Days 2 and 3: Flowers in the Capital

We've spent the last two days visiting with good friends from Grinnell and seeing the sights of our nation's capital. Is it surprising that I found a few flowers and other botanical motifs among the monuments? Some were silk (roses along the Korean War Veterans Memorial, above), some were bronze (laurel and oak wreaths on the World War II Memorial, below), some were stone (corn on the Lincoln Memorial, below left, and flower-festooned females on the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory, below right).

Speaking of the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory . . . what a place. We discovered it just about at closing time, so I did not catch as many names as I would have liked. But in any case, here are Begonia convolvulacea (below), Coelogyne pandurata (lower below left), three more awesome orchids (lower below right, etc.), and one of the many misters that keep them all happy (bottom).