Lovely Spring Flowers at Bartholdi Park, Washington DC

Whoever takes care of and gardens the various flower beds on the national Mall area in Washington, DC does a fabulous job.  This spring, during the time of the pandemic, we were able to take daily walks and see spectacular displays of hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and a myriad of other flowers whose names I don't know.

The flowers in this blog are from the Bartholdi Park garden  at the bottom of Capitol Hill on its southwest side.  It is located near the enclosed glass US Botanical Garden, which is now closed, but this park is open

and free to the public.  We have roamed through it a couple of times lately and just love the incredible displays of color, the aromas and watching the seedlings grow.  The park also has trees and a fountain, although that's not running now. 

We don't encounter too many other people on these walks due to the City of Washington DC Stay At Home order, but these walks are a valuable contribution to our health and well-being as staying at home all day every day for weeks on end is, strangely enough, quite exhausting.

Glorious Flowers on Capitol Hill This Spring

Since I'm in 'stay- at-home' mode now due to the coronavirus I actually have time to add things to my blog.  In fact, I sort of had forgotten about this blog until I went looking for a photo and remembered I'd posted it as a blog!  So here are the photos from our recent walk in Bartholdi Park gardens, which are at the base of Capital Hill in Washington, DC.  There was maybe one or two other people there, but mostly deserted.  We were able to walk about freely and enjoy the lovely plantings done by the U.S. Botanical Garden Conservatory.  Truly, the hyacinths smelt delicious!  Truly the colors of the tulips were gorgeous!  It was a great way to take our minds off the stress of these troubling times. I will probably be posting more on this blog now that I'm home so much, we've settled into a new home and I've cut back my work hours!

Jus

Flowers in the Winter; It's all about Watering

Somehow we've got loads of flowers in the house during this cold winter snap in February.  Some lovely orchids are opening up.  I'll be sure not to overwater them as I killed an orchid plant before with too much! Apparently one or two ice cubes a week is all it needs. Then we have some lovely pink tulips that are bulbs sitting on a ledge in a tall vase and as long as you keep the water level up to the ledge, the tulips bloom.  We have four huge pink tulips flowering now!  Then, though they are not really flowers, I have three lovely red poinsettas. These were rescued from the church display in January. They were almost dead from lack of water but they've now resurrected, sitting on sunny window ledges and each drinking a cup of water each week! Then, there's that lovely bunch of a dozen red roses I got for Valentine's Day.  As long as I keep the stems trimmed and the water fresh, they will last a while, I'm sure  It's so wonderful to have flowers in wintertime! 

And The May Garden Is So Different

Candy Geraniums

Yellow Irises

It's almost a month later from my last blog about all the flowers in my garden and now everything has changed. Gone are the tulips and daffodils and it's all irises and budding roses and geraniums and peonies.
It's a lot of pink and yellow and even blue and very exciting to see everything coming out blooming again.

King Peonies

Pixie Queen Irises

Miniature Blue Iris

I've been growing these flowers for years now and it's always a lovely surprise when the leaves shoot up and the buds form and then -- usually after a few days of sun and heat -- the flowers start to unfurl.  Each year the flowers are different, either a bulb has doubled and there are more flowers or somehow the plant is making bigger flowers, or in the case of the Queen Elizabeth rose bush, smaller flowers seem to be appearing, but a lot more than usual.  I've spied about 20 buds there! And for some other reason the miniature blue irises doubled and are a huge mass this year.  Just so delightful!

Queen Elizabeth Roses Budding

Spring Inklings

Daffodils peeping out from snow

Tulip Tops Appearing

Sweet Yellow Crocuses!

Despite the recent snow falls I've espied hints of spring flowers in my garden.  The daffodils are forging ahead and put their yellow pointy heads out even through a crispy snow cap.  Then, in a pot by the kitchen door I spotted some tulip tips coming out. And lo and behold, I then saw some lovely yellow crocuses blazing away despite the low temperatures.  So all in all, I'm quite happy that signs of spring are showing up! So glorious to imagine when they are in full flower in just a few short weeks! And a short walk outside this morning confirmed there are a lot of tips and tops of bulbs and plants peeking out, reaching for the sun and inching their way through the last of March!.

Seems Like It's Really Spring in #BloomingdaleDC

view south into Crispus Attucks park

some of the lovely daffodils in the 'hood

Just a short walk about locally near my house and you just can't miss that it is spring. There's tons of blossoms on the trees -  achoo! -- and there's so many daffodils, narcissus, stocks, tulips, violets and other pretty flowers everywhere. Also, it seems like every thing is very green, including the grass and all the other things suddenly sprouting out of the ground. I see the bluish green blades of the irises and the yellow green stalks of the day lilies coming up in some of the gardens.  Also you can see what is going to come up later such as the reddish leaves on the hundreds of rosebushes that people have planted that means there will be masses of roses later. 

Hallelujah, It's a Bloomingdale Spring!

How could I not take my digital camera with me every day and take photos of all the flowers as I  make my way to the bus each day this past week? There's pansies on porches, tulips to toe by, daffodils to dote on, and Eastern rosebud trees to walk under as I hurry down First Street. It's spring for sure and there's just flowers everywhere and I just love to see the shoots shooting out of the ground and the bright splashes of color of the flowers that are now blooming. In the brighter light of spring, even the grass seems very green and the tree trunks seem a brighter brown after the soft mild grey tone colors we've become used to over what seems like a very long and cold winter.So, I'll probably keep snapping away either on my cell phone or my clunky digital camera throughout the season which is surely one of the best gifts from the Creator that we see each year.