Dogwood Tree Blooming By Agriculture Department in DC

On my daily walk recently on the Washington Mall I wandered over to Independence Avenue near the Department of Agriculture and saw this lovely dogwood tree blazing away. Of course, I had to snap a few photos as I knew the rain was coming in soon and all the petals would soon get torn off.

The more you look at these dogwood tree flowers the prettier they get, from the little pink tips to their yellow green hearts.  Of course, I'm hoping that next time I walk over that way, it will still be there but probably not.  I've noticed flowers bloom and go quickly during spring. So doing the best I can to photo and get them blogged!

I also learned -- from the internet -- that as legend has it, the cross on which Jesus was crucified was made from a dogwood tree. God decreed that the dogwood tree would from that day forth never grow large enough to be used to make a cross. So maybe that's why this tree isn't very big! And why it flowers around Eastertide!

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.

Monet's Giverny Garden Was Beautiful

 While in France recently, we visited Giverny where Monet lived. We especially loved the garden and it was blooming well. There were all kinds of brig

ht colored flowers and lots of paths and walkways through it. The best thing about it was that most of the flowers and plants were not exotic species but easily grown and common plants such as daises and roses.  It was a terrific two hours wandering through and here are just some of the views from there.

Lovely Orchids at L'Orangerie in Paris

We visited Paris, France recently and got a chance to visit some of the amazing museums there. One museum was the L'Orangerie right in the middle of Paris. We went there to see the lovely display of Monet lilies paintings.  But in the lobby area was a lovely display of orchids that I also photographed as they really caught my eye as they seemed quite unusual. They were on the reception desk shelf and looked like they got a lot of light.  Just wonderful! Just wish my orchid looked like this but right now it's now flowering as I think I overwatered it and it hasn't got much sun.....

  

Cherubs and Chariots Seeking New Homes

  
Lately I've become a little intrigued about the level of detail on the Wedgwood dish collectibles I have put up for sale on Ebay.  All these little dishes and plates and trinket boxes have little scenes on them.  For instance little cherubs dancing, or cherubs dashing about in a chariot drawn by a lion, or an angel type figure who is riding a horse.

 In some cases it is really hard to figure out what these figures are really up to. Handing flowers to each other?  There's other detail too like borders of ivy type leaves and daisies and trees.  So much detail goes into these!  I once watched someone make a Wedgwood piece and after the firing of the basic shape they then press on the little decal type images and which also seem to be made of some kind of clay. The little white colored scenes placed on top of the blue jasperware china clay is quite remarkable and distinctive and is probably what makes these pieces stand out from all the other collectibles out there. Most of them seem to have a classical reference, such as to Greek or Roman mythology.  Hoping there are many appreciators of this stuff in Ebay land who will buy these from me.  I'm really not a collector of them and have no place to display them, so all the pieces are looking for new homes.

Flower arranging vase using several plastic bottles

I got this idea from a library book about upcycling where the guy took
a bunch of used plastic bottles of varying sizes, glued them together, spray painted it and then stuck flowers in it.  Instead of putting five of those little plastic shampoo, pill and lotion bottles into the recycle bin, I glued them together with that super duper E6000 glue -- that I got in Walmart for less than $5 and can be used to stick anything together -- then spray painted the cluster of little bottles when the glue had dried (overnight). I probably put on two coats of paint before deciding it was green enough, letting each layer dry overnight. I then stuck and glued some salvaged fake yellow flowers onto straws (you will probably recognize this re-use of green Starbucks straws) and placed them into the bottles which arranges them for you. This ended up being another cute item in my basement living room.  P.S. I just recalled the library book where I got this idea among others: it was "Upcycling: create beautiful things with the stuff you already have," by Danny Seo and has great illustrations and artsy crafty tips on how to do stuff that isn't too complicated and doesn't require a lot of tools and know-how.

Some Flowers on the Windowsill

Some people are not very good with flowers and plants and others seem to have green thumbs and can get things to grow. I tend to fall into the green thumb category and notice plants and flowers all the time.  From my perspective, however, they notice me and I have to confess that plants and flowers seem to talk to me. Oh, they don't say complicated things, usually more along the lines of "water me" and "prune me" and "re-pot me" and such-like. So I'm always pleased to find myself somewhere else, especially indoors, where there are flowers and plants, and they are clearly being taken well care of by someone. So that's what this group of flower photos is all about. I found myself in a small office room with these lovely orchids on the windowsills and a rather old poinsetta that was just starting to redden. I think the orchids are quite old too;  I'm thinking that these are likely the sort of plants abandoned by others and the green thumb person took them up and has taken care of them for quite a while.  They are placed in a room used by many, so the care lavished on them benefits a great number of people and, of course, benefits me. Maybe you are wondering if these flowers have talked to me? Well, they are certainly not asking me to re-pot them or water them or prune them, since someone else is doing that for them!

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 Flowers

Well, I can't get by without doing at least one blog filled with photos of my flowers from the garden. The past few weeks have seen all the daffodils come out (after the forsythia) and now there's violets hiding everywhere and the peonies are starting to shoot up.  Also, so glorious are the tulips; there should have been more but either the dratted squirrels had lunch on them or, due to the snow and ice that came so late this year, some of the bulbs actually rotted in their pots. Nevertheless, I have some peach, red and yellow tulips, and a lone creamy white one.  It's such a delight to put bulbs down in the late fall and then wait and see what comes up in spring! So amazing!

Hidden Garden With Bright Colors and Unusual Plants

We recently visited the United States Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C., up near the U.S. Congress buildings.  We were thrilled and amazed at the plants and flowers and trees growing there. As it was a very cold wintry rainy sort of day, it was very pleasant to go into a warm and humid environment and see brightly colored flowers and tropical plants. It's set up with many different rooms all of which are glassed in, although there is an outside area -- the Children's Garden -- that is only open in warm weather. There was a room full of orchids that were spectacular hues, some with tiger skin design or flaming pink or orange or colors you didn't think existed naturally. Another very interesting room was filled with desert plants, such as various cactii and grasses that grow in very dry areas.  They had specimens from many areas of the world and with just enough text to explain what it was, although I think they could have provided just a little bit more information. One room was filled with medicinal plants and having more text it was cool to find out how many commonly-used
pharmaceuticals are derived from plants.  Another huge area, two-storeys high, was filled with jungle trees and vines and bromeliads, some flowering, some just hanging. Inside the Children's Garden you could see a large plant that looked like it was made of glass. In fact one visitor looking at it said "That's not a real plant!"  But it turned out there were several of these milky white glassy plants growing there and they are real. Another treat were the topiary trees shaped as animals such as bears, and some potted mosses and ferns arranged to look like frogs or other creatures. Since it was the holiday season there was also an extraordinary display of poinsettas, some pink, some cream and the more familiar red ones. Another (small!) glass room displayed some endangered species plants, including some interesting ferns and flowers.

View to US Congress from front of Botanical Garden

This is a  truly a wondrous place to visit (for free) in the city and learn more about the environment. 

Thanks to all the people who put the bloom in #Bloomingdaledc

on W St NW

alley behind Adams NW

on 1st NW

on Thomas St NW

I think it's great that there's so many people in Bloomingdale who are putting the bloom back in our neighborhood!  From window ledge pots, to small groupings of pots, to overhanging garages to planting around street signs and in tree boxes, even a short  walk about the streets shows a myriad of flowers and plantings.  Roses, petunias, vines, begonias and geraniums seem to be favorites and so many others I still enjoy despite not knowing their names! I'm just hoping none of them get destroyed in the July rains!

Flowers of June in my #Bloomingdaledc front yard

hydrangea

Asiatic lilies

day lilies

The June garden is jammed with flowers of the brightest colors and I'm quite dreading the heat of July that will kill these blooms. But for a month at least I have this wonderful bluish purple hydrangea bush that seems to have at least two dozen heads.  I suspect the coffee grounds I pour on this bush are helping to make the soil more acidic which makes the flowers bluer but I'm really not sure about that.  Then there's the lovely popping red of the Asiatic lilies which come up from bulbs and seem to double every year. They are being eclipsed by the bright orange day lilies who are invading the yard without mercy.  I was weeding around them all this morning and pulled what felt like a million columbine vines which were curling their way up these flowers and getting a good stranglehold on some of the buds. So I yanked those climbers out and found that very soon I'd filled a trash bag with weeds and leaves and other yard debris. I also found that the pollen from the day lilies had dyed my wrists orange!  Hubster says I should wear gloves in the garden when I do this, but invariably I'm weeding on a whim and don't have the garden gloves at hand. Also, I have a faint hope that the plant juices that get on my skin are actually good for me!

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. 

Geraniums in February!

It's no secret that I bring indoors all my porch and deck flowering plants every winter. The trick is to keep them alive with enough light and not too much water until I can put them back outside again, usually in early April, when there's no danger of snow. I usually lose at least one plant during the cold season due to not enough light or I over-water and it rots or I forgot to water and it dries out.  This year, I'm doing okay with two potted plants on the radiator in the upstairs den (hubster's man cave), the jade in the downstairs bathroom, two poinsettas in the living room window, and a petunia in the kitchen window.  Everything else is on the basement kitchen counter that has a big window where I've added some plant lights focused on them (with timers).  There's a coleus, another jade, some purple ivy that I don't know the name of and a large pot into which I crammed about three geranium plants in November when I brought them all in.  In fact, this group of pots is doing so well that the geranium which bloomed throughout summer seems to think it's in California and has been putting out lots of lovely blooms!  So, it's February and I've got the loveliest pink geraniums, so I picked some and put them on my kitchen table. Such a delight to look at when there's snow outside!