EDITORletter

Your editor at the Smithsonian Gardens’ 50th anniversary celebration with Shelley Gaskins at right. Shelley takes care of the Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden.

Celebrating Public Gardens

Here’s to all the fabulous public gardens we have in our region! Many of them have been celebrating milestone anniversaries. Those include the Smithsonian Gardens, which marked its 50th year with a reception in the Haupt Garden, and the American Horticultural Society’s 100th benefit party this month. Dumbarton Oaks commemorated its 100th year in June. Ladew Topiary Garden observed its 50th in 2021. In addition, the U.S. Botanic Garden turned 200 in 2020 and Green Spring Gardens hit 50 that same year. Other local public gardens have just been continuing on their missions of excellence throughout the pandemic without the anniversary pomp and circumstance. Through all kinds of weather and changes in political leadership, the gardens are there to give us peace, solace, beauty, and exercise. These healing spaces in our community are often taken for granted as part of the backdrop of our everyday lives, but it takes a great deal of planning and work to create and maintain these welcoming places. I appreciate all of the care and devotion the leaders and employees of these public gardens take in making them a source of public education and enjoyment. Many of our public gardens include rare plant collections and art displays that truly make them outdoor museums. Some have community meeting spaces to hold life celebrations like weddings and wakes. Most have walking paths and accessible surfaces for exercising safely. All offer an abundance of beautiful flowers and foliage to soothe the stresses of modern existence. Take some time in the coming weeks to visit a few public gardens near you. While there, thank their staff and consider volunteering. Most accept donations and also have booster or “friends” groups to join and support them.

Sincerely,

Kathy Jentz, Editor/Publisher, Washington Gardener, KathyJentz@gmail.com

Credits

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Volume 17, Number 7 ISSN 1555-8959 © 2022 Washington Gardener All rights reserved. Published monthly.

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