[Pollinator] National Garden is a Treasure

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Lifestyle/Features 

Framed by purple asters, the Capitol dome is reflected in the pond of the 
newly opened National Garden at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington.
Melina Mara: Washington Post 
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Nov. 17, 2006, 10:38PM
National Garden is a national gift
Young Washington, D.C., landscape is an open textbook for Houston gardeners

By KATHY HUBER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle 
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What: The new National Garden 
Where: 100 Maryland Ave. SW, Washington, D.C.; at the foot of Capitol Hill, 
next to the U.S. Botanic Garden conservatory and across from the National 
Museum of the American Indian 
When: Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.daily. 
Admission: Free. 
Website: www.usbg.gov 
It took 20 years, strong wills, millions in private funds and a bipartisan 
effort to plant the National Garden on Capitol Hill, which opened last month.
The three-acre attraction is part of the 12-acre U.S. Botanic Garden — the 
nation's oldest — and an "outdoor annex" to its conservatory. It includes a 
formal rose garden; an ornate, submerged mosaic; and a sophisticated display of 
rare native flora from the mid-Atlantic region.
"It's yours. It's beautiful, and it's a gift to our country from private 
citizens," National Fund chair Leone Reeder told the River Oaks Garden Club last 
week.
Reeder, a Virginia resident, Houston native and ROGC member who's weeded and 
planted bulbs at Bayou Bend, is the gutsy money-raiser who spoke to Congress 
and urged corporations, foundations and private citizens to donate $11.5 
million to build the new garden.
Reeder was joined by USBG executive director Holly Shimizu, who grew to love 
vegetables and herbs in her grandfather's Rhode Island garden. She's lived and 
worked at European public gardens and served as curator of the National Herb 
Garden at U.S. National Arboretum before joining the USBG in 2000.
They talked with us about the new garden and what Houstonians can learn from 
it even before they visit.
Q: How has the public responded to the new garden?
Shimizu: We've had a lot of traffic, including many workers from the 
surrounding office buildings. You see a lot of tourists in Washington. They look so 
tired. It's our dream they'll come to the garden and be revived. And come to see 
the value of gardens in their lives.
Q: You've allowed room for the National Garden to grow. Can you explain and 
offer suggestions to Houstonians who may be planting gardens now?
Shimizu: Every garden is an evolution. (It's important to) imagine how plants 
will look in five years as they grow. I'm a great fan of Frederick Law 
Olmsted, and his vision of what things will become. It's hard for people to envision 
mature plants.
I like thinking of planting the landscape in layers: upper stories of tall 
trees; midstories with dogwoods and redwoods, those plants that grow at the edge 
of the woods, and shrubs; and low stories. Foundation planting (tidy shrubs 
in a row) is so over. 
Q: A good garden begins with good soil. What did you do to ensure this at the 
National Garden?
Shimizu: The garden is not in a "natural" setting. (It is built over an 
interstate tunnel and squeezed between buildings.) The site was once a dump. We 
removed all the existing polluted soil before bringing in more. Soils also were 
amended for specific plant needs.
Reeder: There is $4 1/2 million below the ground there. In 1863, Olmsted was 
hired to do the Capitol grounds. He took two years to prepare the soil. So 
we're great students of his.
Q: What are other lessons or tips can home gardeners gain at the National 
Garden?
Shimizu : We found roses with cocoa mulch began to perform better. Cocoa 
mulch looks beautiful and smells great. It is light, so it will wash unless held 
with a border.
The pollinator connection is important. We plant a lot to attract birds and 
butterflies, including liatris, lobelia, possumhaw and beautyberry. It makes 
the outdoor space so alive. And it changes the way you garden. You can't be a 
neatnik and worry about seedheads left for the birds.
Know your region. Be sensitive to your place. In the Regional Garden (which 
includes natives from New Jersey to North Carolina) you'll will see things you 
don't normally see in cultivation.
We are an organic garden. We use fertilizers such as sea kelp.
Reeder: This garden gives Holly and the staff a teaching space, a classroom 
where people can learn about the environment and our interdependence on it. 
Olmsted had another guiding principle: Public parks should be where all people 
from all walks of life come together and learn about nature.
Q: The National Garden lies just outside the conservatory, built in 1933. 
What highlights will visitors find in the glass house?
Shimizu: Orchids are one of best collections. And there are medicinal plants 
and economic plants such those from which we get chocolate, coffee, tea and 
fiber. And there's a great collection of primitive plants.
Q: What goals do you have for the future?
Shimizu: We need to keep improving and developing what we have, do anything 
we can to capture interest and inspire people. One day we want to move into 
sustainability. We have to stay relevant, but we have to take risks. We don't 
want to be boring.
kathy.huber at chron.com








 
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Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
http://www.coevolution.org/
http://www.pollinator.org/
http://www.nappc.org/

Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week:  June 24-30, 2007.  Contact us 
for more information at www.pollinator.org 

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.