Welcome to the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens by Barbara Carvallo

A Rainy Night in the Garden

Beauty by Barbara Carvallo

A little peace and a little bit of poetry. 

Welcome to the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens

Blessed Be by Barbara Carvallo

"Gardening is an active participation in the deepest mysteries of the universe." -Thomas Berry

Too Lovely by Barbara Carvallo

Colorado Shakespeare Gardens

Lovely Columbine by Barbara Carvallo

The Columbine – in her true blue presentation she is Colorado’s state flower, designated as such in April of 1899. She is high born, gracefully cascading down the slopes of the Mighty Rocky Mountains in a radiant stream of sunlit elegance. This little lady stands in tribute to endurance and charm. Grown in some of the coolest regions of our mountain range, she can tolerate a late freeze or snow. If you plant a bed with different shades of Columbine they will cross pollinate, and the next season you will discover that they appear varied in subtle and lovely ways.

Native to the rocky earth of Colorado’s High Country they aren’t particular about soil. Amending soil every season with organic compost helps to defend them against the one thing they won’t experience in the Rocky Mountain spring – heat. It is advisable to water this little wildflower with the same frequency as any perennial. Since Columbine’s roots are neither invasive nor destructively tuberous it can be grown near other plants and will not disturb their food and water supply.

It is generally believed that the Columbine is a spring bloomer – sun to partial shade – this information is found on seed packets and with containers of starter plants. These instructions generally refer to life in the wild as opposed to home gardens. Columbines can live in morning to early afternoon sun, and with proper deadheading, watering and feed they bloom well into mid-summer. 

Care of Roses by Barbara Carvallo

March is an excellent time, weather permitting, to clean rose beds of leaves and debris from the previous winter. Spores of the three most common molds that prey on the rose in Colorado, powdery mildew, black spot and rust, overwinter on dead leaves. 

Middle to late April, after the last frost, is considered the best time to prune and first feed roses.  There are people who do prune in autumn. Roses that bloom once a season are pruned after they have bloomed – some as late as the end of June. Tall roses threatened by wind and snowfall would benefit from pruning anytime to protect them from exposure.  With our unseasonably warm weather, many of us are seeing a great deal of new foliage emerging on canes suggesting that early pruning might be in order.  Common sense is the rose gardener’s best guide.

The process of pruning is very straightforward.  All dead and diseased canes should be removed initially.  Where disease is prevalent and before moving to a healthy rose or other plant in the garden, clippers and hands should be washed with hot water and soap, and then rinsed with rubbing alcohol.  Gloves should be changed.

Roses like air and light.  The gardener is wise to leave plenty of space between the rose and surrounding plants when pruning.  Opening up the center of the rose also allows for good air flow and light.

The preferred shape of the rose, its size and the number of roses or other plants in any given garden all will determine how much pruning a rose will need from season to season.  A rule of thumb is that no more than a third of a healthy cane should be pruned away in most cases.  A diagonal cut is made just above an outfacing eye bud (about a ¼ inch) located below an emergence of healthy new growth.  A drop of water soluble Elmer’s Glue applied to the freshly cut cane will protect it from carpenter bees and other boring insects.  When the rose has died back to the ground the cane should be cut back to the available new growth accordingly. 

There is no mystery to growing lovely roses.  They require pruning once a season; feeding every 4-6 weeks before August 15^th; deadheading as needed to keep blooming; and proper watering.  Depending upon soil structure and weather, an inch per week during growing season is standard. As with any other shrub or plant, check soil moisture before watering. Roses don’t like wet feet.

The roses featured here are, in order of appearance:  Just Joey, hybrid tea; Scentimental, floribunda; Vavoom, floribunda; the Crimson Fairy Rose, ground cover; Neptune, hybrid tea; Remember Me, hybrid tea.

Blessed Be by Barbara Carvallo

The Butterfly is a spiritual symbol of grace, tenderness and the Divine Feminine.  A guide on our journey of ascension from the past to the enlightened awareness of our future, she represents the possibility of change.  Freedom is something that cannot be given or taken.  Spiritual freedom, the liberty of the soul, is a state of Goddess’ grace.  No human agency can interfere with the inner life of the sage and seeker after knowledge.  There is a world that isn’t visible to the eye, a music that can’t be heard by the ear and a life that exists eternally past the Sacred Veil of the Crone.  The butterfly moves between that world and this, she sings that music to the flowers and makes them open their faces to the sun.  The Crone holds the Veil between our worldly vision and the higher soul that aids us on our path from birth to death, from caterpillar to pupa and out of our chrysalis to become the winged spirit moving toward the source where our gorgeous wings are painted with the essence of what we are and the wisdom we have gather from life to life.     

Blessed Be.