US Botanical Gardens
If you live in the DC area and have never been... you are seriously missing something. Yeah, I include myself in that. Got a neat book from AAA on places to go in DC area and it was listed. Added it to my list of places to visit, talked leKid into going.
We spent over two hours getting there (traffic and parking were atrocious). Then we spent a total of three and 3/4 hours walking through the outdoor gardens, the side gardens, the interior gardens and greenhouse sections.
What did we see? Outdoor sections includes Indigenous sections, Rose Garden, Living Walls, Kitchen Gardens, Container Gardens, Herb Gardens. Inside we saw... Hawaiian Jungle, Desert Plants, Children's Garden, Orchid Hall, Tropical Jungle area (it has multiple levels if you like heights), Medicinal Herbs and Plants, Primordial Jungle, Main Conservatory... and more. Those are the ones whose name I remember off hand.
The rose garden was splendid even if we were there from 11am to noon and the sun was high and right on us - washing out a lot of the color in my digital pics. The scent was absolutely great. Yes, I love roses and so I'm biased. But they were both beautiful to smell and see. No Queen Elizabeths or Mr. Lincolns or Peace. We asked one of the workers and were told they only had indigenous cultivars. Too bad but they still had a lot of very nice roses.
The gardenias were just starting to bloom so I did not get a photo of them, they were too newly planted and only one had a blossom. (I also did not see them until we were on our way out so I was too tired to look at each and every plant). The night blooming jasmine was... well, sleeping, so it was not blooming at that point.
We took way too many photos and digital pictures. But on the good side, I think I came up with a way to get my old camera to work again. Just at tiny piece of scotch tape and the film moves forward when you turn the old shutter crank. Now to see if it actually worked. Yes, someday I'll come up with the money for a Rebel. Hopefully sooner than later. ::sighs:: I miss SRL shots.
Was it worth it? Oh yes. Even considering exhaustion, parking fees, drive times and sunburn. The gardens were wonderful. The people working there friendly, helpful and informative (yes, they really were!). So we had fun picnicking and watching tourists for an hour in the middle of our day and we had fun walking for four hours while trying to see everything.
Are we going back? To DC yes. To the US Botanical... after we see the other forty-eleven things on that dratted list.
We spent over two hours getting there (traffic and parking were atrocious). Then we spent a total of three and 3/4 hours walking through the outdoor gardens, the side gardens, the interior gardens and greenhouse sections.
What did we see? Outdoor sections includes Indigenous sections, Rose Garden, Living Walls, Kitchen Gardens, Container Gardens, Herb Gardens. Inside we saw... Hawaiian Jungle, Desert Plants, Children's Garden, Orchid Hall, Tropical Jungle area (it has multiple levels if you like heights), Medicinal Herbs and Plants, Primordial Jungle, Main Conservatory... and more. Those are the ones whose name I remember off hand.
The rose garden was splendid even if we were there from 11am to noon and the sun was high and right on us - washing out a lot of the color in my digital pics. The scent was absolutely great. Yes, I love roses and so I'm biased. But they were both beautiful to smell and see. No Queen Elizabeths or Mr. Lincolns or Peace. We asked one of the workers and were told they only had indigenous cultivars. Too bad but they still had a lot of very nice roses.
The gardenias were just starting to bloom so I did not get a photo of them, they were too newly planted and only one had a blossom. (I also did not see them until we were on our way out so I was too tired to look at each and every plant). The night blooming jasmine was... well, sleeping, so it was not blooming at that point.
We took way too many photos and digital pictures. But on the good side, I think I came up with a way to get my old camera to work again. Just at tiny piece of scotch tape and the film moves forward when you turn the old shutter crank. Now to see if it actually worked. Yes, someday I'll come up with the money for a Rebel. Hopefully sooner than later. ::sighs:: I miss SRL shots.
Was it worth it? Oh yes. Even considering exhaustion, parking fees, drive times and sunburn. The gardens were wonderful. The people working there friendly, helpful and informative (yes, they really were!). So we had fun picnicking and watching tourists for an hour in the middle of our day and we had fun walking for four hours while trying to see everything.
Are we going back? To DC yes. To the US Botanical... after we see the other forty-eleven things on that dratted list.