As the winter months begin to creep their way back into the lives of D.C. residents, jackets come out of the closets, lunch breaks move inside, and everyone walks a little bit faster from building to building. But there is a place where the trees never lose their leaves and flowers stay forever in bloom: the U.S. Botanic Garden.
The temperature stays at a balmy mid-70s, and every few minutes a cool mist is released from above, coming to rest on green inhabitants and the occasional lucky human below. Enclosed in a protective glass bubble, the garden is a mini-wonderland that lives in the heart of D.C. all year.
As she points to a bright red flower protruding from the tallest tree above, Visitor Services Coordinator Laura Anthony describes the unique reproductive cycle of the banana tree. The flower, which looks like a giant red phallic symbol, releases its own pollen that fertilizes the soon-to-be bananas waiting at its base. This tree is but one of the 26,000 plants living at the Botanic Garden.
Anthony is a visitor's reference guide and shares information about the garden through tours and classes. She's also responsible for putting together the garden's special exhibits and is one of nine staffers in the public affairs division. The other divisions of the garden are the horticultural division, which cares for and cultivates the plants and flowers, and the operational division, which handles the operations of the facility.
"I'm excited to be here every day to serve the area population and visitors from around the world," Anthony said.
Among the garden's local visitors are first lady Laura Bush, heads of state, various senators and members of the House.
The conservatory, the main section of the garden, is broken into 13 interconnected rooms, each separated by automatic sliding glass doors. A $5 million environmental system keeps the rooms at the ideal temperature for the plants that live there. The desert room, home to cacti and succulents, is kept around 80 degrees while the orchid and jungle rooms stay in the mid-70s. Benches are scattered throughout, allowing visitors to relax in the atmosphere.
The first room is the Garden Court, home to several plants and trees used in products people use every day - like the Chicle tree, used to make chewing gum, and the Allspice tree, used to make cake and pie spice.
At the hands-on Children's Garden, kids (and adults) are invited to touch and feel the plants. In this outdoor section, the garden houses flowers and plants that kids might be drawn to, like the sensitive fern plant that curls up when it's touched, and the Buddha's hand fruit, a citrus fruit shaped like a deformed hand with eerie finger-like projections.
"Kids seem to like things that are gross-looking," said garden volunteer Emily Crandel.
The Jungle Room is by far the biggest room, with a 93-foot -high ceiling and a walking platform at the top that allows visitors to move along the tops of the tropical trees and take a birds-eye view of what's below. A mini-bridge along the ground path covers a small pond filled with fish and floating lily pads.
Bartholdi Park, the all-outdoor section of the garden, is outside the glass conservatory and currently under renovation. Just adjacent to the conservatory, the park includes plant- and tree-lined paths and a giant fountain at the center.
Senators on the Hill can take a little piece of the garden into their offices with a program called the Foliage Plant Program. It allows the Botanic Garden to send complimentary potted plants to senators from its production facility by request. Most often, Anthony said, the Botanic Garden sends plants that last a long time and don't require much care, since senators don't have the time to care for sensitive plants. In addition, the Botanic Garden's production facility grows many of the plants for the Capitol Hill grounds.
Periodically, the garden sponsors special events, all relating to plants, flowers or trees. The most recent was a chocolate- tasting and cooking demonstration by chef Andreas Fleckenstein. Participants were offered a taste of three types of chocolate mousse and a slice of cake with chocolate gnash icing, Crandel said. The base ingredient, chocolate, is made from the Cacao Tree.
Carol Allen, the supervisory horticulturalist at the garden, taught a free class on caring for and cultivating orchids in August. D.C.-area resident and class participant Elaine Baisden said she "thoroughly enjoyed" the class and noted that the most exciting part was that Allen, who is responsible for overseeing the well-being of all the plants in the garden, was the one teaching it.
Anthony said the rarest botanical celebrity the garden has housed was the Titan Arum (meaning corpse flower), which brought much attention to the garden last year. Lines to get in wrapped around the block when the flower was in bloom. Affectionately named Big Stinky by the gardeners, this unusual plant blooms once every five to seven years and emits a nasty odor that resembles that of a rotting corpse.
Being so close to the U.S. Capitol is directly linked to the high volume of visitors and tourists the garden receives, according to Anthony.
"Our location makes us the busiest garden in the city," she said.
Significant security measures are in place and are particularly evident at the conservatory entrance. Similar to security checkpoints at the airport, the entrance is equipped with metal detectors, an X-ray belt machine and several security guards. The high number of visitors, terrorism precautions and its location at the foot of the Capitol are primarily responsible for the increased security.
As the primary contact for visitors, Anthony said regular garden-goers were not happy with the security changes when they were first implemented last fall. Several local residents come to the garden many times a week to relax, read or socialize in the greenery and controlled temperatures.
After touring the conservatory, Raegan Bond, a visitor and student from Kansas City, relaxed outside along the gazebos and tables scattered along the building.
"I'm impressed by all the different varieties [at the garden] and the fact that it's free is awesome," Bond said.
Anthony will be working on a new "Home for the Holidays" exhibit in the next couple months that should be ready just in time for the holiday season. The exhibit will have a post-World War II theme, and will include Christmas trees covered with rare ornaments and poinsettias grown at the garden facility.
The U.S. Botanic Garden conservatory is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Bartholdi Park is open from dawn to dusk. For more information, call (202) 225-8333.
