Visitors relax on benches or wend their way along the paths, stopping to take pictures, inspect a fetching flower or breathe the fragrant air. So we need to keep changing it a lot. The team plants what amounts to a new garden every six months and completely redesigns the parterre about every five years. In addition to the formal parterre, the 4.2-acre Haupt Garden has shady nooks, fountain gardens and other inviting spaces. With their elaborate designs, parterres remind me of plush decorative carpets.
Orange gazanias define the big diamonds.
This year the focus is on texture and foliage. As they dug up the flower beds in late spring, I could tell the winter scene had been gorgeous. Available in a rainbow of colors, these velvety-petaled flowers bloom through mild winters. It is hardy, it has an interesting form and it provides weatherproof color. The summer 2000 look began to take shape in early May, when trucks arrived at the Smithsonian's 11 greenhouses in northwest Washington to pick up hundreds of plants.