Over the weekend, I was in Arlington, VA for the burial at Arlington National Cemetery of my aunt Martha, who died on New Year’s Eve. Her husband is an Army vet, retiring as a Lt. Colonel, and her son retired as an Army Colonel.
I arrived about 40 hours prior to the interment, taking a bus then a train then a Lyft on Saturday from New England to Union Station in D.C. to a hotel in Arlington where my sister and I stayed for three nights together; her son, my nephew, arrived on Sunday afternoon and stayed overnight in the same hotel, so we had some good catch-up time, including a few hours with his fiancée on Monday as well.
On Sunday mid-morning, my sister and I took the metro from Rosslyn to Federal Center SW and walked a few blocks to the U.S. Botanic Garden. I thought I’d been there before but actually none of it was familiar and I think I was remembering another place in D.C. She’d never been there either, so it was a new adventure for both of us. As we were leaving and asking for restaurant recommendations and directions from a very helpful woman welcoming people into the gardens, we learned that her father is also buried at Arlington.
Temperatures outside weren’t as cold as I’m used to in winter but it was probably in the mid-40s and it was breezy though partly sunny, so we both enjoyed stepping into the tropical gestalt of the botanic garden and its Garden Court filled with orchids, bromeliads and other succulents, palms, cacao trees, banana trees, fiber plants, and so on.
The U.S. Botanic Garden is made up of rooms. In winter, most of the outside “rooms” are closed, other than the Bartholdi Fountain and Gardens, though the fountain wasn’t running and the pool was empty of water.
Rooms in the multi-story glass-domed Conservatory include:
- The Garden Court, featuring economic and ethnobotanical plants used in products that provide fibers, food & beverages, shelter, fuel, cosmetics, etc.
- Orchids, which were mostly in The Garden Court on the day we visited; the USBG orchid collection numbers about 3,000 specimens;
- The Tropics, a tropical forest, with a 93-foot high dome and a mezzanine level accessible by stairs or elevator
- Plant Adaptations, showcasing adaptations plants have developed for survival, like thorns and prickles, spines, leafless plants, leaves with wax coatings, being carnivorous, being epiphytes (grow on other plants and get nutrients and moisture from air, rain, and debris), thick bark, narrow leaves, and many more
- Primeval Garden, a glimpse of the atavistic world — 150 million years ago — before flowering plants dominated the landscape — so there are many ferns, and palms and cycads, mosses, water spangles, spleenwort
- Hawaii, a small collection of plants native to Hawaii, which are unique due to its isolation
- World Deserts, abounding in cacti, succulents, and other desert plants – this was a favourite of ours
- Medicinal Plants, used for thousands of years as remedies and still influential in modern plant-based compounds. I wish I’d taken more photos in this room because there were a lot of interesting and toxic plants here.
- Mediterranean, with plants from a Mediterranean climate, which is found in five areas around the world: southern and southwestern Australia, central Chile, coastal California, the Western Cape of South Africa, and around the Mediterranean Basin. I wish I’d taken more photos in this room too.
- and Plant Conservation, showcasing conservation stories of rare, threatened, or endangered plants.
Only open Spring through Fall are the Southern Exposure room, an outdoor micro-climate that displays plants that are normally found in climates further south than D.C. but which can grow here due to heat-trapping topography, surrounding buildings, and masses such as concrete and rocks; the East Gallery and the West Gallery; and the Children’s Garden, a sensory experience.
There are also many plants adorning hallways, the bathroom area, and other pass-through areas.
Hope you enjoyed this tour as much as I relished visiting these lovely gardens with my sister last weekend. If you’re in the area, take a couple of hours to check out the U.S. Botanic Garden.
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