There are only 34 official Shakespeare Gardens in the world, and one of them is in a courtyard at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The eight main gardens, a physical representation of the plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays, were replanted this spring with the completion of the renovation of the Hellems building.
The newly planted garden is ready again for visitors and is seeking new volunteers to help out in the garden.
“We’re always looking for people who love to garden and who love Shakespeare,” more than 30-year garden volunteer Deborah Broaddus said.
Founded in 1991, the gardens are located just west of the outdoor Mary Rippon Theatre, where Shakespeare plays have been performed since 1944. All the herbs, flowers, trees and plants, including roses, lilies, chamomile, thyme, rosemary and rue, were chosen for the garden because Shakespeare mentioned them.
“He’s just really good at weaving the natural world into the world of people and their relationships and their failures and their foibles,” Broaddus said. “The garden is just representative of that genius of his.”
All the herbs, flowers trees and plants, including roses, lilies, chamomile, thyme, rosemary and rue, were chosen for the garden because Shakespeare mentioned them. (Joel Solis/Staff Photographer)
The garden has several types of roses, including a Tudor Rose and a White Rose of York, which is a showpiece of the garden. Although it’s less than a foot tall now, before the relocation, the White Rose of York was eight feet tall.
The gardeners do their best to raise any plants Shakespeare mentions that they can, despite many plants being native to England and not Colorado’s dry climate. The gardens even have a samphire plant, mentioned in the play King Lear, that’s more than 20 years old and thriving, despite typically growing off sea cliffs in England.
Monica VanZale, a volunteer with the gardens since 1995, said she’s always hit with a sense of calm when she walks into the courtyard.
“There’s busyness around you on the street, but there’s just a sense of peace that presents itself in the garden,” she said.
VanZale, Broaddus and Carol Mellinger, who has been involved with the garden since 1996, were all recruited to join the garden by its founder, Marlene Cowdery.
“It’s a great place for people to just pick up something to eat on the Hill … bring a sandwich or salad, sit in the garden before a play and enjoy being in the garden,” Mellinger said.
Cowdrey started the garden at CU Boulder after she visited Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon and came back with the idea. Volunteers meet every spring to research the plays in that summer’s festival and curate the gardens. During the spring, summer and fall, volunteers meet twice a week to tend to the gardens.
Anyone can visit the gardens or take a virtual tour by visiting csgtour.org/virtualtour. Chuck Wilcox, a fixture of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival from 1971 up until his death in May, narrates the virtual tour.
For more information on the gardens or to volunteer, visit csgtour.org.
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