enclos*ure

The butterfly garden in early fall

December 3, 2013April 13, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

I’m sorry that these photos are a little out of season, but I enjoyed my late September visit to the Smithsonian Institution’s Butterfly Habitat Garden so much that I still wanted to share them.

The garden is a long corridor between the National Mall and Independence Avenue. It’s bordered by very busy 9th Street, N.W., on one side and the parking lot of the National Museum of Natural History on the other.

Stepping inside, however, you feel enveloped in another world — particularly in early fall, when many of the plants are at their fullest and tallest.

The entrance on the National Mall.

I really like the simple hardscaping.

Exposed aggregate concrete and white granite.

At the end of September, parts of the garden . . .

were absolutely frothy.

The plants have specific relationships to the life cycles of eastern U.S. butterflies.

Seedheads of ironweed.

Perennial sunflowers ‘Lemon Queen’ on the left.

The garden sections mimic habitats important to the insects:

. . . wetlands, meadows, edges of woods, urban gardens.

Can anyone identify this plant?

These are its seedpods.

Smithsonian's Butterfly Garden the first week of fall/enclos*ure

“Golden Fleece’ goldenrod and ferns.

Begonia flowers and violets.

Looking toward Independence Avenue.

The National Archives in the background.

Update: the mystery plant above is Asclepias fruticosa (syn. Gomphocarpus fruticosus) from South Africa.

Walking back toward the Mall.

Click on any thumbnail in the gallery above to enlarge the photos.

In my captions, I haven’t included many plant labels, because I didn’t take very good notes during my visit. I was depending on a list of plants at the S.I. gardens website, but, unfortunately, it seems to have been removed for the moment. However, there are some recommendations in this Smithsonian brochure, and there’s additional information here at the Smithsonian gardens blog.

To see the garden in early August in 2011, click here.

ADDENDUM: The power of Pinterest — the mystery plant with the spiny seedpods is Asclepias fruticosa (syn. Gomphocarpus fruticosus), a species of milkweed native to South Africa. Thanks to Miranda M.

The Sunday porch: vine-covered, par excellence

December 1, 2013April 13, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

On abandon, uncalled for but called forth. . . .*

I think this is the loveliest wisteria I have ever seen. It grew on the porch columns of “Wisteria House,” at Massachusetts Avenue and Eleventh Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. The photo was taken in 1919, by Martin A. Gruber.**

The house was torn down in 1924 to make room for the Wisteria Mansion apartment building.

A naval officer brought the vine from China and gave it to the owner of the house, probably during the 1860s, according to the blog Greater Greater Washington.

The Harris & Ewing** photo above, taken between 1910 and 1920, shows the trunks of the (one?) plant emerging through openings at the base of the porch. The house was built in 1863, and the two-story portico was added in 1869 — so it looks like the wisteria was planted between those years and protected during the construction.

The National Photo Company image above shows the house about 1920.

*Lucie Brock-Broido, from “Extreme Wisteria“

**Top and second (a detail of the first) photos via the Smithsonian Institution Archives Commons on flickr. Third and fourth photos via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Vintage landscape: the tree sellers

November 30, 2013April 13, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

For ev’ry year the Christmas tree,
Brings to us all both joy and glee.

Bring on the holiday season!

“View of street vendors at 7th and B Streets, NW [Washington, D.C.] (ca. 1880 [sic]),” by E.B. Thompson, via D.C. Public Library Commons on flickr.

B Street, N.W., was the original name for what is now Constitution Avenue (since 1931). At the time of this picture, Center Market stood on B Street, between 7th. and 9th. Streets — at the current site of the National Archives building.

Commenters on the flickr page have suggested — correctly, I think — that the 1880 date is wrong and the photo was probably taken in the first decade of the 20th century.