On Tuesday, while my dad was in town visiting, we decided to take a ride to the National Arboretum. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the ride down the BW Parkway was just gorgeous. I’ve ridden by the entrance to the National Arboretum on New York Avenue almost once a week for 2 or 3 years on my way into DC to pick up flowers. You’d think I would have stopped…just once even…to check it out. But nope…I just kept driving right on by.
What was I thinking??? The National Arboretum is awesome! It is a truly beautiful space that would be enjoyable for anyone to visit. You can walk, run, picnic, explore and more!
The first thing we went to see was the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. I don’t know anything about Bonsai (I cant wait for the winter to read books about Bonsai!) or Penjing (which I think is the Chinese version on Bonsai). Right now, the Autumn Bonsai Exhibit called “Beautiful Transitions” is in full “bloom”. It was incredible to see dozens of miniature trees and landscapes, some over 100 years old, in full Fall color!
Next, we walked around the perennial gardens and herb gardens. Even though it was late in the season, there were so many things blooming-I could have spent hours just touching and smelling things…and writing down things I want our growers to grow!
As we were touring around, from a distance we could see a huge field of purple and gold flowers with large …columns.
The National Capitol Columns were the original columns from the East Portico of the Capitol building in Washington DC. When the Capitol was renovated in 1958, the columns were removed and put in storage. In the 1980’s, the columns found their permanent home on 20 acres of open meadow inside the arboretum. The view was stunning.
We finished our visit by driving around and looking at some of the other permanent collections (dogwoods, boxwoods, ferns) and making plans for a many more return visits!
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