National Arboretum
The National Arboretum R Street entrance. There are, seemingly, about a zillion entrances to the arboretum. You could probably land a boat from the Anacostia if you were of a mind to do so.
Azalea Walk
The start of the Mitchell Walk is welcoming and serene.
Like everything done by the National Park Service, there are markers along the way to tell you more about what you're seeing.
The paths themselves come in a variety of surfaces including paved and mulch covered. The paths wind around and allow you to make your way out of the azalea garden at a variety of points.
The azaleas are planted with companion plants that help to highlight their color when they are in bloom.
Azaleas come in a lot of colors including white, red, orange, pink, and this vivid purple.
Often you can get best effect from planting two different color bushes together. These are from the Lee Garden which is on the back side of azalea drive. The drive winds around the Hillside walk. At the speed limit (20 MPH) it takes about 20 minutes to drive around.
The Lee and Morrison Gardens feature big banks of bushes where the Hillside walk is about carefully arranged plantings.
Not everything on the azalea walk is an azalea. There was no label for this pretty flower.
National Capitol Columns
The Capitol columns once stood at the east portico of the U.S. national capitol building. They're building a new walk way from the R Street gate to one of the pic nic areas. They're not quite on deadline.
They've got the columns fenced off. I don't know if this is usual or just during the construction. The official web site shows a fountain but there was none that I could see.
This is closer up, through the fence.
Herb Garden
The National Herb garden is 2 1/2 acres. It doesn't seem that big but it's a really elegant garden.
Also very serene, this arbor is covered with foxgrape. It looks like a grape vine, and even makes very small, very not tasty fruit. The Capitol Columns are in the background.
According to the plaque in the arbor, the knot garden here is an adaptation of traditional knot gardens. It's been planted with evergreen shrugs for a more uniform look and ease of maintenance.
The herb garden includes a number of edible herbs in many varietals. Sage (above) and rosemary (below) are two of the beds.
There is also a traditional rose garden though many of the bushes weren't yet in bloom.
This olive tree is beautiful and intricate and it made me sneeze the whole time I was there. No olives yet, though: the tree is still in bloom.
Friendship Garden
The Friendship Garden is endowed and largely maintained by the Friends of the National Arboretum. This little blue flower covered a lot of the shady spots in the garden. Sadly, I don't remember what it was. It's pretty, though. The low lying plant with the green and white leaves in the background is a hosta.
There's a little conveniences building in the middle of the Friendship Garden with some tables to sit and have a beverage or your lunch.
There are houses in the same neighborhood as the Arboretum. How would you like to live across the street from the city's biggest garden?
Art? Paul Bunyon's socket wrenches? I'm not really sure but these were in the field behind the garden.
This Hawthorn tree created a nice, secret space with its branches and blooms.
And sometimes, the flowers show us who is boss.
Dogwood Collection
The Dogwood Collection is a garden with a lot of wide spaces for strolling. I could easily see Seurat painting an afternoon here.
Either they've already flowered or not all these trees bloom, but the groove is quite restful and very shady in places.
As we know from The American President, dogwood is the state flower of Virgina. It can be a wide, delicate flower that causes the branches of the tree to hang low. This one was nearly touching the ground.
Of course, not everything in the collection is a dogwood tree. This is a rhodadenron, which is related to the azalea.
As I wandered around I started to hear what sounded like a very man-made noise. Suddenly, there was this fountain.
There was also a nice overlook of the Anacostia, DC's "other" river. Scullers often practice on the Anacostia as it gets a lot less traffic than the Potomac. It is, unfortunately, incredibly polluted despite years of clean-up efforts.
