Intrigue in the Botanical Garden

Visiting the United States Botanic Garden for our 3rd Anniversary on 3-3-2013 

Here are some pictures of the spectacular plants to share with you. 

Plants are so amazing, so diverse, so endlessly fascinating - with much to teach us.

 

I didn't get all their names, but I met them nonetheless; let me introduce you...

 “Experience the beauties of nature, and in doing so, learn about yourself.” - Japanese proverb

 “Watching gardeners label their plants

I vow with all beings

to practice the old horticulture

and let plants identify me.”

- Robert Aitken 'The Dragon Who Never Sleeps:  Verses for Zen Buddhist Practice'

  

"I believe I will never quite know.
Though I play at the edges of knowing,
truly I know
our part is not knowing,
but looking, and touching, and loving."
~Mary Oliver 'Bone'

 

“I adore the simple pleasures.  They are the last refuge of the complex.” - Oscar Wilde

"There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

 

“Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of 

others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... 

and some scarce see nature at all. 

But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” - William Blake

“Of all the plants that cover the earth and lie like a fringe of hair upon the body of our grandmother, 

try to obtain knowledge that you may be strengthened in life”- Oliver Goldsmith

  

 "Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."

 -  Hans Christian Andersen

 

“What will come from the briar but the berry.” - Irish Proverb

“and the leaves were telling secrets to the wind.” ― Peter Mulvey