U.S. Botanic Garden

12/09/2023

Our model train display this year celebrates pollinators and the plants they pollinate. Blue-tailed day geckos are native to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. They are a key pollinator of trochetia trees (Trochetia blackburniana). The geckos go inside the large, bell-shaped flowers to eat nectar and get pollen stuck to their bodies. They transfer the pollen when they visit the next flower for nectar.

Model made with:
horse chestnut, bael fruit, burr oak acorn caps, palm fiber, woody pear fruit, coccoloba leaves, bittersweet vine, Indian redwood fruit

Plan your holiday visit: www.USBG.gov/Holiday

12/08/2023

Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana), is in full bloom!
Native to eastern North America, it is a favorite and gardens due to its shape and late season beauty. When most plants are dormant, the American witchhazel is showing off its beautiful flowers with yellow, ribbon like petals.

Plants can be used for many things, including food, housing, clothing, medicine, and so much more. The bark and stems of witchhazel have a long been used in skin care products to relieve, irritation, and swelling.

12/06/2023

12/06/2023

It’s December, but there are still blooms in our Rose Garden! Which color of these late blooms is your favorite?
1. Shrub rose - Rosa ‘Quietness’
2. Floribunda rose - Rosa 'CHEwnicebell' Oso Easy Italian Ice
3. Miniature rose - Rosa ‘Green Ice’
4. Tea rose - Rosa 'Monsieur Tillier'
5. Floribunda rose - Rosa 'KORgeleflo' Solero Vigorosa
6. Polyantha rose - Rosa ‘The Fairy’

12/05/2023

Beauty in the fall seed dispersal of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), native throughout eastern and central North America.

12/04/2023

How many trains can you count from this one spot? 🚂🌺 This year’s holiday train display runs from 10 am to 5 pm daily through Jan. 1, 2024, closed only Dec. 25. Plus— special evenings Dec. 14, 21, and 28, open until 8 pm! No tickets required. www.USBG.gov/Holiday

12/02/2023

Even the orchids are getting in the winter spirit! This is Dendrobium Winter Wine orchid and others blooming in the Orchids house!

1. Dendrobium Winter Wine
2-3. Dendrobium purpureum, native to Indonesia & New Guinea
4. Masdevallia posadae, native to Colombia
5-6. Zelenkoa onusta, native to Panama, Colombia, Ecuador & Peru

11/30/2023

Thunbergia mysorensis is just beginning what should be an ongoing show of bright, pendulous (sunbird-pollinated) inflorescences in our Tropics house. Look for it on your next visit.

11/29/2023

Our plant hardiness zone map has been updated for the first time in more than a decade, and the outlook for many gardens looks warmer. Learn more: https://n.pr/47fBwtd

11/28/2023

Urban Agriculture Resilience Program - 2024 Application Deadline is this Friday, December 1, 2023. Be sure to review the revised eligibility guidelines.

The U.S. Botanic Garden and the American Public Gardens Association are partnering to support public gardens and their partners in facilitating collaborative urban agriculture, community gardening, and other food-growing programs.

Is your garden or organization already involved or interested in:
* Engaging in an urban agriculture collaboration between a public garden and a partner organization(s)?
* Combining urban food growing and educational programming?
* Facilitating public engagement in urban food growing?
* Addressing community food security challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic?
* Increasing equitable access, representation, and benefit sharing at participating gardens and organizations and in communities?
* Building capacity in urban agriculture within and beyond the public gardens community?

If so, please consider applying for an Urban Agriculture Resilience Program award.
Award amounts range between $5,000 and $20,000.

Applications must be received by December 1, 2023, by 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT using the online application form. Apply at https://members.publicgardens.org/grow-your-garden/promote/urban-agriculture/

11/28/2023

Warm up your autumn by recalling summer garden beauty. During this online workshop, explore how to draw and paint two beautiful subjects: the trumpet flower and one of its most loved pollinators, the hummingbird. Learn how an understanding of basic botanical and bird anatomy informs drawing practice and makes work more lifelike. The workshop will explore fundamental watercolor techniques, color theory, color mixing, and artistic compositional principles. Mary Ellen will share a few "pro tips" to give your work a bit of artistic flare!

Presenter: Mary Ellen Carsley, Professional Artist/Illustrator
This program was recorded on Saturday, November 4, 2023.

Find upcoming programs at www.USBG.gov/Programs

11/27/2023

The leaves of this mountain witchalder (Fothergilla major 'Red Licorice') are catching lots of visitors’ attention with its vibrant red foliage. F. major is native to the southeastern United States — primarily the southern Appalachian areas of North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and the ‘Red Licorice’ variety is an upright shrub that grows up to 6-10 feet tall. It is noted for fragrant spring flowers, licorice-red fall foliage, and good disease resistance. It is USDA winter hardy to zones 4-8 and will grow in full sun to part shade.

11/26/2023

We love seeing the delight on your faces as you explore the trains and pollinators models made from plant parts! Come for a visit and tag us in your photos. Open daily 10 am - 5 pm, no tickets required. Closed Dec. 25. www.USBG.gov/Holiday

11/24/2023

11/24/2023

Nectar-loving tree frog likely moves pollen from flower to flower

11/23/2023

Our annual holiday exhibit “Season’s Greenings” is underway! Through Jan. 1, 2024, come explore our outdoor model train display featuring small trains chugging around above and through scenes of pollinators and their plants — including a lemur and traveler’s tree flower, a bee pollinating a vanilla orchid flower, a bat and a banana plant and more. Enjoy over 2,600 poinsettias in the Conservatory along with 22 DC landmarks made from plants, and explore gift ideas from ornaments to puzzles to live plants and more in the gift shop. Outdoors, find an 18-feet-tall Christmas tree decorated with ornaments made from plants created by USBG employees and volunteers! Open daily 10 am - 5 pm, no tickets required. Closed only Dec. 25. www.USBG.gov/Holiday

11/22/2023

Our orchid house is abundantly full of hundreds of orchid flowers, including quite a few fragrant ones. Be sure to slow down and enjoy the wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and smells!

1. Barkeria lindleyana
2. Braemia vittata
3. Vanda luzonica
4. Laelia rubescens
5. Laelia rubescens
6. Cattleya Snowdrift ‘Doris’
7. Barkeria lindleyana

11/21/2023

Our Cymbidium tracyanum 'Burmese Bronze' orchid blooming, and boy, is this a large orchid plant! With a spread over 6 feet wide, this very large plant is loaded with large, fragrant, green-with-white-and-red flowers! Check the second photo to see the full plant alongside a human caretaker for scale, and then see this gorgeous flower up close. You can find it on display in our Conservatory lobby. Cymbidium t. species is native to China, Thailand, and Myanmar.

11/20/2023

We celebrate the life and legacy of Rosalynn Carter. On May 11, 1994, Mrs. Carter was one of six living first ladies that attended a gala celebrating their efforts to create a new outdoor garden -- the National Garden at the United States Botanic Garden. The garden would be a living tribute to the accomplishments of the nation's first ladies.

Mrs. Carter supported gardens, native plants, and pollinators, and today you can visit the First Ladies Water Garden in our gated outdoor gardens. We thank Mrs. Carter for her support in helping create these gardens, where millions have benefitted in learning more about native plants and pollinators.

11/20/2023

We are hiring a Senior Education Specialist in our Learning and Engagement Team. Applications due December 6, 2023. www.USBG.gov/Jobs

11/18/2023

Amongst the golden-hued foliage, lemon-yellow flowers appear in the fall like small ribbons on witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana), native to eastern North America.

11/17/2023

In the Tropics house, stop and smell the wonderfully fragrant Maxillaria picta orchid , native to northeastern Argentina, southern Brazil, and Paraguay.

11/17/2023

This Philodendron tatei is a species native to Venezuela. This morning it is showing a cream-peach colored inflorescence.

11/16/2023

Recently, our horticulture employees and volunteers harvested 160 pounds of sweet potatoes and egusi melons from our Kitchen Garden. The produce was donated through Food Rescue US to DC Central Kitchen for use in their culinary training program.

11/16/2023

: Don’t try this at home! In this historic 1891 photo, a young girl sits on the world’s largest water lily (Victoria regia) we grew in our Fountain of Light and Water.

“It happened that as a result of the interest now everywhere taken in the cultivation of water-lilies, a successful effort to grow the largest species in the world in the open air had been made at the Botanic Gardens, and also that it flowered for the first time this season … The plate is a view of part of the basin of the Bartholdi fountain in the Botanic Gardens, west of the Capitol, from a photograph by Mr. Daniel Frazer” - Proceedings of the American Society of Microscopists, 1891, Vol. 13.

11/16/2023

Zeke’s will be back fueling the holiday display Friday-Sunday, beginning Nov 24 — plus seven days a week from Dec 26-Jan 1. 🌿🚂☕️

11/15/2023

Our Horticulture team has been busy preparing for spring flower displays by planting thousands of tulip bulbs! Now’s the time to plant tulips before the grounded freezes hard. This hard work will lead to beautiful displays in a few months.

11/13/2023

Join us this Friday at noon for a free online cooking demo celebrating Fall Recipes: Celery Root and Potato Gratin, and a cranberry-studded Apple Gingersnap Crumble. Register at https://app.livestorm.co/u-s-botanic-garden/fall-recipes-celery-root-and-potato-gratin-apple-gingersnap-crumble-online-cooking-demo

11/12/2023

The eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) put on a golden show this fall. This photo shows our Regional Garden, showcasing plants native to the Mid-Atlantic United States.

11/12/2023

It’s not only deciduous leaves showcasing vibrant foliage. This Caladium bicolor unfurls in a colorful show!

11/10/2023

Did you know yellow fall colors were already in the leaf but most red pigments are created new in the fall? Destiny, AAAS fellow at USBG, shares the science behind why leaves turn colors and fall off each autumn! - The American Association for the Advancement of Science

11/09/2023

The deep pink bracts lift to expose the male flowers on this dwarf Indian banana (Musa manii), native to Assam. The pale yellow structures in the second are the male flowers with pollen. In the third photo, you can see the bananas developing from the female flowers. This species stays quite short. Find it in our Tropics house.

11/07/2023

Red maple (Acer rubrum) is known for brilliant red fall color, but the colors can vary and can show reds, oranges, and golden hues like this tree in our Bartholdi Gardens. Native to central and eastern United States, this popular shade tree can grow 40-60 feet in height and sometimes even up to 100 feet. It will grow in sun to part shade, preferring moist soils.

11/05/2023

This week, Ava and others from Applied Imagination were on-site touching up our DC landmarks made from plants as we begin installation for our holiday exhibit opening Thanksgiving Day. Here, Ava is touching up the green roof on the model of our Conservatory — swipe to see the box of small plant parts she’s working with. Our green roof is a science experiment comparing native plants versus traditional sedums used on green roofs. “Season’s Greenings” runs Nov. 23, 2023, - Jan. 1, 2024. www.USBG.gov/Holiday

11/04/2023

Look at the beautiful drama of this Bulbophyllum inunctum . Native to Borneo and Malaysia, it features striking red-on-gold colors and dramatic curls. Find it blooming in our Orchids house.

11/02/2023

Lighting up the sky like fireworks, this sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is showing brilliant fall foliage. It is native to northeastern North America.

11/01/2023

With the days getting shorter and the temperatures dropping, many trees are showing more autumn color, including the fan-shaped leaves of Ginkgo biloba. They are changing from green to gold, with a few having fallen to the ground. G. biloba is native to eastern China.

10/31/2023

Happy Halloween! Enjoy the beautiful blooms of bat flower (Tacca integrifolia)! This tropical plant receives its name for resembling a bat in flight, and is native to the rainforests of Southeast Asia, India and southern China. In the U.S., it would be winter hardy to USDA zones 8-10, but could grown as an indoor houseplant in areas where it couldn’t winter outdoors. It prefers shade and lots of humidity, so placing it near a humidifier or misting frequently would help. You can find these bat flowers in our Tropics house.

10/30/2023

Join us Saturday for a free online art workshop "Drawing and Painting Hummingbirds and Trumpet Flowers" with artist Mary Ellen Carsley, Professional Artist/Illustrator. Register at https://app.livestorm.co/u-s-botanic-garden/drawing-and-painting-hummingbirds-and-trumpet-flowers-online-art-workshop

Warm up your autumn by recalling summer garden beauty. During this online workshop, explore how to draw and paint two beautiful subjects: the trumpet flower and one of its most loved pollinators, the hummingbird. Learn how an understanding of basic botanical and bird anatomy informs drawing practice and makes work more lifelike. The workshop will explore fundamental watercolor techniques, color theory, color mixing, and artistic compositional principles. Mary Ellen will share a few "pro tips" to give your work a bit of artistic flare!

DATE: Saturday, November 4
TIME: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET
LOCATION: Online
FREE: Pre-registration required. Register at https://app.livestorm.co/u-s-botanic-garden/drawing-and-painting-hummingbirds-and-trumpet-flowers-online-art-workshop