I spotted these clipped cherry trees in mid March, in front of a George Washington University administration building, and they made me smile.
The Washington, D.C., area has a lot of Prunus avium, so I liked it that someone took a few liberties with three of them.
the clouds of
a thousand skies from
cherry buds
— Saigyo Hoshi, Japanese poet, 1118-1190
On the same day that I walked by the White House, I visited the Smithsonian Institution’s Heirloom Garden at the American History Museum and its Butterfly Garden beside the Natural History Museum to see how they look in early spring.
In both, the SI gardeners were putting forward Brassicas — ornamental kale, cabbage, and red mustard.
In the American History Museum entrance planter, yellow predominates, not from forsythia, but from the flowers of ornamental kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) and red mustard (Brassica juncea). Here’s the link to how it was planted last summer.
Now it’s filled with dusty miller, violas, and two Brassicas. I did not see any labels, but I’m pretty sure that the lacy white one on the sides is B. oleracea ‘Peacock White’ and the other one with light purple/light green leaves in the center is B. juncea ‘Red (or Ruby) Streaks,’ a mustard mizuna.
The museum’s big blue pots are also planted in purple kale (I think it may be B. oleracea ‘Peacock Red’) and violas. (You can click on any photo to enlarge it.)
At the Mall entrance to the Butterfly Garden, below, various Brassicas stood out, along with yellow tulips and violas.
These photos show ruffled dark purple B. oleracea ‘Redbor,’ as well as (I think) ‘Garnet Giant’ red mustard (in the center above) and Johnnie jump-up violas. The lacy light-purple/light-green plant is B. juncea ‘Red (or Ruby) Streaks.’
I think the tall, dark blue-green kale in the foreground below is dinosaur kale, maybe ‘Lacinato’ or ‘Cavalo Nero.’ Unfortunately, it was not labeled.
Below are ‘White Peacock’ kale.
I didn’t find a label for the very dark purple kale below. They may be ‘Redbors’ that are just more mature and darker than the other specimens.
The cabbages in the front of the bed below are ‘Red Drumhead,’ with a row of dinosaur kale behind them.
At the entrance are more dinosaur kale. Here’s the link to what they looked like last summer.
Here and here are some links to growing ornamental kale.
To scroll through larger versions of all the photos above, click on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on the first thumbnail in the gallery.
ADDENDUM: In Paris, in March, I spotted some lovely flower beds on the Champs Elysees planted only with various-colored primroses and regularly interspersed tall flowering ornamental kale (something like B. oleracea ‘Redbor’). Unfortunately, I was on a bus and couldn’t get a picture.
I’m skipping around somewhat in sharing my photos from our March travels. Today I’m back to Washington, D.C.
I’ve been a little curious about the White House vegetable garden and its exact location, because the W.H. grounds are not enormous — not after you subtract for enough lawn to land a helicopter or two, press/security tents and equipment, large conifers for privacy, roses, etc.
But on a walk I took about March 15, I passed by the fence on the south side and there it was (on the far left of the first photo below).
The Park Service seemed to be doing some spring cleanup, although the beds looked pretty well planted out with various early greens. (Click any photo to enlarge it.)
About 10 days after I passed by, schoolchildren and Mrs. Obama officially planted out the 2012 garden.
There’s a very interesting post in Early American Gardens about the White House Gardens in the 19th century, here.
This is another little spot we came across on our one day in Paris last month. (We were on our way from Lyon to Brussels).
This petit park, which is the courtyard of the 16th c. Hôtel de Lamoignon in the Marais, is very traditionally landscaped with lined-up trees, clipped shrubs, decorative trellis, and lawn.
It’s nothing special, in fact — except that the grass is studded with dozens of small solar lights.
But the little fixtures didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the grass on such a warm March day.
I couldn’t go back to the park at night, but I did find a photo on flickr.
The courtyard is on the Rue des Francs Bourgeois, two and a half blocks west of the Place des Vosges.
We spent one of the last days of March in Paris — just walking around and occasionally stopping for tiny $4 coffees.
We spotted this tres discret window decoration in the chic Saint Germain des Pres neighborhood.
The little topiary pots were in several windows across the building.
This pleated bag, below, in the window of Pleats Please Issey Miyake made me think of this previous Wordless Wednesday.
We crossed over to the right bank, and I saw this graffiti alongside the Louvre.
‘Regarde le ciel’ (look at the sky) is a rather common sight in Paris, as I learned from a Google search. I could not find the origin of this street art, but I thought it might refer to a song by Cortezia, which excoriates airplanes. (Apparently, Cortezia does not tour far from home.)
However, there seems to be a Romanian connection, as another common version of the graffiti is ‘priveste cerul,’ (look at the sky in Romanian).
At any rate, the sky was just about perfect, as you can see from this photo of the Passerelle des Arts. If you click and enlarge it, you can see how the bridge glitters from hundreds of padlocks or ‘lovelocks’ (we also saw the beginning of this fad on a pedestrian bridge in Lyon).
Since this was Paris, I probably should throw in a restaurant recommendation. We ate dinner that night at the wonderful Café Constant, which is owned by “Top Chef” jury member Christian Constant. Located at 135, rue Saint Dominique, in the neighborhood near the Eiffel Tower, it is the first in a row of three restaurants owned by Constant, each a little more expensive (we were in the least expensive and most casual). The café doesn’t take reservations, so go early for lunch or dinner.
*a look around
enclos*ure 