The sun is shining, the Rocky Mountain snow is months away and it’s time to enjoy a great selection of new summer programs at Denver Botanic Gardens, at the city and Chatfield Farms locations.

The event starts with music, with the Summer Concert series continuing through this month at UMB Bank Amphitheatre at 6:30 p.m., including Judy Collins with special guest Chatham County Line on July 24 and The Mavericks with the Hogslop String Band on July 27. There’s also Evenings al Fresco on select Mondays and Wednesdays through August, staged in partnership with Swallow Hill Music. Enjoy the gardens at your own pace, 4:30–8:30 p.m., to music provided by local musicians and ensembles as they stroll and strum throughout the grounds.

The music theme continues Aug. 4, 6–7 p.m., with Garden of Sound: An Evening with Nathan Hall. The artist-composer’s electronic soundscapes provide a new perspective on the garden experience through this recording, created during Hall’s Land Line artist’s residency at Denver Botanic Gardens.

© Scott Dressel-Martin – Courtesy of Denver Botanical Gardens

On Aug. 6, 9 a.m.–1 p.m., the Water Garden Society Water Blossom Celebration offers visitors docent-led tours of the water gardens, plus plant giveaways and a chance to learn about container and water gardening.

It’s the Mushroom Fair Aug. 14, hosted by the Colorado Mycological Society. Learn about fungi’s role in science, medicine, health, art, nutrition and food, while exploring the environmental connections and importance of this group of organisms.

Continuing through Sept. 11, the large-scale cedar sculptures and a selection of works on paper by artist Ursula von Rydingsvard are showcased in The Contour of Feeling. The exhibition includes a curator conversation on Aug. 18, 9:30–10:15 a.m., and a screening of the film Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own that afternoon, 4–5:30 p.m.

Hone your skills in the Japanese contemplative flower-arranging art of Ikebana on Aug. 20, 1–3 p.m. The workshop offers insight into the principles of Ikebana, including the concepts of asymmetry, open space and depth as laid out by Sofu Teshigahara in 1927.