Paradise In Pots

Paradise In Pots

During today’s lunchtime bike ride I stopped to take a break at the Enid Haupt Garden, located just behind the Smithsonian Castle, just off the National Mall at 1000 Jefferson Drive (MAP).  As I was entering the grounds I saw a sign for an outdoor potted plant exhibit located on the garden’s western patio entitled Paradise In Pots.  The exhibit included hundreds of tropical and warm weather plants, most of which are currently in bloom despite the increasingly cooler autumn temperatures.

The exhibit is only temporary, however, because they will have to take the plants in before the really cold weather arrives.  When they take the plants in, they will be taken back to an off-site facility in Suitland, Maryland.  The facility, known as the Smithsonian Gardens Greenhouse Complex, actually includes fourteen greenhouses and serves as the production and maintenance facility for thousands of seasonal plants that are displayed in gardens, grounds, and indoor and outdoor horticultural exhibits throughout the Smithsonian Institution museums and properties.  The Suitland complex also houses the Smithsonian Orchid Collection, tropical plant specimens, interior display plants, and thousands of annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs, plus hundreds of poinsettias and other holiday plants.  They grow the nectar plants as well for the Butterfly Pavilion at the National Museum of Natural History.

So the next time you step outside your office or visit the museums downtown, take notice of all the plants – inside and outside the buildings. It is most likely that every one of them came from your newest neighbors on the Suitland Campus; the staff at the Greenhouse Nursery Branch!

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

    
[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

The Smithsonian Butterfly Habitat Garden

The Smithsonian Butterfly Habitat Garden

The Smithsonian Butterfly Habitat Garden is an 11,000-square foot area that supports a variety of plant species which have specific associations and relationships to life cycles of butterflies indigenous to the eastern United States.  Built in 1999, the garden contains four distinct habitats, consisting of wetland, meadow, wood’s edge and urban gardens.  Each of these habitats is planted with alluring flowers, foliage, grasses and water features that provide sustenance, shelter, or other necessities for the butterflies.  The plants are chosen and maintained to demonstrate the partnerships between plants and butterflies.

The garden is just a block long with two parallel paths leading through it, and many see the walkways as just a quick cut-through to the street on the other side.  But a slower pace is worth the time.  The garden contains a multitude of artfully enameled signs with text and illustrations that identify the plants and interpret their particular relationships with different butterflies

The appeal and significance of the garden is found not only in the beauty of the plant species themselves, but in the butterflies which are attracted to and dependent on them.  The Butterfly Habitat Garden offers the added bonus of being able to observe the regular visits from several dozen different types of butterflies, which vary from year to year depending on their populations.  The winged visitors include Monarchs, skippers, swallowtails, and Red Admirals.  And with tours available on a regular basis from June through September, repeat visitors can view the actual butterfly life cycle and gain insight into the miraculous metamorphosis of the butterfly species.  During the winter months or other times when butterflies are not readily available in the outdoor garden, there is a butterfly exhibit within the nearby National Museum of Natural History, where guests are allowed to go inside the controlled environment “Butterfly Pavilion” which houses butterflies year round.  The ironically named Orkin Insect Zoo is also located in the museum, and is also worth a visit.

The Smithsonian Butterfly Habitat Garden is located on the east side of the Natural History Museum building, at 9th Street between Constitution Avenue and the National Mall (MAP) in downtown D.C.  The garden is accessible and free to the public, and is always open.

       
[Click on the photos above to view the full size versions]