National Garden @ the United States Botanical Gardens and Conservatory

First Stop on my consolation prize visit to The Mall was the National Garden at the United States Botanical Gardens and Conservatory. When I first moved to Metro DC, this was just a grassy plot of land adjacent to the main build and glass conservatory. It was used for spill over parking and temporary logics site when big events took place on The Mall, and little else. In 2006, it was officailly opened to the public as the National Garden, although there were elements still in progress like the Amphitheater. 

Yet you can really see the tremendous transformation of the little piece of land from the before and after aerial images. This visit is of a late winter/early spring garden with little happening yet, but you can still appreciate the beauty of the design. I was also delighted to find the little contemplation loggia completed. It is the latest and final major addition to the park.

United States Botanical Gardens and Conservatory #1

Finally, we arrive at the main attraction of my back-up visit, The Conservatory itself.

 I think it can be difficult to compare one conservatory to another, especially when I have such limited experience with them. I do also love Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh and really enjoyed my visit to the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle. The Cincinnati Conservatory in the park on Mount Adams in Cincinnati is also lovely, if small. I'm sure there are many others of extraordinary design awaiting my discovery, but this one is MINE. And I love it because it delivers what a good conservatory should: An experience that requires one to look carefully and then the opportunity to imagine worlds tropical, arid, primordial, and in so many ways altogether unlike the one I inhabit on a daily basis.

One of my favorite aspects of the U.S. Botanical Gardens and Conservatory is found the Garden Court when you first enter. Lining the exterior wall on either side of the entrance to the Garden Court are six magnificent murals honoring six of the great domesticated plants of the world. They are an eclectic bunch that, moving from right to left in the grand hall, include:

 CACAO (Chocolate), Thoebroma cacao, earliest known consumption by humans was circa 1900 BCE in the Yucatan peninsula of southern Mexico and Guatemala.

 COTTON, Gossypium var., simultaneously used circa 5500 BCE in both present day Mexico and Iraq to create clothe.

 TEA, Camellia sinensis, legend attributes its discover to Shennong in 2737 BCE in China.

 MAIZE (Corn), Zea mays var., first domesticated in Mexico circa 8000 BCE.

 RICE, Oryza var., first domesticated circa 11500 BCE in the Pearl River region of China.

 CITRUS Fruits, Citrus var., Origins have most recently been traced to Australia, New Caledonia and New Guinea, date remains ambiguous.

United States Botanical Gardens and Conservatory #2: The Jungle

The Jungle, part 1: from ground. Images of the main ecosystem at the United States Conservatory: The Jungle. You really do feel like you're in a Tropical rainforest.

United States Botanical Gardens and Conservatory #3--Jungle Canopy

The Jungle, part 2, CANOPY: How this same world looks from the catwalk that rings through the tree tops in the Jungle environment at the U.S. Conservatory.

United States Botanical Gardens and Conservatory #4

One from the rare & endangered plants room/passage. It's a cactus from Brazil. Isn't it beautiful?

United States Botanical Gardens and Conservatory #5

The next room is dedicated to species that thrive in Mediterranean climates--and my beloved Bougainvillea was well represented there!