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Japanese Maples Fall Color

'Skeeter's Broom' is the most colorful maple in our garden. I have just returned from a 2-week trip to Japan. This was my first ever trip outside the United States. It was an amazing experience and one I will never forget. Japan was wonderful - they really have their act together and I think the U.S. could learn a few things from them. There was one disappointment on the trip - the fall color had barely begun there and was really just beginning as we left. That is okay because the gardens were still spectacular, and I got a nice shot of fall color when I got back. 'Ryusen' I missed a few things - our ginkgo had just turned a glorious color the day before I left, and the leaves were gone by the time I got back.  'Sango-Kaku' I came home to many leaves on the ground but still a lot on the trees. 'Osakazuki', a beautiful red maple always changed color very late and therefore doesn't usually last long. When I left there was no color but a few remaini
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Hillwood, the Marjorie Merriweather Post Estate

Here is another fabulous garden, also located in Georgetown, close to Dumbarton Oaks. Ms. Post apparently had enough money to feed a third world nation and the house is filled with Russian antiques and French porcelain. The gardens were immaculate and the best maintained of any gardens that I saw on my trip to Washington D.C. The majority of the plantings were azaleas which were not blooming of course. It has to be a most spectacular sight in the spring.

This is the driveway (yes, the driveway!)







Nice backyard



A pet cemetery



The French Parterre Garden - this was on the side of the house and Ms. Post had a view of it from her upstairs bedroom window.





The Rose Garden


A personal golf course!



This was one of the prettiest Japanese gardens I've ever seen. In fact, I've never really desired such a garden until I saw this one. It was very impressive, on a steep hillside, and tons of water. I kept wondering what size pump it would take to handle all that water.







Of course I loved the statuary -






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  1. chuck b.August 15, 2007 at 10:28 PM

    Wait, pet cemetery? Did you say "pet cemetery"? The garden has a pet cemetery?! Yikes!

    That Japanese garden looks very impressive. I have to go take some pictures of a secret Japanese garden in downtown San Francisco I heard about recently.

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  2. Phillip OliverAugust 16, 2007 at 9:35 AM

    Yes, there was a pet cemetery. It was a small circle with about 10-12 graves of pets.

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  3. LostRosesAugust 16, 2007 at 7:24 PM

    Wow, real tombstones for her pets. She's not buried there, too, is she?

    I have to agree with you on the Japanese garden. Now that's one worth cultivating!

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    1. AnonymousJuly 8, 2024 at 8:35 PM

      Her ashes are placed at the bottom of the obelisk type feature in the rose garden.

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  4. chuck b.August 16, 2007 at 10:21 PM

    Mark me down as thinking the pet cemetery is a *fabulous* garden feature! You just don't expect a pet cemetery! Suddenly, I think if I had a big garden (really big) , I would like to have in it somewhere a small pet cemetery--even if it was fake.

    At the San Francisco Flower and Garden show this year, an exhibitor built a small landscape of poisonous plants, subtly adorned here and there with distressed tombstones.

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