best of what was there, but thoroughly modernizing and updating all aspects. The garden, which has only been completed in the last year, features a series of rock gardens built from a locally derived quartzite—an unusual rock for landscaping, superbly arranged under supervision of Maureen into outcrops reminiscent of the nearby mesas of the San Juan foothills and canyonlands. The robust growth of the many rock plants, woodlanders and perennials planted thus far are testament to Maureen’s experience with perennials at her previous home. Note the many robust clumps of x Mukgenia ‘Nova Flame’, an unusual hybrid between two genera in Saxifragaceae: Mukdenia rossii and a Bergenia. Despite its youth, there’s much to see in this gem of a garden! Maureen has authored a guide to Durango that will be available at the Conference. She has also produced six hiking guides for “kids” (that are very useful for adults as well) to Colorado and Utah.

503 Long Story Road, north of Durango

Nestled in a lush forest of 100+ aspens, Julia has created an incredible array of gardens, many featuring the local stone in walls and rock gardens. This garden is relatively young, Julia has already gathered a wide spectrum of perennials, wildflowers and alpines. Sunny beds such as at the entrance to her home boast robust mats of native buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum var. aureum ‘Kannah Creek’ ) that are still in full bloom, as well as robust lupines, several species of Eryngium and masses of Penstemon strictus (which has naturalized enthusiastically). A collection of dwarf conifers is interspersed with numerous wildflowers and perennials on the extensive rock garden across the driveway. Look carefully and you’ll see many young plants Julia has planted our recently from seed she obtained from the NARGS seed exchange. If you follow the path behind the house you will see intricate and beautiful monumental walls with a new assortment of plants including Brodiea’s which will be just finishing blooming—mementos from Julia’s years growing up with and exploring the California flora. There are even a few rhododendrons being tested at this lofty site—a tribute to her late father, Fred Cummings, who was a noted Rhododendron breeder and grower in California. The dense forest undergrowth around the Cummings home is glimmering with showy sprays of Actaea rubra—the tallest and happiest specimens we’ve ever seen!

Durango Botanic Garden, 1900 E 3rd Avenue, Durango (open all hours)

Begun only in 2010, Durango Botanic Garden will be the venue for breakfast on Saturday morning of the Conference, but there is much to see here that merits another visit. Begun only in 2010, the garden is gradually expanding around the very elegant Durango Public Library. There are a wide variety of gardens that have been created thus far, several of special interest to rock gardens. The Crevice Garden was designed by Kenton Seth, built with the help of several local designers and contractors. There is a long bank nearby with large outcrops of Gabbro, and several specialty areas including a fine variety of rock garden plants and dwarf conifers.

The volunteers of Durango Botanic Garden will be a major part of the action at this conference. They not only maintain the garden, but conduct many programs and activities through the year, including an ambitious bulb sale in the fall.

27501 Highway 184, Dolores, CO

Mesa Verde has such cache that many tourists to the Four Corners area don’t realize how many other spectacular national monuments, museums and sites the region boasts. Just 11 miles north of Cortez, there is an elegant museum open to the public displaying artifacts from the namesake National Monument and other nearby ancient pueblos. There is an extensive garden arching around the entrance to the Center with a fine selection of Southwest native plants and also many Plant Select varieties.

The Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum, located in Dolores, is an archaeological museum of Native American pueblo and hunter-gatherer cultures, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Two 12th-century archaeological sites, the Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos, at the center were once home to Ancient Pueblo peoples. More info: https://www.blm.gov/learn/interpretive-centers/CANM-visitor-center-museum

The Canyon of the Ancients National Monument is quite a ways further north and West. Hovenweep National Monument in Utah just over the Colorado line is another fantastic site for pre-Columbian architecture and archeology. All are worthy of a visit if you have time!

1003 Oak Drive, Durango

Thursday morning 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. only

Leah Gillaspy's garden is exceptional for a few reasons. It was specifically designed to passively harvest rain from the roof of the house using carefully constructed earthworks. No barrels are involved, rather these earthworks entail sculpting the land using a bunyip water level to ensure the water is walked throughout the landscape. Native and adapted plants were chosen, with the plan being that once established, this landscape will be self-sufficient in its water needs and not require supplemental watering, which is rare for landscapes in this region. Leah is a diligent gardener and although the garden is designed to be low-maintenance, deer resistant, and waterwise with year-round interest, we all know that the most maintenance is required when the landscape is new. This garden is no exception. As a result of all the time Leah has spent getting to know her plants and their needs, it has prospered and is much fuller, at only a year and a couple months old, than landscapes that receive the “plant it and leave it” approach. The plants have really benefited from her time and attention and energy in the garden. The landscape was designed to be a rich tapestry of texture, form, structure and color, heavy on foliage interest, where the flowers are the icing on the cake, but not depended on for the main act of the show.

Eva Montane of Durango’s own Columbine Landscapes Co was the designer and will be on site to answer questions and explain the functionality of the rainwater harvesting system. Leah will also be tending to guests’ questions from her experience as steward of this unique landscape.

27885 Highway 160, Cortez

A premier nursery of the Southwest, Cliffrose* has been a champion promoter of native and adapted plants that are featured in demonstration gardens throughout the property. Owner, Ric Pleše , has a reputation for selecting superior plants for the challenging climate of the Four Corners. This address is the location of the original nursery: Ric has recently opened another shop in downtown Cortez that is worth seeing as well, although there is a much wider selection of plants at this site—some of which may wish to wander back home with you! Cliffrose has an extensive display of Plant Select varieties, (plants researched, developed and marketed by Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University). Cortez is not far from Durango, and has two other private gardens nearby that will be available for touring by conference attendees.

*Cliffrose is the common name of Purshia mexicana (better known by its former name of Cowania mexicana) a remarkably beautiful small tree or large shrub of the Canyonlands of the Four Corners area that has an extremely protracted bloom season and intensely aromatic foliage. Edward Abbey dedicated an entire chapter of Desert Solitaire to this tree!

28966 County Road M, Dolores

A countryside garden near Cortez, Mary Ann incorporates lots of xeriscape plantings among her extensive rock work, including a rich palette of native wildflowers. There are extensive perennial borders throughout this garden featuring numerous classic garden plants as well as the best of the Rocky Mountain palette that has been evolving in recent decades. A mature garden that has interest ‘round the year. Mary Ann also has an extensive trough garden collection of Sempervivum.

516 N. Sligo St., Cortez

Carolyn’s is an expansive, mature urban garden with a wide spectrum of garden style and lots of year around color, with extensive perennial borders all around the house and many shady beds that have robust plantings of Hosta, perennial beds filled with daylilies roses and all manner of hardy and adapted plants as well as exuberant container plantings. Carol also has a peony collection that her great grandmother brought over from Illinois to Salt Lake City to Monticello, Utah, to Cortez, Colorado with the Mormon pioneer migration.

If you have time to spare, here are some additional places to check out: Durango Nursery and Supply, 271 Kaycee Lane, (past Home Depot and over the bridge). A gorgeous and comprehensive Plant Select member garden center complete with a rock yard. A great nursery to check out. Botanical Concepts, 251 County Road 250. This is a small boutique nursery that’s brimming with charm and filled with surprises. Big on native and adapted plants. the Fort Lewis College Herbert E. Owen Native Plant Garden. With 45 species of native plants, this outdoor classroom offers you an opportunity to see local native plant species side by side. It has been awarded a Level 1 Accreditation by The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum for stellar arboreta garden practices. Located near West Hall (directly south of Berndt Hall, and east of the Admission office). And finally, if you are staying downtown, there’s a crevice garden at Bank of the San Juans. Some guy at the bank repurposed this 4x4x8-foot triangular garden (more like a huge tough) in front of the ATM, using roadside stone slabs. It features some plants you won’t normally see in such a public garden: Heterotheca jonesii, Telesonix jamesii, Bukiniczia cabulic, Paronychia kepela spp. serpyllifolia, and Ephedra monosperma to name a few. Located downtown at 144 East 8th Street.