WASHINGTON, D.C. – The US Botanic Garden unveiled how they’re showing their holiday spirit in their annual holiday exhibit called “Season’s Greenings”.
If you make your way to Washington, DC for the holiday season, the US Botanic Garden, which inspires people to appreciate, study and conserve plants, is sticking to their roots in their annual holiday exhibit.
“We’ve got about 2006 poinsettias, 23 different varieties and colors, including about six you can’t even find in the markets yet,” said Botanic Garden public affairs specialist, Devin Dotson.
Including replicating DC landmarks all made out of plants and plant-based materials, like the White House, the US Capitol building, which took more than 600 hours to build. And other prominent landmarks along the National Mall.
“The Lincoln Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Junior Memorial and all sorts of DC landmarks inside to explore in addition to our train show outdoors,” said Dotson.
Outside, they spent weeks building and creating their holiday display with several train models circling through sculptures. This year’s theme: celebrating pollinators and their plants.
“We wanted to talk about that because pollinators are responsible for 75 percent of all flowering plants rely on an animal pollinator and so I think it’s really important to talk about those stories,” said Dotson. “They’re fun and you might learn a little something while you’re here as well. We’ve got things like a lemur and maybe some more controversial ones like a mosquito. Turns out mosquitoes are the primary pollinator for a whole bunch of orchids, so some fun and unexpected stories of the plants and the pollinators outdoors, like bats pollinating some bananas and that sort of thing.”
The annual holiday exhibit will open on Thanksgiving Day and stay open through New Years Day. It’s already a hit according to these visitors.
“I like it a lot,” said Hunter, Trey and Johnny, referring to the trains. “It’s very fun to chase the trains around the exhibit.”
The US Botanic Garden expects about a quarter of a million people to pass through their holiday exhibit within the next couple of weeks. It’s free to the public and open every day except for Christmas.
