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The Garden Awakens

Anise 'Woodland Red' ( Illicium floridanum ) A few weeks ago, I thought spring would never arrive, but now the change is astonishing. The nights are still cold (40s and sometimes even 30s) so planting tender annuals and vegetables is unwise although I have already succumbed, but covering and uncovering things gets old quickly. Someone made a wise comment last week and I must agree with them - "Don't plant anything tender until after May 1". Several plants are blooming like never before. One is the Anise shrub (above and below). I don't know if the recent tree pruning, which is allowing more sun into the woodland path, is affecting it or perhaps it is just age, but I've never seen so many blooms. Michael refers to this as "the stinky fish shrub" and I have to admit to smell of the flowers is quite unpleasant. It is so beautiful that I can overlook that. The old pink dogwood tree, which was already here, shades our woodland path and it too is prett
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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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  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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