Join us for Earth Matters to Smithsonian Gardens – Garden Fest 2013!

In celebration of National Public Gardens Day, join us on Friday for Earth Matters to Smithsonian Gardens – Garden Fest 2013!  This year’s Garden Fest is inspired by the National Museum of African Art’s exhibition, Earth Matters:  Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa.

At Earth Matters to Smithsonian Gardens – Garden Fest 2013!, visitors of all ages can participate in fun and lively activities focused on interacting with the earth.  Help create an ephemeral land art installation with materials from the many Smithsonian Gardens with artist Emily C-D, listen to live music, make a seed bomb, journey on an ancient expedition with the help of petrified wood, fossils, amber, and gardens tools, or dance Zumba!  Smithsonian Gardens will also hold a plant container design contest, host a photo shoot for our Shutter-Bug Collection on Pinterest, and offer informal workshops on composting.  There will be demonstrations highlighting the connection between Smithsonian Gardens’ irrigation plan and the Smithsonian weather station, and learn about the many tomato varieties that are grown in Smithsonian Gardens’ Victory Garden.

Stop by during your lunch break or after work to hear great live music, for a snack or drink at the Castle Café (featuring a special garden menu for the event), view the Earth Matters exhibit in the gardens and at the National Museum of African Art – both open until 7pm – and have some fun in the garden at Garden Fest!

DETAILS:
Date: May 10th, 2013
Time: 11 am to 7:00 pm
Location: Enid A. Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle
Metro: Green/Yellow or Blue/Orange lines to L’Enfant Plaza or Blue/Orange line to Smithsonian
FREE!

The Smithsonian Institution’s Archive of American Gardens Wins the 2012 American Public Garden Association Program Award!

Archives of American Gardens Displays Their Prize

Every year, the American Public Garden Association Program recognizes the work of a truly innovative garden program. The winning public garden program is chosen based upon pioneering one or more of the following areas: education, conservation, development, botany, gardening, horticulture, research, extension or administration. The Archive of American Gardens fosters garden education through its garden tours (hosted by resident horticulturalists), its special garden activities and events, its garden interpreters program (which trains volunteers to meet and educate visitors on our gardens’ grounds), and its social media, which details local and national garden news and other interesting finds. As an archive, we are a repository devoted to preserving America’s garden heritage. We hold over 10,000 images of gardens from all over the country, documenting over 7,000 gardens! A treasure trove for garden enthusiasts and professional scholars alike, the Archive of American Gardens has digitized over 30,000 of its images, which are available at the Smithsonian’s online catalog at www.siris.si.edu. As a program devoted to education and research, we are pleased to accept the American Public Garden Association Program Award.

For more info on the award, or to nominate a garden program for next year’s award, see http://ow.ly/brMfe

Kristina Borrman, Katzenberger Art History Intern

Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection: Take a Closer Look

It is hard not to appreciate the beauty of an orchid in bloom. Right now, at the exhibit Orchid Mystique: Nature’s Triumph, visitors are able to partake in a lot of orchid appreciation.  Seeing the colorful throng of orchids in the Garden Court at the U.S. Botanic Garden is a tremendous sight, but don’t get completely distracted by the panorama.  Take a look at the details!

Individual orchid flowers are a world of color, pattern, shape, size, smell and texture, especially the modified third petal which is called the lip or labellum.  This part of the flower helps to attract an orchid’s pollinator and can serve as a landing pad for insects like bees, moths, butterflies, and flies.  Every orchid species or cultivar has a characteristically different labellum and it is amazing to see the different adaptations and variations that are present. Here are just a few fantastic flower designs that you can find at the exhibit.

 

Bletilla striata

 

Dendrobium aphyllum

Visit Orchid Mystique: Nature’s Triumph for more information. 

 Julie Rotramel, Orchids Intern