Manitou Springs Pollinator Garden Tour

Entries on This Tour

This Gnome Garden at the east entrance of the park is part of the recent efforts to enhance the natural environment of Manitou Springs that began in 2018. The garden includes a wooden gnome sculpture, which whimsically observes as visitors, water foul, and wildlife go about their day. The garden surrounding the gnome features native plants, which include sulfur flowers, wild strawberry, blue mist penstemon, rocky mtn penstemon, bee balm, rocky mountain columbine, blue columbine, blanket flower, silver lupine, shrubby cinquefoil, sticky geranium, goldenrod, and an air loom wood rose bush. Amy Yarger, Horticulture Director of the Butterfly Pavilion, originally designed this first official pollinator garden in Manitou. Other Schryver Park amenities include the Manitou Springs Pool and Fitness Center, public restrooms, electric bike share, EV charging station, a play area, picnic tables, restrooms, and a pond. A lighted fountain was added to the pond in 2024 which keeps the water aerated, clean, and ultimately healthier for habitat.

2. Visit Manitou Springs Garden

The Chamber of Commerce in Manitou Springs may easily be found along Manitou Avenue thanks to its mint green, quirky question mark sculpture surrounded by a colorful menagerie of native flowers, grasses, and shrubs. Plant species featured here include catmint, iris pallida, baptisia, rockcress, barberry shrub, honeysuckle, daylily, dianthus, yarrow, lavender, sedum, Shasta daisy, Black eyed Susan, and grass varieties of Karl Foster and miscanthus. The Manitou Springs Garden Club lovingly planted and maintains this garden viewed and enjoyed by so many in Manitou.

3. Memorial Park Headstone Corner Garden Organic Landscape Conversion

Manitou Springs' Memorial Park Headstone Corner Garden is one of the city's newest, situated at the northwest corner of Manitou Avenue and Old Man's Trail. Looking for ways to increase the community's pollinator footprint while decreasing irrigation requirements, this historical marker corner garden exemplifies incorporating both waterwise plants and food for hard working pollinators. Plants featured here include: rabbitbrush, tufted hairgrass, ruby muhly, artemisia sp., apache plume, mahonia repens, red yucca, blue grama, pine leaf penstemon, sedum, sulfur buckwheat, narrow leaf coneflower, anise hyssop, butterfly milkweed, evening primrose, Lewis' flax, chocolate flower, desert four o'clock, rocky mountain penstemon, gayfeather, and ornamental crabapple tree.

4. SunWater Spa Gardens

The SunWater Spa gardens, located at the foot of the majestic Tava mountain, permeate this hilly property in every possible outdoor green space. The Manitou Garden Club maintains the grounds which showcase a variety of perennials, shrubs, and trees. Plants featured here include: sweet woodruff, henry lauder walking stick, pulsatilla, Pasqua flower, Pinon tree, American Linden, Hackberry, Honeylocust, Catalpa, Conifer- low spreaders, Tatarian Maple, Golden raintree, Blue Hills Giant or Walkers' low, Salvias & sages, Maximillian Sunflowers, Veronica ground cover, Potentilla ground cover, Yarrow, Centranthus Jupiter’s beard, Agastache, Iris, Penstemon, Liatris, Columbine, Aster, Blue stem grasses, Miscanthus grasses, Karl Forester grasses, Blue Mist spiraea, Currant, Russian sage, Rabbit brush, Fern bush, Butterfly bush, Mahonia aquifolium, Sage - many varieties, Mock orange, Ninebark, False Indigo, Carol Mackey, Vines honey suckle, Wisteria, ghost honey suckle, Bee Balm, Gambel Oak, Ivy English, zauchneria - California carpet, Mugo Pine.

5. Mansions Park Gardens

The Mansions Park gardens are located behind Manitou Springs' City Hall and are the result of community efforts by both the Manitou Pollinators and Manitou Springs Garden Club. Two separate gardens are highlighted here. The park also features a stunning fountain and several colorfully tiled concrete benches by which to enjoy the gardens.The first garden situated to the west features a native plant garden installed by and maintained by the Manitou Pollinators. This plot consists of a variety of native plants to include blanket flower, cinquefoil, rabbitbrush, little bluestem grass, yarrow, catmint, prairie coneflower, penstemon, showy milkweed, salvia, blondie grass, rocky mtn bee balm, blue fescue grass, and borage.The second garden to the east is a result of coordinated maintenance efforts by the Manitou Springs Garden Club. Inside each fenced section are six garden plots, divided by perennial chives, and which are rented out by participants. The centers and perimeters are planted with perennials and herbs. Black-eyed Susans, lavender, daises, and borage greet you as you walk up to the gardens, with roses at the back corner of each section.

6. St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Gardens

The St. Andrews Episcopal Church Gardens nearly surround this entire edifice. Both perennial and annual gardens are featured here, as well as raised vegetable beds on the east side of the church. This plot of greenery is lovingly tended to by volunteer patrons of the church. Perennial plants include: lupine, daylily, roses, rocky mountain penstemon, Jupiter's beard, tiger lily, spirea, lavender, snow on the mountain, and juniper trees. Annuals include petunias and pansies, and the vegetable garden features broccoli.

7. The Cliff House Gardens

The Cliff House features an extensively varied garden in the front expanse of this historic hotel. Starting from the west end of the garden and ordered left to right plants include: lantana involucrafa, eucalyptus gunni, chives, plantain lily, golden columbine, achemilla vulgaris, aster chilensis, garlic chive, phenomenal French lavender, Japanese sedge, marigold, Fortune's spindle, cotton easter dammeri, brunnera macrophylla, common rose, Oregon grape, iris, cynoglossum, dubautia, orpine sedum, prunella, iris pallida, allium hollandicum, juniper, myrica californica, phlox douglasii, phlox bifida, sesleria caerulea, (south) evergreen candy tuff, rosa glauca, catnip, aucuba aucuba Japonicer, ardisia Japonica, (east) Korean spice viburnum, xylosma salicaceae, woolly lavender, Jupiter's beard-red valerian, yarrow, periwinkle, Iceland poppy, rosa fedtschenkoana, brunnera macrophylla, sandcherry tree, thug green, blue spruce, southwestern white pine, Paeonia barberry, Japanese barberry, mountain ash-sorbus sitchenis, bridal wreath, (front/south) lilac, myrtle, oak, Manchurian ash.

8. Soda Springs Park Gardens

The Soda Springs Park is considered one of Manitou's flagship green spaces featuring sculptures, a playground, rock formations, and gardens. Soda Springs' broad list of plants, grasses, trees, and shrubs include: western wheatgrass, green needlegrass, sideoats grama grass, buffalograss, thinleaf alder, red twig dogwood, golden currant shrub, elderberry tree, yellow columbine, Black-eyed Susan, salvia, panchito manzanita, spreading phlox, native verbena, and northern sea oats perennial grass.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Manitou Springs Pollinator Garden Tour

Created by Joan Stang on June 3rd 2022, 2:09:55 pm.

Get a QR Code for this tour

Description

A 1.7 mile (point to point) walking or cycling tour of mostly city park gardens, as well as a few privately owned businesses. Enjoy viewing gardens featuring native grasses, shrubs, and perennials specifically selected to support a healthy and diverse pollinator habitat. This entry was created thanks to support from Manitou Arts, Culture, and Heritage (MACH). https://www.manitouspringsgov.com/558/_Manitou-Arts-Culture-and-Heritage-Board

Entries on This Tour

Manitou Springs Pollinator Garden Tour

Description

Share