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. There, among the vast rows of seedlings, the flowers that the horticulturists had planted several months earlier were coming into their own, ready to be moved to the containers or major beds of the Haupt Garden. When we started managing the garden, the soil here was atrocious.
Worms are like little rototillers.
They incorporate organic matter into the soil and help aerate it and improve drainage. A lot of worms were brought in back when the garden was first started, but now we add degraded pine bark to the soil to lighten and loosen it. When the Haupt Garden opened in 1987, the soil's pH was high, up to 8 or 9 for alkalinity. The ideal pH for plants is 6 or 7, and the garden is gradually getting there. The Haupt fronts Independence Avenue, a busy thoroughfare, and is bordered by the Castle, the Arts and Industries Building and three underground museums.