Seasons Greetings at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.
When my mom and I went to Washington, D.C. last year at this time, we went on a bus tour through a local company; part of the scheduled day was to be spent at the United States Botanic Garden.
US Botanic Garden
To be honest, I wasn’t too thrilled about it — how interesting could that possibly be when there was so much else in D.C. that I wanted to see? But it was a rainy, cold, gloomy day, so a little inside time was rather welcome.
Rainy day at Botanic Garden
As it turned out, this was one of the most impressive, awe-inspiring, festive, gorgeous parts of our day. The annual Seasons Greetings exhibit features “Washington landmark buildings all created with plant materials set amidst pathways and pools of blooming poinsettias and other holiday plants (emphasis added).” ALL of what you are about to see was created with plant materials. Simply amazing.
The White House
Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool, & Washington Monument
US Supreme Court; check out detail on this photo on my Flickr set
US Capitol
There was also a special section for children and the young at heart; the exhibit had a decidedly different feel, but again, everything was made with plant materials.
Castle and hot air balloon
One…unique ornament
See lots more photos of the Botanical Garden on my Washington, D.C. Flickr set.
This year’s exhibit will be up until January 2,
so there’s something else you can do in D.C. besides just visiting Union Station.
9 Beans of Wisdom to “Seasons Greetings at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.”
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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Your pictures are beautiful as usual!
Thanks Gil! It’s truly an amazing place!
What Gil said.
I used to live in DC and one of my favorite places (other than the fantastic museums) was the Eastern Market farmers market on Capital Hill.
There was one vendor who made the best blueberry pancakes, ever.
I would love to spend several weeks in DC…such a lively place 🙂
Great shots beautiful recreations, the last picture of what appears to be a forest fairy reminded me very much of Gianni who lives in the valley with his dogs in Positano from Charlies’s blog figs and lemons!
So glad you enjoyed Nell!
I’m so glad you went…I always bully people into going:)
They pull a face just as you must’ve …er, botanical garden. Eh. But we’re in DC. Yep. And as you know, it’s so easy to pop in (all you people who are reading Michelle’s post….really easy).
So true…so easy…and a must-see for sure!
I wasn’t confident enough in my Italian to trust that I could effectively communicate to our photographer that “sometimes when I’m really happy my smile is too gummy or my right eye is very small so we need a secret signal for each so that I can correct it and all our wedding photos aren’t gummy or small-right-eyed,” so we brought our own photographer to Calabria for our wedding. The photog is based in DC, so we actually went there for a trial session of engagement photos with her before committing to bringing her to Italy. It was also a rainy day and after a few shots at the Lincoln Memorial, we did all the rest in the Botanical Garden. It was my first time there despite having attending 4 yrs of college in DC and I thought it was awesome! Now I want to go back for the Christmas display one day!
Haha that is hilarious Carina (about the photographer); the garden really is magical — what a lovely setting for wedding photos it must have been!
Wow, wow, wow!! It makes me want to know how they did it all. Such detail! What a great thing to see in person, glad you were able to go and that you shared it with us.
I know! I’m curious about the process too; glad you enjoyed 🙂
Ciao! Wow! This looks amazing!
I don’t know if I ever told you but one of the regions of my Italian heritage is from Calabria too. ?
For some reason the comment luv isn’t working right on my end, so usually it automatically puts my last post. I’ll just put my last blog post just so you don’t get confused. Commentluv has an error with my blog so on here when I check commentluv it says “no last blog post to return”. I think it’s because I had commentluv installed, but then I had to remove it, because there was errors with comments showing, so maybe that’s why. Since I do have a last blog post I’ll put it since it’s not showing automatically. lol Hope I’m not confusing you.
http://greekitaliangirl.blogspot.com/2010/12/celebrating-my-20th-birthdaybuon.html
Thanks for adding that Alessandra! I don’t think I knew you had Calabrian roots…small world 🙂
Oops sorry about the confusion there next to the word “Calabria” I put a heart but for some reason it came out as a question mark.
Yes for some reason my comment section doesn’t “read” that heart….
I used to live near D.C. and loved visiting the Botanical Gardens, particularly during the holiday season! Thank you for the reminder of this beautiful place.
Thanks for coming by Marsha!