The Procession of Spring: Late May in the Bishop's Garden

Still exquisite, spring moves majestically toward summer, sharing the luxurious gifts of iris, poppy, peony, alium, salvia, nepeta, along with herbs and leafy greens... Here, a late-May tour of the Bishop's Garden and the glories therein on a recent Saturday.

Salvia, poppies & boxwood

Fennel

Ladybug friend with Dandelion Greens (?)

Two views of the upper border, with (l to r) aliums, amsonia, salvia & peach-colored iris

The Blue Border near the Gazebo


Enjoy!

The Procession of Spring: Dumbarton Oaks

Dumbarton Oaks gardens are one of Washington’s most elegant gems and one of America's great gardens. Begun in 1922 by owner Mildred Bliss and the noted landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, they consist of a series of garden rooms cascading down a hillside, surrounded by softer, more informal plantings. It’s a marvelous experience to visit, ripe with surprises, vistas, splashes of color and ornament, intimate benches whereon to linger. It’s very romantic! But was also a delight with my two youngest sons on a recent spring day...

Yulan Magnolia (Magnolia denudata), east lawn, south of the orangery

Of this tree, Beatrix Farrand wrote, “This... has been christened ‘The Bride’, as when it is in full bloom in early April its loveliness is an enchantment. This tree should be preserved as long as it can be made to thrive and bloom well, and when its days are over it should be replaced by another as nearly like it as possible, as the sight of the white tree as seen from the R Street entrance gateway and as looked down upon from the orangery is one of the real horticultural events of the Dumbarton season.”

from Beatrix Farrand's Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, DC, Trustees for Harvard University, 1980.

Mélisande’s Allée, blanketed in blue scilla

Quod Severis Metes
As you sew, so shall you reap

The motto favored by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, that appears everywhere at Dumbarton Oaks. Good point!

To read more about the gardens and learn about visiting, click here.

Spring Procession: The Bishop's Garden

The Bishop's Garden, for those of you who don't know it, is a cloistered garden tucked into the Close of the Washington National Cathedral, beyond the south facade. It was constructed in the 1920's under the aegis of Florence Bratenhal and Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. (who also did Central Park) and was conceived an "an urban oasis". Mission accomplished. The bones of the garden are so fine, it is exquisitely satisfying even in dead of winter, when husks of herbs and bare branches stand out wonderfully against the evergreen boxwood and yew. There's a hortulus with a Carolingean font amidst the lavendar and rosemary, a lovely shadow house, lush perennial borders in the summer, indeed, a discovery with every step. Go of an afternoon with a book and find a bench in the dappled sunlight. Daily worries be gone, in the sanctuary of the garden.


Images from a chilly Saturday, March 14: white-flowering quince (chaenomoles) in front of a stone wall; Heinz Warneke's Prodigal Son near a pinkish-white star magnolia (magnolia stellata 'Rosea'); and near the shadow house, an autumn flowering cherry (prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis'), which by rights should be called 'spring & autumn flowering cherry', since it flowers in two seasons. Note the fellow visitor, who was so enthusiastic he/she was eating the magnolia blossoms!

To learn more about visiting, click here.