Panayoti Kelaidis, born in Oak Creek, Colorado, moved with his family to Boulder in 1952 and believes the natural wonders of the looming Flatirons above Boulder inspired his interest in native landscape, flora and horticulture. Panayoti spent 25 years in Boulder, growing up on the “Hill” attending University Hill Baseline Junior and Boulder High schools. In 1968 he entered CU and subsequently graduated with a degree in Chinese Language and Literature. He was a Research Associate at Colorado State University in the Department of Agricultural Sciences and went to work at the Denver Botanic Gardens in 1980 where he became curator of the Rock Alpine Garden. He later became Curator of Plant Collections and today is the Director of Outreach.

Panayoti has received numerous honors from many National Horticulture Organizations. He regards his principal accomplishment as promoting “the use of native and low water plants and naturalistic design, as well as introducing a suite of ornamental plants to the Plant Select Program.” (Plant Select is a plant introduction program where numerous plants are discovered and named - nearly 10 million plants have been disseminated to date.) One such plant has been named for Panayoti called “Delosperma Kelaidis,” or the Mesa Verde Ice Plant. He collected original seeds of Delosperma in the Free State of South Africa in 1994 and brought them back to the Denver Botanic Gardens to cultivate in a patch of dwarf alpine collections in his Rock Alpine Garden. This garden is the premier example of rock garden art in North American and has received many awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects. It is considered the finest example of the art in this hemisphere.

In addition, Wildflower Treasures is a relatively young garden at Denver Botanic Gardens that Panayoti also helped design. It features brightly colored flowers called Penstemons, which he has helped popularize in this region. Last of all, he helped pioneer “no water gardens” and has been a prominent spokesman for low water plants throughout the United States . “No public horticulturist in the United States has connected more plants with more people than Panayoti Kelaidis has through his extensive teachings, writing, lectures, designs, plant introductions and organizing of programs and sales,” said Douglas L. Jones, chairman of Denver Botanic Gardens' Board of Trustees. Panayoti has written over 100 articles in popular magazines, specialist journals and for many books. He has been featured in several television series, most notably as a subject of the “Great Gardener” series on the Home and Garden channel that has been viewed by many millions of people every few months over the last six years.

Married to Gwen, they are the parents of two children and live in Denver. We are delighted to know Panayoti was inspired by the beautiful surroundings of growing up in our community. No one has brought greater recognition to the plant world!