This majestic American elm (Ulmus americana) can be found on the corner of 9th and Constitution Avenue, at the north end of the Pollinator Garden adjacent to the National Museum of Natural History. This elm is estimated to be nearly 200 years old, and is 70 inches in diameter, 18+ feet in circumference, and 85 feet tall. Video description: slow pan of a tall tree turning yellow. 🎥: Philip Evich, Horticulturist
Reynier Leyva Novo Methuselah Animation.mp4
Join Cuban-born and Houston based artist Reynier Leyva starting September 22 for an artist conversation to celebrate the launch of Methuselah, a digital artwork that tracks the migratory journey of the monarch butterfly. Coinciding with the Fall equinox and the start of the monarch butterfly migration, the project follows a single specimen as it travels more than 6000 miles across the Americas. Free and open to the public, this virtual event is held in partnership with a community of 20 international cultural organizations, whose transnational locations across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, reflect the monarch's pathway across the Americas.
🦋: Reynier Leyva Novo, Methuselah, 2021-2022. Digital artwork. Commissioned by El Museo del Barrio with generous support from VIA Art Fund. Courtesy the artist.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/methuselah-virtual-launch-artist-conversation-tickets-404260192117
Video description: A fluttering realistic, digitally rendered animation of a monarch butterfly against a black backdrop. Its wings are orange, veined through with black and splashes of white dots on the edges.
#MethuselahMonarch #MatusalenMonarca #ReynierLeyvaNovo #Novo #MethuselahCommunity #MatusalenComunidad #SmithsonianGardens
Cicada killer wasp in nest-building action! Despite being one of the largest wasps in North America these giants are harmless to humans. Their only priority is mating, digging a nest, and provide food for their babies. Females will dig about a 10 inch tunnel with a cavity at the end large enough for 2-3 cicadas. After stinging and paralyzing unsuspecting cicadas, she drags them back to her nest, lays one egg with her prey, then seals the chamber leaving her offspring to hatch and feast on the waiting cicadas. Videos description: a ground wasp dragging soil out of the ground to build a nest. 🎥: Allison Dineen, Entomologist #CicadaKillerWasp #CicadaKiller #Insects #SmithsonianGardens #Wasps #GardenDC
For the past 15 years the Mussaenda frondosa have been lighting up the parterre with their showy white bracts. Video description: a slow pan of large green tropical shrubs in containers at the greenhouse, then on view flanking a brick path around a garden, and ending on a close up of a bee on a small orange star flower. 🎥: Matthew Fleming,Horticulturist #SmithsonianGardens #Mussaenda #TropicalPlants #EnidAHauptGarden #Houseplants #SummerGarden
Time-lapse of the Amorphophallus titanum opening overnight.The corpse flower is on loan from the U.S. Botanic Garden. 🎥: Melinda Whicher, Supervisory Horticulturist
Here is to 50 years! 🎉 Video description: Director standing on a parterre with 50 spelled out in yellow pinwheels in the grass celebrating 50 years. #SmithsonianGardens
A monarch butterfly snacking on some nectar from Phlox 'Jeana' in the Pollinator Garden.
A monarch butterfly snacking on some nectar from Phlox 'Jeana' in the Pollinator Garden.
Larkspur and poppies blowin in the breeze!
Larkspur and poppies blowin’ in the breeze!
📍: Mary Livingston Ripley Garden
Video Description: slow pan of a raised garden bed with royal purple plumes and red cup flowers.
🎥: Janet Draper, Horticulturist
Happy Arbor Day! Arborist Jake Hendee shares the perfect way to plant a tree, just in time for any tree planting in your own garden this spring. Video description: Staff member demonstrates the 6 steps to properly plant a tree. 🌳 #ArborDay
Orchid experiment with Melissa McCormick.mp4
Spiranthes ovalis is one of Maryland's native orchids. Researcher Melissa McCormick is on the hunt for its pollinators. 🔍
💐 Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
#BecauseOfHerStory #WomenInSTEAM #HorticultureHerstory
Women orchid scientists.mp4
How many women orchid scientists are out there? 🤔 Horticulturist Virginia Thaxton introduces three female orchidologists whose stories come to light in our exhibit, "Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women": naturalist Edith Coleman, ecologist Alyssa Weinstein, and taxonomist Hanna B. Margońska.
#HorticultureHerstory #BecauseOfHerStory #WomenInSTEM
First Lady orchids.mp4
Our First Lady orchid collection 🌺 Horticulturist Melanie Pyle shows off some beautiful blooms named for presidents' spouses, with some botany and history thrown in.
Horticulturist Christine Price-Abelow prepares the wetland for the summer season. Video description: horticulturist holding a rake standing in a drained pond describing yearly maintenance. #SmithsonianGardens
Mary Vaux Walcott captioned.mp4
Wildflower painter, photographer, and outdoorswoman: Mary Vaux Walcott was no doubt one of the Smithsonian's most fascinating women. 🌼
This year Smithsonian Gardens has honored Walcott with a new hybrid orchid, x Rhyncattleanthe Mary Vaux Walcott.
Museum specialist Kelly Crawford introduces Walcott and her work as part of our exhibit, "Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women": https://gardens.si.edu/exhibitions/orchids-hidden-stories-of-groundbreaking-women/
#WHM2021 #BecauseOfHerStory #WomensHistoryMonth
Take a mini tour with our horticulturist Matt Fleming as he shows us his favorite plants in our tropical greenhouses. Video description: person showing off tropical foliage plants in a greenhouse.
Orchids produce thousands of seeds per bloom. So why are they so rare? 🌱 Scientist Melissa McCormick, a molecular ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, is working to answer that question.
Dr. McCormick uses DNA sequencing to explore the partnerships between orchids, fungi, and the pollinators that help them reproduce.
Special thanks to Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. 💐
Learn about other notable women in orchid science at our exhibit, “Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women,” open through April 24 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
#BecauseOfHerStory #HorticultureHERstory
Alice_T._2.3.22.mp4
How do scientists tell which plants relate to one another? 🌿 Botanical illustrators like Alice Tangerini of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History help spotlight the subtle differences between species.
Women botanical illustrators have been crucial to scientists' understanding of orchid species.
Special thanks to Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Learn more about botanical art and illustration at Smithsonian Gardens’ current exhibit, Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women, open through April 24: https://gardens.si.edu/exhibitions/orchids-hidden-stories-of-groundbreaking-women/
#WomensHistoryMonth #WHM2022 #HorticultureHERstory #BecauseOfHerStory
In celebration of #WomensFuturesMonth Smithsonian Gardens is proud to welcome #IfThenSheCan - The Exhibit.
In celebration of #WomensFuturesMonth Smithsonian Gardens is proud to welcome #IfThenSheCan - The Exhibit.
Of the 120 If/Then sculptures, 89 will be located in the Enid A. Haupt Garden this weekend only along with 19 in the Smithsonian Castle and 12 in the Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building. Following the opening, 37 will move to the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution and 33 to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History with 19 remaining in the garden through March 27th.
Video description: A walk through of a garden staged with many orange statues of women.
🎥: James Gagliardi, Supervisory Horticulturist
Our horticulturist Janet Draper shares what you can be doing in your garden this time of year and even her favorite tool to get the job done. What are you doing in your garden?👨🌾 Video description: Gardener demonstrating how to cut back grasses in the winter. #SmithsonianGardens #MaryLivingstonRipleyGarden
Peak foliage of the ginkgo trees.
It’s a #Golden morning in the Enid A. Haupt Garden! ✨
Video description: A walk past the yellow ginkgo trees in front of the Smithsonian’s red stone Castle.
#SmithsonianGardens #Smithsonian
Holiday Tree at the Smithsonian Castle.
The Great Hall of the Smithsonian Castle is decked for the holidays!
Video description: Walk around a large decorated holiday tree followed by a up-close slow pan of the ornaments.
Oct 2021_Community of Gardens_Final Draft.mp4
Calling all gardeners! 🪴📣 Smithsonian Gardens is collecting stories, memories, thoughts, and photos from gardeners around the U.S.
Learn more about the #CommunityOfGardens! Watch the video below then head to https://communityofgardens.si.edu to read past entries and submit your own.
Oct 2021_Community_of_Gardens_Final Draft_Square.mp4
Calling all gardeners! 🪴📣 Smithsonian Gardens is collecting stories, memories, thoughts, and photos from gardeners around the U.S.
Learn more about the #CommunityOfGardens - Watch the video then head to https://communityofgardens.si.edu to read past entries and submit your own.
Garden_Photographers_9.23.21.mp4
How do we know how historic gardens looked? Partly, through the work of pioneering women photographers.
Enjoy stunning images of lush historic gardens photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston, Mattie Edwards Hewitt, and Molly (Maida) Adams.
🎥: Smithsonian Gardens
Register for the free, virtual @Smithsonian’s Educator’s Day on Friday, September 17. This back-to-school program will feature sessions led by teachers from across the country and educators from Smithsonian museums, research centers, and the National Zoo! s.si.edu/EducatorsDay2021 #SmithsonianEdu
Garden Highlight
As summer fades into autumn, gardens can have the tendency to look a little tired and faded themselves. Summer blooming plants are finishing their show but fall showstoppers haven’t taken the stage yet. But that doesn’t have to be the case! As you add plants to your garden, consider the bloom time or foliage color of perennials and annuals so the garden shines all season long. Check out some of the plant combinations our horticulturists use at the @airandspacemuseum to keep this bed vibrant and interesting even during the shift in the seasons.
Video description: A photo montage of plant combinations in a perennial garden.
🎥: Sarah Dickert, Horticulturist
#SmithsonianGardens #GardenDC #PlantCombinations #PerennialGarden #NativePlants
Garden_Clubs_Final.mp4
One hundred years ago, a garden club could be more than just a social group for plant lovers: it was one way women could influence political and community issues before the right to vote. Watch:
Landscape_Architects_SQR.mp4
#DidYouKnow Garden design was a man's world one hundred years ago.
Learn how a few women landscape architects determined to practice in their chosen career slowly made their way into the field - and get a look through the historic photos in the Smithsonian Gardens archive!
🎥: Smithsonian Gardens
Oh no, what’s eating these leaves?!
No need to worry this is simply evidence of LOTS of happy leaf cutter bees. These bees use the hollowed out tubes of dried plant stems, branches, or other cavities as a nest for their eggs. They cut pieces leaves, in this case those of redbud (Cercis canadensis), to wrap up and protect their babies in the tubes. Be glad to see these holes, it means a #pollinator is happy and at home in your garden!
Video description: heart shape green leaves with many circular cuts on the edges.
🎥: Sylvia Schmeichel, Horticulturist
#LeafCutterBee #PollinatorGarden #BotanicalGarden #CercisCanadensis #Bee #PublicGardens #SmithsonianGardens #GardenDC #PollinatorPlant
One of the most common garden questions we get is, “What is this plant?” The bright yellow flowers in this hanging basket are just one plant that falls subject to this question. This vining plant is Petraeovitex bambusetorum, also known as Nong Nooch Vine. The name Nong Nooch Vine comes from the Nong Nooch Botanic Garden in Pattaya, Thailand.
Video Description: slow pan of yellow trailing flowers from a hanging basket.