Washinton II, the gardens and sculptures

OK, so this is my second post on Washington, here I focus more on the gardens and the sculpture  gardens.

As you may have guessed by now I was really taken by this city. Though I was only there for a day...a rainy day I found myself loving the city and all of the art and the gardens.

The Smithsonian sculpture gardens are un-believable, just look. Sorry I did not get the name of the Artist. It was raining and I was on a mission to take pictures...worry about the details later.

I had never seen Dutchman's pipe blooms except for in a garden catalogue.Very impressive. I guess the best way to see the flowers is to have the vines trained to an over head arch, that way the flowers hang down. I like seeing how other garden work, and getting Ideas. I'll have to try this plant now.

Nope this is not a real tree, well it is a tree sculpture made out of stainless steel. Hmmmm a silver painted tree, that might be fun.

This was the biggest Magnolia tree I have ever seen, sure we have Magnolias here in Michigan, but this I think is one of those southern variates with the large glossy leaves. I thought it was cool the way theses pod sculptures were displayed here...kinda like seed pods from the tree. I bet this tree is spectacular in bloom.

Columnar boxwood's of some age were about seven feet tall. Washington has a warmer climate,  though a lot of the plants were familiar they looked healthier here.

 This was the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden, I don't know who she was but she must have loved gardening. It was nice to see that this garden was so well maintained and full of perennials tropicals and annuals, very inspiring.

I loved the sculpture gardens, once again I apologize for not getting the artist names...ya know with the rain and all. I was holding a umbrella and trying to take pictures.

This garden featured native plants. I like the way that most of the plants were marked and named with those little metal markers. Those little tags really bug me,  they remind me of grave markers, especially when the plant is missing and you're reading a tag for what I guess used to be there.

 Some parts of the Smithsonian are having some restoration work done. In the foreground a rose garden still holding on to some former glory.

Huge planters with palms, under planted with annuals gave me some ideas for future plantings.

These were glass light sculptures out side of the Botanic Gardens offices, a whole new take on landscape lighting. I bet these look great at night.

The Memorials are in beautiful park like settings. The rain did not dampen my enjoyment of this city. When My umbrella got a little too ragged I simply bought a new one and was back on the beat.

 Remember "Weebles wobble but the don't fall down"

And of course another fountain. This was just a glimpse of what I saw here, and I'm sure I missed a lot. Thanks Washington I shall return.