The City Park Greenhouse serves the four major park districts of Denver and is located on 23rd and York St. It consists of sixteen greenhouses comprising 54,000 square feet of growing area. Fourteen greenhouses are for use by Parks and two houses are, by agreement, for use by the Denver Zoo and to a lesser extent, the Denver Botanic Gardens. Directly outside of the houses is a trial garden to showcase new and interesting flowers.
2012 City Wide Flower bed Planting Map
The 2012 Denver Parks Flower Bed Planting Plan reflects budget and staffing reductions
Budget and staffing reductions from 2008 to 2012 have had cumulative serve level impacts on Denver Parks in three major areas: safety, health of living infrastructure and aesthetics. To lessen the impact on safety and health of living infrastructure, Denver Parks is making adjustments to aesthetics, specifically the 2012 flow bed planting plan, reducing by three percent the overall number of flower beds that it will plant in 2012.
The overall goal for the 2012 Flower Bed Planting Plan was to prioritize biggest impact sites with reduced travel times for maintenance, which means reducing small beds spread out across the system. When planning the reduction, overall distribution and equality across the system was a critical factor. In all, the Denver Parks system has 413,612 square feet of flower beds; the 2012 Flower Bed Planting Plan calls for 13,487 feet of the beds to not be planted with annual flowers or three percent of the overall total square footage.
The plan reduction will free up nearly 1,200 hours of staff time , which will allow for staff to concentrate on other areas of maintenance in the Denver Parks system that were lacking in 2011.
All plants and flowers for the Denver Parks system s sprout under the watchful eye of Denver Park’s experts at the City Park Greenhouse, located at 23rd and York. These experts are constantly working to grow the most efficient, beautiful plantings possible. The facility consists of 16 greenhouses comprising 54,000 square feet of growing area. All of the annuals for Denver's park system, plus some perennials and blooming decorative plants, are grown there. The City Park Greenhouse’s annual goal is to propagate 250,000 annuals, perennials, shrubs, stock plants and poinsettias.
All of the flower beds with existing perennial plantings will be maintained to specific horticultural standards for Denver Parks and Recreation horticultural assets. Denver Parks will edge all the beds not being planted and spray them for weeks or four times over the summer.
Denver Parks is partnering with Grow Local again in 2012 to highlight its citywide sustainability efforts. Grow Local will be planting and maintaining seven beds across the city, which equates to 6,007 square feet.
“The current plan has been adjusted to reflect our best attempt to balance current operational levels with incorporating our City’s new mission of ‘Building a World Class City Where Everyone Matters,’” said Deputy Manager of Park Scott Gilmore.
To view some of Denver's most prized specialty gardens and what types of flowers are found there, click here.
2012 Flower Bed Planting maps by District