Tagged With: U. S. National Arboretum

Gotelli Conifer Collection

Photograph taken on Saturday, May 28, 2022 by Henry
Gotelli Conifer Collection, U. S. National Arboretum

Gotelli Conifer Collection, U. S. National Arboretum

I have always enjoyed the U. S. National Arboretum at New York Ave (US 50) and Bladensburg Rd (US 1) in Northeast Washington. Probably my second favorite parts, after the rose garden in bloom, is the Gotelli Conifer Collection. William Gotelli collected more than 1,500 plants from around the world for his South Orange, N.J. garden. He donated his collection to the Arboretum in 1962. I can attest to the fact that it has changed considerably over the years as the various plants have matured. I’m sure there have been losses, replacements, and additions. Nevertheless, it’s a testament to what one person can do if they have a passion. We often are too tired by the time we get to this part of the Arboretum, so I asked specifically if we could make that one of our stops this trip.

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National Capitol Columns

Photograph taken on Saturday, May 11, 2024 by Henry
National Capitol Columns

National Capitol Columns

With how our spring has been going, I really didn’t expect to get to the National Arboretum this year. Yesterday I was nearing my wits’ end and when Cathy suggested we go, I was very happy to agree. It was an absolutely beautiful day. As we often do, we start by parking near the National Capital Columns—shown here—and walk from there to the National Herb Garden, which includes their roses. It was a little late for the peak rose viewing but since I didn’t expect to get there at all, I was definitely happy with what I got. We didn’t spend as much time in the Herb Garden oval as in some years. Then we went to Fern Valley, followed by the Asian Collections and finally back to the Azalea Collections, visiting the Lee Garden pond and the Morrison garden—which I think is my favorite space in the arboretum.

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Cathy with ‘Red Candles’ Camellia

Photograph taken on Sunday, March 30, 2025 by Henry
Cathy with ‘Red Candles’ Camellia

Cathy with ‘Red Candles’ Camellia

For the last few years we’ve gone to the U. S. National Arboretum during rose season, trying to catch some of the earlier, species roses. This year we decided to try our luck at getting there during the Camellia season, which for spring blooming Camellia japonica is early spring. Because that coincides with cherry blossoms, the Arboretum was quite busy. We drove past the cherry blossoms, though, and started in Fern Valley. There used to be a huge variety of daffodils planted there, but those are almost entirely gone now. It’s a little early for most things in Fern Valley but we did see some spreading Jacob’s-ladder (or Greek Valerian, Polemonium reptans), golden ragwort (or golden groundsel, Packera aurea), cutleaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), spring beauties (Claytonia virginica), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), and quite a few trout lilies (Erythronium americanum).

From there we moved on to the Asian collection, which is where the Camellias are grown. I did a pretty good job of recording the names of the flowers I photographed and picked a few that I might consider adding to our garden. The photo here is the only one I took of Cathy with the Camellias and it’s called ‘Red Candles’, a very nice, vigorously flowering C. japonica.

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