Trees in the garden

Audio Transcript

 [Gardener] This is a tour of the many special trees found in the courtyard that holds the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens.  There are three sources for these trees. Some are planted by the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens, of course. There are also trees planted by the University of Colorado as part of their on-going efforts to feature interesting trees from many different areas of the United States. The University holds scheduled campus tree walks, generally on two consecutive evenings in both May and October. Contact the Henderson Museum of Natural History for specific schedule times. The third source for the trees in the courtyard is donations. Donated trees often have a plaque at their base designating the person in whose memory the tree was planted.

Our tree tour begins with the large one-seed juniper in the center of the courtyard. The University of Colorado planted this tree, and it has been in the garden a very long time.

Also planted by the University of Colorado is the nearby bald cypress. This unique tree drops its needles in the fall. It was planted in the early 1980s, and and its location was chosen for its poor drainage (this tree likes water) and because the courtyard offers the tree protection.

Two donation trees are next on the tour. The English oak for Robert Pois from the history department is found just north of the bald cypress. The other donation tree at this end of the garden is the redbud, for Kathy White.  The redbud is notable because it flowers early in the spring before the tree leafs out. It can be so spectacular that, when it flowers, the university arborist receives lots of calls asking, “What tree is that?”

There are three crabapple trees in the courtyard. The first “old school” flowering crab grows at the northwest corner by the Education building. It is planted in a tight spot. Its canopy is limited, and it has been pruned to fit the space. At the time of the planting, the selection of crabapple varieties was limited. The second “old school” crab is in the southeast corner,near the Midsummer Night’s Dream garden. It also has a globular shape, which you can see because the tree was planted in a space that was large enough to allow it to develop its natural form.

The third crabapple is a much smaller tree next to the sidewalk. In the 1970s and 1980s the nursery industry developed and introduced many new varieties of crabapple trees with widely varied characteristics. This one has different colored foliage and its blossoms are a different color, and it bears little or no fruit. It is a donation by CU sorority Alpha Omicron Pi, with a plaque at its base. It was planted in the 1996-97 academic year in honor of the chapter’s 100th anniversary.

Between the Highlight Garden and Elizabethan Garden is a memorial plum tree which the Colorado Shakespeare gardeners planted in honor of Tristan, son of Richard Devin, a director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and a strong supporter of the garden during the early years.

The raised Elizabethan Garden has two junipers in the center, pruned in spirals similar to the topiary trimming that became very popular in 17th-century England.

The English oak next to the Elizebethan and Founder’s Garden was planted by the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens in memory of their founder, Marlene Cowdery.  This stately, magnificent tree was important in the development of the British Empire. During Queen Elizabeth’s time so much lumber was cut for building ships that virgin forest areas of England were largely denuded. Shakespeare refers to the oak many times, often as a metaphor for leadership.  He also refers to acorns, which this tree is capable of producing. However, finding any acorns anywhere across the entire campus is unreliable because of the many squirrels who eat them before they fall.

The next tree is an apricot, planted by the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens.

Following that is a pagoda dogwood, a donation tree gifted in honor of John Major in 1988. It grows to be about 20 feet tall, but we can think of it as either a large shrub or a small tree. It is noted for mixing up vertical and horizontal: the branches grow like a scaffold away from the tree.

Across the sidewalk is the “old school” flowering crabapple we mentioned earlier. It matches tree in northwest corner; but grows in a larger space and has needed less maintenance to make it fit the space. This shape is closer to its natural form.

Behind it are three dwarf Alberta spruce trees. They are very small, and will remain that way, this being their natural height. They look kind of like a topiary.

Next (due South) is the flowering crabapple donated by Alpha Omicron Pi in 1997.

In the center of the Midsummer Night’s Dream Garden is a hawthorn tree, a tree said to be beloved by the Faeries. There is also another nice older hawthorn specimen a little to the southwest, the southwest corner of the Education building.

Between the Midsummer Night’s Dream Garden and the Knot Garden is a “Red Sunset” maple (Acer rubrum).  Planted by the University, it is noted for its spectacular fall colors.

In the Canon Gardens there are three trees trained as espaliers; this is the process of training a tree to grow against a flat surface, such as a wall. The method involves years of dedicated pruning to create a vertical main stem, and then train the new side branches to achieve the desired shape. These trees seem small, but if you look closely at the size of their trunks, you can tell they are older trees.

The near tree is an apple, the middle espalier is a pear, and the third another apple.

The final tree is a catalpa, planted by the University. Its wonderful white aromatic flowers in the early summer become long, brown seed pods in the early fall.