The National Garden at the U.S. Botanic Garden!

On Saturday Simon and I read about the National Garden in the Washington Post and decided to go have a look. It was wonderful! The estimated cost of the project just $11.5 million! Now don't get upset - this money wasn't your tax dollars. This money was raised by the National Fund for the U.S. Botanic Gardens a 501c not for profit corporation. It took 2 years to complete.
We saw the First Ladies Water Garden, The Rose Garden, Regional Garden, Butterfly Garden, Lawn Terrace, and Amphitheater. Upon arriving at the check in desk in the outdoor garden we were greeted with a map and encouraged to plant a necklace garden to wear on our tour. I did complete my little necklace garden and brought it home to put on my windowsill. We tried to guess the answers to the rose trivia in the Rose Garden and by the way the rose is the National Flower. After touring outside, we went into the building as well. There are too many gardens to list and I can't remember the names of all of them but 2 that I was impressed with were the Meditation Garden and the Endangered Species Garden. What I was really impressed with was the cost. Totally absolutely FREE! No commercialism at all. No buy this buy that. No gift shop. No place to spend money anyway, anyhow. They even had containers with bottled water for the guests and it was free. I encourage everyone to take this trip downtown to see these gardens.