Parks and Gardens Day Trips

I am enjoying day trips to parks and gardens this spring - both old favorites and new ones. The places on my old favorites list are below - with the ones I’ve done in past few months in italics (does not mean that I might not see them again soon!):

Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum

Brookside Nature Center

Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens

Longwood Gardens

National Arboretum

US Botanic Garden

Patapsco Valley State Park

There are new ones on my list too. I’ve started putting pink post-it notes around the calendar on the refrigerator when I read about new places I want to see. The ones in italics on the list below are the two we’ve done already recently (and I want to do both of them again):

Adkins Arboretum

Conowingo Dam and Susquehanna State Park

Middle Patuxent Environmental Area

Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area

I’m sure I’ll be adding to the 'new' list soon after buying Barbara Glickman’s new book: Maryland’s Public Gardens & Parks yesterday at the annual Master Naturalist conference!

US National Arboretum - Azaleas

Another area I enjoyed at the US National Arboretum this past weekend was the azalea collections. The vistas of the gardens - pleasant shade with pathways and shallow stairs - invite exploration.

Because we had been to the Brighton Dam Azalea so recently - I’ll feature the other things in this garden first in this post: looking down at wildflowers,

Following the noisy rustling through leaves (Eastern Towhee),

Looking up at shelf fungus growing an a dead tree,

Looking straight from some stairs at galls on an oak tree, and

A pine shaded by a large magnolia ….golden cones, sparse needles, lacey bark.

Of course there were plenty of azaleas to photograph as well!

US National Arboretum - Dogwood Collection

Another area I enjoyed at the US National Arboretum this past weekend was the Dogwood Collection. Most of the dogwoods that were native to North America were past their prime so I photographed the exotics - mostly from Asia.

What we normally think of as petals are actually bracts.

And they are usually white. I was surprised at the subtle variety of bract shapes on the different treats.

Most of the time the leaves are solid green.

But not always.

They are not generally large trees since they grow under larger trees….but they do get large when they are planted as landscape trees - getting more light than they wood in a forest and never lack for enough water. I like the way breezes cause the leaves and branches to move with a floating motion, the bright red/orange clusters of drupes in the fall, and how the buds on the bare limbs in winter look like slightly squished Hersey’s kisses. The dogwood is one of my favorite trees throughout the  year.

US National Arboretum - Bonsai collection

Another area I enjoyed at the US National Arboretum this past weekend was the bonsai collection. I am not patient enough to attempt to train a tree…but admire the skill of others. It is somehow calming to look at the beauty produced by someone else’s patience.

The azalea bonsai were in bloom just as their untrained counterparts.

Single contorted pines are what I usually visualize when I think of bonsai but there is still almost endless variety in the shapes created.

Sometimes a group of trees - a small forest - is trained.

The bald cypress seems to still have the characteristic shape of the untrained (and very large) trees - although this one had no knees.

Last but not least - I enjoy the landscaping of the walkways around the bonsai collection: the color of foliage and stone lanterns.

US National Arboretum - Fern Valley

We walked around the US National Arboretum in Washington DC this past weekend.  We went for the azaleas but there were a lot of other things to see. One of my favorite areas was Fern Valley - which includes native ferns, wildflowers, shrubs and trees of the eastern US. There were jack-in-the-pulpits, of course.

I found a plant new to me and it had both flowers and newly formed seed pods: celandine poppy. I took lots of pictures of it and then identified it after I got home. It is about the same height as the May apple plants. It might grow at the edge of our woods. I may try to get some seeds to plant next fall to establish a stand; evidently once they are started they come back every year either from the roots or seeds.

Here are a few other images from our walk around that area.