Fall 2025 President's Letter
By: Vicki Aber
It has been quite a busy summer. See the reports in this Newsletter. Our next meeting on September 15th at DBG is mostly fun with a little bit of housekeeping. First, we get to see all the pictures our members have submitted for the Photo Contest. We will see if we can top last years’ submissions!
After that, we will have Board elections. Every year we elect half of our governing board for a two-year term. The positions that we will be voting on are:
• President, currently Vicki Aber. This is my first term, so I am eligible to run again and am willing to unless someone wants to arm-wrestle me for it.
• Treasurer, currently Trina Jacobson. She is eligible to run for another 2-year term.
Board-At-Large members are not term limited and those up for vote are:
• Dennis Weatherman
• Brenda Parsons-Hier
• Dorothy Martinez
• Peter Hier
• Jerry Swanson
Dennis would like to step down, leaving one opening, if someone wants to jump in. We really are a fun group and there isn't that much work involved. We always welcome new ideas. Call or email me if you think you might be interested. I can be reached at either (303) 669-9760 or email docvicki@msn.com.
The October 20th meeting at DBG involves some work, but also some fun. We will talk about the year in review, both in our own yards and in the Club. There is often a lot of common ground on how things went, but also some individual questions and hopefully answers. If something didn't work well for you this year and you have questions or if something worked really well and you want to brag, come and share. We will also talk about what went well with Club activities and what failed. For the business portion of the meeting, we will be discussing a couple of proposals for our website development, as the owners of our current web hosting company are retiring at the end of the year. If you have any input, please come to the meeting or reach out to me.
Of course, we can't forget the Christmas Party (not to be missed). Then we start all over in 2026.
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Thanks to Summer Activities’ Participants
By: Jerry Swanson
As a co-chairman of the Annual Pond Tour and the Water Blossom Festival, I would like to thank everyone who participated or attended these activities.
For the Pond Tour, we ended up with nine ponds located in Lakewood, Arvada, Golden, Northwest Denver, and Lafayette. Some of the hosts had up to five ponds and some had streams with up to 10 feet or more of elevation drop. All in all, we viewed some very impressive water features and a very wide selection of water plants, not to mention some fine koi. One feature many of the hosts shared was their yards and ponds were located on hilly terrain, leading to natural-appearing falling streams or waterfalls with multiple levels of ponds.
Our 2025 hosts were Bob Birdsell, Lakewood; Nancy and George Steinke, Lakewood; Alyssa Schear, Lakewood; Brenda Parsons-Hier & Peter Hier, Golden; Dorothy Martinez & John Funk, Golden; Bill & Janet Bathurst, Arvada; Vicki & Dan Aber, Arvada; and Carolyn Blakley, Lafayette.
An extra special thanks to Jess Milano & Keith Clasen of Denver who hosted the picnic and showed their pond to all the members who attended the Pond Tour and Picnic. Thanks to my co-chairman, Dennis Weatherman, who is a great burger flipper! We all enjoyed the day and evening, and left with more than we came with, as there were ample door prizes for everyone.
In the midst of some hideously hot weather, the annual Water Blossom Celebration turned out to be a cool and perfect day to visit the various water features at the Denver Botanic Gardens. It was well attended.
The Club volunteers were ably assisted by Tamara Kilbane’s summer intern, Avery, who is fantastically knowledgeable and enthusiastic about carnivorous plants. This year’s giveaways were Cape Sundews, Umbrella Palms, and Dwarf Papyrus, courtesy of Tamara (Denver Botanic Gardens’ Curator of the Aquatic Collection). Incidentally, Avery runs his own carnivorous plant business called Moxie Plants from his home in Aurora.
In addition to the giveaways and information, the Water Blossom Celebration featured tours of the various DBG water features, in pond presentations, the DBG aquatics information cart, and CWGS’ informational brochures. Perhaps the only down about the WBC was the cool spring nights and late onset of spring resulted in the giant Victoria waterlilies and Gorgon plants being smaller and having less blooms than previous years, so there was less to brag about.
Again, here’s a big thanks to everyone who attended or participated in the 2025 Pond Tour & Picnic and the 2025 Water Blossom Celebration. See you in 2026!
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2025 Water Blossom Celebration
By: Bill Bathurst
What a wonderful day it was for the Water Blossom Celebration at Denver Botanical Gardens!! It was just the right temperature, which meant that we had countless visitors to the booth. They were amazed by the Dwarf Papyrus, Dwarf Umbrella Palms, and Cape Sundews that we were giving away, special thanks to DBG and Tamara Kilbane, Curator of the Aquatic Collection!
Brenda Parsons-Hier was one of the first volunteers on scene and was available to answer everyone’s questions!
Everyone was happy with the display about carnivorous plants sharing the table with CWGS. Children were especially fascinated by the Bladderwort exhibit under the magnifying glass.
Dorothy Martinez was helping provide answers to any questions guests had about waterlily, lotus, and other aquatic plant care and maintenance. Many DBG guests had questions that were answered by Dorothy.
Highly educational tours of the water garden features were provided by Jim Arneill, Jerry Swanson, and Kim Kimpton. They were continually busy providing this wonderful source of education.
There were at least five people that were interested in joining the CWGS!
Overall, it was a very successful event. We hope to see you at next year’s Water Blossom Celebration!!
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2025 IWGS Symposium
By: Vicki Aber
A contingent of CWGS members recently traveled to New York for the annual International Waterlily and Water Garden Society Symposium. Dorothy Martinez, John Funk, Tamara Kilbane, Bill Bathurst, and I participated. It was a wonderful and exhausting time.
There was an optional pre-Symposium on August 12th. The people who did this tour went to Manhattan Island and saw many gardens and other sights. I did not go on this tour, so I can’t speak from firsthand experience.
On August 13th, we all piled on the tour bus to visit Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Brooklyn Botanic Gardens are set on 52-acres and have a very large selection of both aquatic and terrestrial plants. The first stop was two long rectangular ponds with a circular pond in the middle with a fountain. There was a large collection of waterlilies, lotus and marginals - all well labeled. Beyond that were several interconnected conservatories all with plants from different parts of the world. Some of them had very tropical plants and were hot and very humid (I didn’t mention but hot and humid was the theme for most of this trip). Some of the areas had plants from desert areas, so they were drier and a little cooler. Even with the heat, my favorite was the tropical area that was very dense with orchids hanging all above you. There was one room with an extensive collection of Bonsai. This was where we almost lost Bill with his love for all things Japanese. From there we wandered around the 52-acre gardens and we saw many different plants and many familiar plants.
After we had enjoyed Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, we ate a boxed lunch and got back on the bus. We next went to New York Botanic Gardens. There was a Vincent Van Gough exhibit that blended the art with the plants and flowers that he painted. This garden is 250-acres, so there were a lot of gardens to see. There is a nice tram that takes you around and explains things, which helped get you oriented and decide what you wanted to see more of. They also have a large area of old growth forest that is untouched. There are paths throughout that allow you to walk through the forest. It almost felt like home with all the trees. The Bronx River runs through this area. It was so hot that day that we considered jumping in the river.
August 14th we again boarded the bus (see a pattern yet?). On this day we headed into Pennsylvania. On our first stop we went to Aquascapes Unlimited, a wholesale plant nursery. They had many waterlilies, lotus, and marginals that we are used to seeing. They also had an extensive collection of carnivorous plants. Some lucky people were selected to make a bog garden with 9 different carnivorous plants – Bill was one of the lucky ones. Stay tuned, there may be much more about this next season. They provided a delicious barbeque lunch for us and then it was back on the bus.
From there we went to Fitz’s Fish Ponds (FFP). For the Koi aficionados out there, this was heaven. FFP takes 2 trips to Japan every year to purchase fish. They sell everything from small fish that are 3 – 6 inches long to truly giant Koi that are 3+ feet long. They do sell retail, so check out their website at https://fitzfishponds.com/. Personally, if I spend a lot on a Koi or name it, then it is doomed so I didn’t purchase anything. From there we went to the historic Waterford Gardens, now FFP Saddle River. This property has recently been purchased by FFP, so it is a mix of historic gardens, more huge koi, and water plants.
August 15th was education day. This is a day mostly devoted to lectures of interest to water gardeners. The bus took us to Wave Hill Botanical Gardens where we were able to have time to visit the gardens and have the lectures on site at the historic Wave Hill House. Lectures covered a wide range of topics from hybridizing waterlilies, to lotus, to photography, and many other topics. My favorite was Professor Dr. Andre Leu on collecting and hybridizing Australian waterlilies including the part with an armed guard to keep the crocodiles at bay.
Wave Hill is in a very beautiful location with views of the Hudson River and on the opposite shore The Palisades (basalt bluffs) above it. The gardens were very well done, both the terrestrial gardens and the water garden, but the view was what really got me. This was the end of the main Symposium.
A post-Symposium Day to Longwood Gardens was offered. All of the CWGS contingent went on this. Longwood is not something that can be described, so I won’t try but the re-done waterlily and lotus court is not to be missed. A bonus is if Tim Jennings or Suzanne Boom are there, they typically get in the ponds and do a show and tell about the various plants growing in the ponds. If you have never been to Longwood, try to get there, it is a rare gem. If you have been, you know what I’m talking about and want to go back.
The IWGS Symposia are always a great time. This is my tenth Symposium and I keep going back for all the things you get to do and see. There are all the places you go that you had never heard of and places on your bucket list. Probably the best part is all the friends you make. Everyone you meet has a love of gardening, so it is very easy to find common interests to talk about.
As I write the first draft of this, I’m sitting in the airport getting notice that our flight is delayed yet another half hour (so far, a total of 4 ½ hours). If we ever get out of New York, I will see you all at some of our upcoming events.
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August 2025 Pond Side Meeting in Fort Collins
By: Vicki Aber
On a beautiful day in August, a number of our members made the trek to Fort Collins to visit Gayle Close's reimagined neighborhood water feature. It was only fair; Gale has been coming to Denver for most of our meetings last year and this year to get ideas and plants for the feature.
When Gayle started with renovating the water feature, it was overgrown with cattails, had massive amounts of muck, large cobbles in the bottom, and a very oversized pump that was constricted down, but still eating up electricity. She and her helpers (mostly family members) mucked it out, took out the large cobbles, and resized the pump to make it much more energy efficient. She then added a very nice selection of plants, which have settled in nicely and are happily blooming. Her before and after pictures are amazing. Next, she is planning to work on the marginal areas where she also wants to include a bog garden.
This is a great example of taking the bull by the horns and making an eyesore into a thing of beauty. She had to get her HOA on board. She applied to and got a number of grants to help with the costs. She populated it with plants, many of them purchased at our Sale or donated by members. She repaired leaks to help with water loss and one of the biggest accomplishments was replacing the very inefficient pump. All this work resulted in something her neighborhood can be proud of while also saving them money. At least one of our members, Bill Bathurst, is ready to try to tackle his HOA after seeing what is possible.
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2025 CWGS Holiday Party & Gift Exchange on December 8th
By: Sue Weatherman
Save the date for the 2025 CWGS Holiday Party on December 8th starting at 6:00 pm. We will be celebrating again at the Arbor House in the Maple Grove Park located at 14600 W 32nd Avenue, Golden, CO 80401.
Our event will start at 6:00 pm for some social time, then dinner will begin at 6:30 pm, followed by the Gift Exchange at 7:30 pm.
If you want to participate in the Gift Exchange, please bring a wrapped gift with a value of $15 or less.
CWGS will provide the main course, desserts, and drinks. Please bring an appetizer, salad, or side dish to share.
You don’t want to miss this event at such a wonderful location, so mark your calendars, buy your gift, and think ahead as to what delectable dish you will share with all of us!
If you have questions, please fee to call me at (303) 638-5012 or email me at sueweatherman@msn.com.
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