`Undaunted Garden and Chromatecture sculpture at Gardens on Spring Creek

When drought, heat, hail, or cold has you daunted about gardening in Colorado, just walk through the Undaunted Garden to get your mojo back.… Read More

The post Undaunted Garden and Chromatecture sculpture at Gardens on Spring Creek appeared first on Digging.

October 16, 2026

When drought, heat, hail, or cold has you feeling daunted about gardening in Colorado, all you have to do is walk through the Undaunted Garden at the Gardens on Spring Creek to get your mojo back. Designed by acclaimed plantswoman, designer, and author Lauren Springer, and named after her book The Undaunted Garden (read my review), it sings with the beauty of steppe-climate plants.

Undaunted Garden

I wasn’t just there for the plants. The Chromatecture exhibition was ending in September, and I drove up to Fort Collins with my friend Beth to see it. The colorful, geometric pillars created by Colorado Springs artist Pard Morrison are meant to echo the hues, textures, and rhythms of the garden.

The pillars led us along the paths like beacons, but the plants slowed our steps as we took in their beauty. Not only that, but Lauren Springer took time out of her day to join us and give us a personal tour. How lucky were we?!

The Undaunted Garden includes a large collection of hardy cactus like prickly pear and cholla.

They are so pretty festooned with purple tunas and with light shining through their spines.

Prickly pear with tunas (fruit)

Yuccas add starburst shapes to the mix.

In the distance, a blue Chromatecture sculpture stands among yellow flowers.

The garden wraps around a low, rocky hill topped by a ramada shade structure.

Along the main path, I admired a showy hummingbird trumpet and ‘Undaunted’ ruby muhly grass. I must have both of these plants in my future garden.

‘Undaunted’ muhly

Hummingbird trumpet and barberry glowing like embers

One more

More subtle colors here, except for that Chromatecture pillar

Lauren identified some small conifers I coveted, like this furry ‘Helga’ Austrian pine.

And ‘Mesa Verde’ prostrate Colorado spruce

And ‘Al Johnson’ dwarf jack pine

She pointed out this cute lil ‘Echiniformis’ dwarf hedgehog juniper too. Thanks for the special tour, Lauren!

Foothills Garden

Another interesting garden at Spring Creek is the Foothills Garden, which “showcases native plants found in the foothills biome seen from 5,000′ to almost 9,000′ in the Fort Collins area and at varying elevations up and down the Rockies.”

This garden shows its dry-garden bona fides with shades of silvery blues and greens, plus tawny grasses. The pines delight me — one more conifer to love in a state where they grow so well.

Fremont’s mahonia (Mahonia fremontii) is a big, silvery evergreen that’s covered in yellow flowers in spring. It’s closely related to the agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata) of Central Texas.

Curl-leaf mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) is another tough, shrubby evergreen for the Front Range.

Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) is one of my Western garden faves for its apple-blossom flowers and feathery pink seedheads.

Rabbitbrush in fall glory, frosted with electric-yellow flowers

Bees were working those flowers and appreciating them too.

This wraps up my fall visit to the Gardens on Spring Creek. To read Part 1 featuring the Prairie Garden and more Chromatecture sculptures, click here.

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