The Great Rare Fern Transfer: From the Regional Parks Botanic Garden to the Denver Botanic GardensDavid Sherertz As part of a planned family trip to Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park last month, Roz Hardy and I, both docents at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden (RPBG), decided we would visit the Denver Botanic Gardens (DBG). We asked RPBG director, Bart O’Brien, if he could arrange any special tours for us through his many contacts there. Bart reached out to Kiamara Ludwig, who propagates ferns, bryophytes, and many more species at the Garden. Kiamara had recently visited DBG for a conference, spoken with their horticulturists, and discovered that the Denver garden had no Cheilanthoid ferns. Cheilanthoids are the most commonly found fern species in the arid southwest and other xeric habitats throughout the world. Kiamara offered to send three of these rare desert ferns—species the DBG had long struggled, unsuccessfully, to cultivate. Kiamara had several of those ferns thriving at the RPBG and was happy to share some. The ferns had been grown from spores collected from the Mojave Desert National Preserve with the assistance of park botanist Drew Kaiser. One of the requirements of the permit issued to collect the spores was that any plants successfully grown could go only to approved botanic gardens. Kiamara carefully prepared special travel pouches for three of the rare desert ferns and delivered them to us along with detailed instructions: once we landed in Denver, we were to use a straw she provided to gently blow air into each pouch to refresh the ferns. She packed the pouches into a small box for safe carrying and delivery. At DBG, horticulturist Laura Swain met us and received the ferns. We then delivered them to Brooke Palmer, the DBG horticulturist who oversees the fern collection. Kiamara is working with Brooke on fern-growing protocols. Laura then led us on a wonderful behind-the-scenes tour of many of DBG’s specialty areas, including their herbarium and the Mordecai Children’s Garden. During our visit, we even got caught in a brief but intense afternoon downpour inside the Children’s Garden greenhouse —a refreshing surprise on an otherwise sunny day. After the rain cleared, we explored several areas on our own, including DBG’s Rock Alpine Garden, which helped inspire our own Crevice Garden at RPBG. DBG’s alpine collection features more than 2,000 species of plants gathered from high-elevation regions around the world—a truly remarkable display of botanical diversity. With a wide range of specialty gardens displaying plants from all over the world, two restaurants, two art galleries, and a small film theater, the 24-acre York Street DBG is well worth a visit. Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden have free, reciprocal admission privileges at the DBG, as well as at hundreds of additional North American botanic gardens (here is a list and map of participating gardens from the American Horticultural Society). For those interested, Laura Swain, DBG horticulturist, discusses sustainable landscape practices for the Colorado region in the YouTube video Right Plant, Right Place...Right Practice! which features many views of the DBG.
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