Spring Flowers at the Arboretum
Sometimes–okay, most times–spring can't come soon enough to suit me, so the arrival of crocuses, then daffodils, is always most welcome. When the daffodils appear I love to visit the US National Arboretum to take a walk in "Fern Valley" (where the daffodils used to be, but where one still sees a nice collection of woodland wildflowers growing in the woodland) or the Azalea Collection (where most of the daffodils are now).
This is neither of those, but we can still enjoy a break from the winter doldrums with some beautiful flowers.
Camellias at the National Arboretum
One day last year (2 May 2009, to be precise) we had a free Saturday afternoon so we decided to spend it at the Arboretum, which is not all that far from where we live. There was something going on at the main exhibition hall that had their parking lot filled so we decided to be spontaneous and see something we'd never quite made it too before: the Dogwood Collection (Arboretum map).
It was a very clever choice on our part. Everything there was in glorious display. Just outside the area where the dogwoods were planted were some azaleas, camellias, and a peony or two. The azaleas in particular were rather flamboyant, as you can see in the photograph below.
The Flickr Album: U.S. National Arboretum, 2 May 2009. As I mentioned in the notes there, we hadn't taken the camera with us that day but Isaac did have his new Blackberry along, so we took these pictures with it. We didn't know how many images it might capture, but we found out when we ran out of space just before taking any of the dogwoods themselves.
Brilliant Azalea