It was Fall of 2020 and as a paranoid immunocompromised 27 year old with an existential dread about climate change I was looking for an activity and a way to do good for the environment while I couldn’t interact with most of my friends. And then, I found trees. Up until then, I don’t know that I could have ever guessed the species of any tree I was looking at. And now here I was, biking all around town to find some of Denver’s largest and most interesting trees. I remember looking up at Denver’s largest Bur Oak and being completely amazed. I was psyched.
During this time, I also wanted to see how many types of trees I could grow. I’m not sure what my plan was going to be with all the future saplings I’d have in my basement but either way, out of boredom and curiosity, I was moving forward with the plan. I biked around all over town collecting acorns, seed pods and even a few small tree limbs hoping I’d be able to turn them into real baby trees over winter. I ended up with over 100 thornless honey locusts and 1 swamp white oak but soon after the trees started popping up, so did a million gnats. Our basement was swarmed with gnats and my partner Maddie told me I needed to get rid of the seedlings. Bummer. I tried planting a few in the backyard of the house that we planted, we moved out the next summer so I’m not sure what happened to them. Hopefully there’s a few random trees popping up in their backyard now.
Anyways, I’ve stumbled across some really neat trees from this endeavor and am compiling a small list of them here so you can go enjoy them too!
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Denver’s Largest Bur Oak: In the backyard of a Cheesman Park mansion, you can see this monstrous tree from Cheesman Park. Bur Oak’s are massive trees and this is Denver’s largest making it easy to spot. One of my favorite trees in Denver.
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Botanic Gardens: This link will take you to the Denver Botanic Gardens website which lists out all of the Champion Trees. There’s a ton. This is arguably the best place you can go in Denver if you want to look at a ton of Champion Trees and also just interesting, peculiar trees that you might not hardly see in Denver otherwise. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
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Weeping Giant Sequoia: You know the normal Giant Sequioa’s. Some of the biggest trees on the planet. Well, this is a ‘Weeping’ Giant Sequoia, a much skinnier version of the same badass tree. I LOVE weeping varieties of trees. Weeping Willow’s are probably the most commonly known and turns out, there’s weeping varieties for tons of trees. A lot of the time it means they’re really skinny, sorta droopy and a little cartoonish looking in a way that I really enjoy.
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Dwarf Conifer Collection: Okay this is an underrated part of the Gardens. The Dwarf Conifer Collection has a ton of dwarf species of trees that you probably know. A dwarf variety is one thing grows really slowly, so a ton of the trees here are super small versions of the standard varieties.
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Waring House: The Waring House used to be where the family that started the Botanic Gardens used to live. There are certain days and times where you can actually do tours and I recommend these. It’s really fascinating. These people were loaded and had like secret hallways and shit. They also have a garden which is technically outside of the Gardens and is free to the public. They have some Champion Trees including an American Hornbeam which is my personal favorite of the trees in this area. It’s got really cool smooth bark that I love. It’s a beautiful garden that’s worth checking out.
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Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory: Probably the most unique part of the Gardens is the conservatory. For some reason, all of our friends called it the Climatron and one day we realized that that wasn’t what it was called at all. I’m not sure where it came from but now we just call it the Climatron. It’s the indoor, tropical part of the Gardens. It’s got so many cool plants including some cool trees. They have some banana trees which are always fun to look at.
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DU: They have a really spectacular collection of trees, including a few Denver and Colorado Champions. I really liked their Bald Cypress and if you go in Fall you’ll see its seeds which are really cool. They also have a Cedar of Lebanon which I had never heard of prior to seeing it and enjoyed too. Apparently there’s an Eastern Wahoo, never heard of this either, not sure if I’ve seen it but it sounds like a fish and I like that for a tree.
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Denver’s Largest Apple Tree: Located in some random backyard and not visible from a park like the Bur Oak but you can still go check this one out without it being too weird.
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A Dr Seuss Tree in a Random Front Yard: Super random and I’m not actually totally sure what kind of tree this is. A weeping for sure. But this is like the most Dr Seuss-ian tree that you just have to go see for yourself. I’m probably hyping it up too much but I do love this tree. It’s curved in a fun way, like an S, probably for Seuss. It sits in the front yard of this cute house with a remarkable garden. Enjoy!
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Denver’s Largest English Oak: Feast your eyes on this beauty. This tree is insane. Like, it’s a really amazing tree. It took like 5 people to fully hug this tree. It’s just next to the sidewalk in front of an old Congress Park house and stands out from the entire block because it’s just such a behemoth of a tree. Like very similar in size to the Bur Oak, but this one just stands out because of where it’s located. You have to see this tree. Go give it a hug. A spanking. I don’t care, get up next to this tree and just admire the hell out of it. 5 Star tree right here.
There you have it folks! Go have yourself an amazing tree hugging filled day. You’ll love yourself for it. The trees will love you for it. Someone will probably see you just drooling over these trees and you’ll start striking up a really nice wholesome conversation with a stranger and life will be good. If you think I missed some top tier trees and want me to include them here, let me know in the comments or send me a message at @heyhappyworm. I love trees! I love you! Have a lovely day!
You may also enjoy: Where to Find the Best Trees in Denver: A Bike Tour