Denver Botanic Gardens

Horticulture, science and conservation: Denver Botanic Gardens is responsible for living plant collections and horticultural garden displays, which include more than 51,000 living plants, belonging to 10,000+ species. Our wide range of Gardens illustrate the connection between plants and people. Our diverse collections feature plants from all corners of the world, from the tropics to the tundra. Distinctive Gardens define and celebrate our regional sense of place in our unique high altitude, semi-arid climate and geography. As an accredited museum, our diverse collections are used for education, research and pure enjoyment. See schedule o for continuation.among our living collections reside two national collections registered with the national plant collections network (pcn): oaks (quercus) and alpines of the world. Scientific research is closely linked to everything at the Gardens. The core motivation of our scientific work is to investigate and explain biodiversity patterns and processes. We actively conduct scientific research, serve as a resource of scientific expertise and work to train the next generation of scientists. Our programs include population monitoring, seed collection, genetic investigations for conservation or taxonomic clarification, habitat restoration, citizen science and tracking phenology (life-history events) of common species. The Gardens documents plant and fungal diversity with a focus on the southern rocky mountain region through our collecting efforts. The kathryn kalmbach vascular plant herbarium houses nearly 80,000 specimens while the sam mitchel herbarium of fungi houses just over 20,000 well-curated specimens from the region. The Gardens continues to train the next generation of scientists through graduate student and internship programs in collaboration with the university of Colorado at Denver and other local organizations. In 2021 we connected with the local community through the Denver ecoflora project, a citizen science-based project to document plant diversity in the denver-metro area using the app inaturalist. While the federal funding for the project ended, we have continued the work. Our expanded restoration studies examining seed mixes and influence of a warming climate on plant success through common garden studies continued with two active field sites.the Gardens' center for global initiatives is an example of the Gardens' work around the globe. We continued our collaboration with instituto nacional de tecnologa agropecuaria (inta), argentina in 2022. This collaboration was developed to exchange information and capacity on propagation and research of native flora of both argentina, patagonia in particular, and the rocky mountain and plains regions of Colorado. In 2022, staff worked with green legacy hiroshima and the united nations institute for training and research (unitar) to develop research and provide expertise on the protection of trees that survived the atomic bombing in hiroshima, japan. In 2022 the center for global initiatives also stewarded the exchange of knowledge, resources, and collaboration of national academy of sciences, institutes of botany through central asia and the caucauses.

Chatfield farms: the mission of Denver Botanic Gardens chatfield farms is to inspire the public to be good stewards of the environment by connecting people to our past, present and future relationships with plants of the rocky mountain region. Chatfield farms is a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm located along the banks of deer creek in southern jefferson county. Attendance at events and daily visitor numbers were up 8.9% in 2022 to 198,800. Lavender festival hosted 11,500 attendees in the first two-day event. Corn maze was another great success with 67,000 visitors during september and october. Pumpkin festival hosted 36,000 attendees and nearly 27,000 pumpkins were purchased. See schedule o for continuation.trail of lights experienced a 4.5% increase in attendance over 2021 to 42,000! The community supporting agriculture program grew over 71,000 pounds of more than 30 different varieties of vegetables and flowers distributed to 300 paying shareholders in 2022. The program donated 19,000 pounds of produce to numerous not-for profits and foodbanks serving 125 families and 840 individuals every month during the growing season.

Education and outreach: in 2022, Denver Botanic Gardens' education programs reached 19,766 school children, providing hands-on experiences, standards-based science lessons and the opportunity for children to explore the marvels of the plant world, both in person and virtually. About 30% of these children came from low-income schools and benefited from the Gardens' educational access program. More than 11,425 people participated in family and children's programs while the mordecai children's garden continued to flourish. Adult classes and workshops served 15,405 registrants in a wide variety of content areas. See schedule o for continuation.the helen fowler library offered electronic access throughout the year and successfully offered public, in-person access six days a week.outreach programs are a cornerstone in the Gardens' mission and include horticulture therapy services for the elderly, people with disabilities and veterans. Our urban food initiatives programs provided fresh produce to local food desert communities, distributing 19,100 pounds of fresh produce to various community groups.

Visitor experience: in 2022, 1,334,929 individuals visited the Denver Botanic Gardens. Nine exhibitions were presented in the freyer newman center galleries in 2022, featuring international and colorado-based artists. Exhibits included ursula von rydingsvard: the contour of feeling, featuring large-scale cedar sculpture, and abundant future, an exhibit organized by the american society of botanical artists. An outdoor augmented exhibit, seeing the invisible, finished its run in partnership with 12 Gardens from around the world. Two exhibitions organized by Denver Botanic Gardens traveled to other institutions, including la calavera catrina (naples botanical garden, fl) and dreams in bloom (clark Gardens, weatherford, Texas). The Gardens hosted six artists through the land line residency program. Blossoms of light, the Gardens' largest event, welcomed 176,850 visitors. The Gardens also hosted evenings al fresco and glow at the Gardens in addition to an online spring plant sale & fall plant & bulb sale.

Operations and maintenance

Capital improvements: with the exception of the waring house administrative building, the Gardens does not own the land or buildings in which it operates. The city & county of Denver owns the property at the Denver location. Similarly, chatfield farms is located on army corps of engineers land. For this reason, capital expenses are expensed when incurred.