One of my favorite plant places ever, anywhere, forever, has been the United States Botanic Garden on the Mall in Washington, DC.

So yesterday, when I arrived at Union Station (on the new Acelo – the fastest train in the US which never went over about 45 mph) I took a prideful hour to to walk around the Capital and to the Garden.

OMG! The Botanical Garden has totally changed in the past few years! It’s spiffy! It has an amazingly planted, designed garden to the side now! When I went, it was full of people relaxing, writing down plant names, pinching cuttings! It does a beautiful job of mixing native and exotic plants, just like America the melting pot should.

And best of all, this is what I get for choosing my friends wisely, when I walked up to the dark granite marker which recognizes sponsors – two of my employers were the first two, Founding Sponsors were first on the list! John Deere and this my friends, the very people who bring you this blog, Scott’s Miracle Gro!

Felt so good! And I felt so good to know that old friend and peer Bill MacLaughlin (curator) has a chance to show so many people his love–and mix it in with killer plants.

LOOKING GREAT in the Rose Botanical Garden (sponsored by Scotts)

• Lespedeza nutalli
• Hibiscus
• Rose Autumn Blush (or awesome blush….it has one of those crazy,non-sense names)
• Rose Marie Pavie
• Calamentha nepeta
• Rose Spice
• Salvia lyrata
• Artimesia stelleriana Silver Brochade
• Baptisa

And the backdrop is a formal allee of Pond Cypress (Taxodium ascendens)