This late winter and early spring, a recurring theme in my scattered photo topics has been the varied world of plants: alive, extracted, in bloom or semi-dormant. Flowers, definitely, but beyond their showy riot, some strange and wondrous plant-adjacent places and things to ponder.
The best way to share this kaleidoscope of colors, mixtures, and marvels is through photos with captions. And so, enjoy, and think about the plants in your sphere, some of which you might be overlooking or taking for granted in your daily life or far-flung adventures.
Back in February, my friend Lise and I visited the eclectic Museum on O Street. I was enchanted by the garden at the front of the museum, depicting Alice in Wonderland (sporting a red rose for Valentine’s Day) and the early hellebores at the far right, the earliest of blooms in our area. The museum in general is worth a visit if you have several hours and don’t mind spending $30 to explore countless rooms full of secret passages and strange juxtapositions. Locals, you’ve got til the end of April to catch the as-usual-great orchid exhibition in the Kogod Courtyard between the Museum of American Art and the Portrait Gallery! My former intern and long time colleague Katy sent me peonies for a retirement present. They were in various stages of bloom, so became “the gift that keeps on giving.” The peonies in my garden, this reminded me, are the legacy of my great aunt’s garden in Blairstown, NJ. I dug up a bunch of rhizomes many years ago and they still flourish though my aunt has been gone for years. Friends and family old and new, flowers binding us all.You probably need to zoom in to read the ingredients of this alarming antique tonic which was displayed on the window ledge of Beans in the Belfy, an old church turned cafe in the river town of Brunswick, Maryland (visited by my friend Debi and I for our almost annual afternoon tea treat, falling somewhere around or between or birthdays). If you get beyond the alcohol and – gasp – CHLOROFORM – there are a list of botanicals including wild cherry. Speaking of cherry… you can’t get away without a shot of the iconic blooming cherry trees around the Tidal Basin. They made their appearance early this year, peaking even before the Cherry Blossom Festival started, and as usual coinciding with spring breaks so that the crowds were enormous. Many locals skip a visit for just that reason, which is a shame. They never get old.Another thing that never gets old is a good sunrise on the beach. Got this snap through the beach grass while visiting my sister in Hilton Head Island, SC. The sunrise is more dramatic with a foil such as some handy plant life!In the category of “who knew?!” our visiting friend Rita and I ducked into this urban farm called Area 2 Farms off of Four Mile Run. The unassuming door to an old paper warehouse opens to a thriving business, providing greens and veggies of various sorts to subscribers. The hydraulic set up with lights, watering systems, and other stuff I didn’t really understand was fascinating and maximizes what can be grown in this indoor space. Finally, my favorite photo of me at the retirement party I shared with long time buddy and colleague Diana. (Who sent me the photo. Thanks for photo bombing, Erin, though I could have “removed you” thanks to Google Photos, but didn’t even try!) It’s been a whirlwind of flowers and plants and other wonders for the past few months!
Plants and gardens take a lot of knowledge and skill to thrive, and are an important part of traditional folklife. At this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which just wrapped on July 9, both programs had gardens and a host of participating gardeners to interpret them.
What happens to those gardens once the Festival closes and the staff enters the grueling days of taking apart this enormous outdoor undertaking, you may ask? Well, having done my part during one of those days earlier this week to dismantle the gardens (and having done it many, many years in the past as well, this having been my 37th Festival!), I am here to tell you that we do our best to find good homes for all the plants.
Sometimes that is in my back, side or front yard, I have to admit. For instance, last year I snagged a fig tree from the United Arab Emirates program. It was about five feet tall, and a little worse for the wear, but once established in our front garden it was looking pretty hopeful. When spring came, however, only its bare branches remained, sad and dead looking, and we almost pulled it out. But, low and behold, it was sprouting new life from the ground up!
There are other success stories of the perennial kind lurking in our garden as well. I planted some sort of silver leaved thing requested by a flower wreath maker from the 1999 New Hampshire program, and it threatened to take over one of my flower beds. It still pops up every year here and there, as does my share of the hops we obtained for the participants from Kent, England for the 2007 Roots of Virginia Culture program.
Last year, we worked with the Earth Sangha wild plant nursery to put together a native pollinator garden for our Earth Optimism program. We had three 4’x4′ planters with a variety of natives, a number of which are in my yard now and doing amazingly well. We also got Black Eyed Susan seeds donated from a seed nursery in Pennsylvania. I threw bunches of these seeds into a sort of dead zone behind one of our raised beds, and they grew rapaciously. They are now attracting goldfinches, who perch on the flower heads and pick at the seeds.
In short, leftover Festival plants are the proverbial “gift that keeps on giving.” As is the Festival in general.
The large planter and water feature around the Ozarks program “Teaching Garden” was particularly impressive at this year’s Festival. One of the most attractive gardens we ever had! Yay, team!I introduced Mia Jones from Springfield, Missouri, who grows microgreens, for her presentation in the Ozarks Teaching Garden one day. That’s a project for this winter now that I’ve learned the right way to do it.In addition to the awesome planting around the Teaching Garden structure, there was a whole big planter of herbs, veggies, and foraging plants. I fear there were not many takers for most of the foraging plants, which were things most gardeners would normally be pulling out of their garden or yard like dandelions and burdocks… but they are all edible so maybe you should reconsider that action?Who knew you could make a marigold infused simple syrup for summery drinks? Note, some of the portulaca and peppers from the kitchen planters seen here will be finding new homes in our garden (as well as a quantity of marigolds which were all over the site, so I can hopefully try this recipe at home). As if we really need more plants in our backyard?! This is a glimpse between two of our raised beds which host the 70+ tomatoes. Hey, we like plants and especially ones that produce tomatoes!
Spring keeps yoyoing around here this year. It gets warm, and then warmer, and then back in the 50s again. Still have not liberated the little tomatoes and peppers (some of which are quite large now!) from their pots yet. But the greens and radishes are flourishing, at least.
Gardening and work on our upcomingEarth Optimism x Folklife program for the 2022 Smithsonian Folklife Festival are about all I’ve had time for lately, with a couple of Easter celebrations thrown in for good measure.
And a visit to other gardens, as you will see below. Hope to have something more exciting and further afield next month (as once a month seems to be the average for me posting this year). But for now, here are some pictures from my April-early May “blooming adventures”!
Once again, my bleeding heart plant rose from nowhere and produced its delicate blooms. My friend Marianne invited me to tour the White House gardens with her. I was impressed by the kitchen garden!These were my favorite orchids at the annual Smithsonian orchid exhibition which honored women’s contributions to orchid research and conservation. Yeah, women!I was trying to get a clear shot of the bees feasting on these azaleas at the Brighton Dam Azalea Garden in Maryland. You can sort of see the bee in the lower right or at least his/her “bee butt.”Okay, not a blossom but even tastier and as pretty as a flower…. our friend Khamo brought her homemade momo dumplings to our little Orthodox Easter celebration. Delish!And, just for fun… seen on my walk to the Virginia Square metro!
Got your attention, didn’t I? Well, sorry to disappoint because this title refers to a very sedate (due to the afternoon heat) walk around the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. These wet and wild gardens are one of those hidden gems in Washington, DC that you can easily miss – in fact, we did the first time around because there is no sign (and apparently no exit off Kenilworth Avenue) if you are heading north, and we had to turn around at the Pepsi factory.
Well, when we finally got there, we were rewarded with blooming water lilies and lotuses. We saw some red winged blackbirds and a mother duck and a couple of ducklings, lots of dragonflies, and a frog. Then we left in pursuit of some pupusas back in our home territory of Arlington.
We ended up at La Union, and one of the pupusas Steve ordered had “edible flowers” and cheese in it. (The flowers are apparently called flor de loroco and you can buy them jarred in Latino groceries.) So, he got to visit some flowers and eat some too for Father’s Day. Not bad.
These wet and wild gardens are one of those hidden gems in Washington, DC that you can easily miss – in fact, we did the first time around because there is no sign (and apparently no exit off Kenilworth Avenue) if you are heading north, and we had to turn around at the 
