Lawrence Landeros’ job at Denver Health Medical Center deals mostly with the year-round nitty-gritty of keeping the hospital grounds safe and clean.
But it is his work making sure that the 20-acre urban campus is beautiful that feels most important to the maintenance worker who does double duty as the hospital’s head gardener.
“People love the flowers,” he said. “The patients, visitors, family members, they’re here usually not for a happy occasion, unless someone is giving birth. Usually they’re pretty sad, and this just brightens them up.”
Landeros grows every annual flower and plant for the campus’ beds and containers from seed in a tiny greenhouse atop the Behavioral Health building. It’s filled with nearly 1,000 seedlings he started in January. They’ll be planted after Mother’s Day.
Marigolds and snapdragons. zinnias, bachelor’s buttons, and California poppies. Salvia, asters and crown of thorns. Hanging baskets lush with velvety purple petunias.
He finds that geraniums can be tough to cultivate but managed to grow some this year from seed. He’s also proud of his crop of needle-like spikes, Cordyline indivisa, that will provide the grass-like focal point in some of the container gardens.
Denver Health once had a full-time gardener. After she died about 12 years ago, the hospital tried a few different replacements, but they just didn’t work out. “At one time, they shut down the greenhouse because it just wasn’t paying off,” Landeros said.
Then one day, he and his supervisor decided to try it again, this time with Landeros running the show.
Each year he spends about $500 on seeds.
Landeros, who has worked at the hospital for 18 years, waters the seedlings once a day. Before he plants the flowers outside, he spends about a week acclimating them to the outdoors on the roof, just outside the greenhouse door.
“Plants get sunburns just like people,” he said, “so you should harden them off a little bit.”
He lugs 33 large flats outdoors daily, increasing their time in the sun by an hour each day. Planting them will take about four days.
The son of a Wyoming farmer, Landeros takes an intuitive approach to gardening.
“My whole thing here is hit or miss. I just go with the flow, and they seem to like me,” he said, gesturing toward the lush greenery.
His idea of landscape design is much the same. “It just happens. Whatever looks good. The city has a planner that plans every single bed,” he said. “I have the luxury of planting whatever I think will work in that bed.”
This year, there will be an abundance of marigolds.
What he most enjoys is the happiness his flowers bring.
“One of the best compliments was from a homeless man. He said to me, ‘You have the best flowers in Denver,’ ” Landeros said. “Who would know that but someone who travels all over Denver? I took it as a compliment.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
