Robins Williams as Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam
Hey, can you tell me, what's your name? "My name is Roosevelt E. Roosevelt." Roosevelt, what town are you stationed in? "I'm stationed in Poontang." Well, thank you, Roosevelt. What's the weather like out there? "It's hot! Damn hot! Real hot! Hottest thing is my shorts. I could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cooking." Well, tell me what it feels like. "Fool, it's hot! I told you again! Were you born on the sun? It's damn hot! It's so damn hot, I saw little guys, their orange robes burst into flames. It's that hot! Do you know what I'm talking about?" What do you think it's going to be like tonight? "It's gonna be hot and wet! That's nice if you're with a lady, but ain't no good if you're in the jungle!" Thank you, Roosevelt.
And thank you, Robin Williams, for giving me a perfect opening for my first post about this year's Hot as Hell Fling.
It was hot. Damn hot. When you go to the bathroom after touring gardens in downtown Washington, D.C., and removing certain sweat-soaked articles of clothing feels like peeling off a wet bathing suit, you know you're in trouble. It didn't help that I was sick with a cold, and couldn't stop coughing to save my life. Somehow, despite my Typhoid Mary status, and the heat, and my camera acting up, I managed to take some photos, and now I'm going to inflict the misery of viewing them on you, if you care to look. Hey, I was miserable when I took them, so it's only fair.
Hillwood Estate Gardens
We spent the morning of Friday, the first day of the Fling, at Hillwood, the former home of Marjorie Meriweather Post. Post was the daughter of C.W Post, founder of the Postum Cereal Company, and in 1914, when her father died, she became the sole heiress of the company and one of the wealthiest women in the U.S. She purchased Hillwood, a 25-acre estate in Washington, D.C. in 1955. The temperature was already hot and humid by the time we got there, but the Visitor Center, fortunately, was air-conditioned, and I spent most of my time going back and forth between the gardens and the air-conditioning.
 |
| Parterre -- a rill runs through it |
 |
| Creepy statue |
 |
| Greenhouses |
 |
| This was as far as I went into the greenhouse -- it was hot and wet, like the jungle |
 |
| The cutting garden |
 |
| Dahlia in the cutting garden |
 |
| Echinops ritro |
 |
| Sweetpeas |
 |
| The rose garden and arbor |
After lunch at the estate, we hopped back onto the mercifully air-conditioned buses and were taken into downtown D.C. to the National Mall.
Smithsonian Gardens
I did some reading ahead of time and despite having 3 hours on the National Mall to see the Smithsonian Gardens, I knew I wouldn't have time to see everything. So I decided to stick to just two gardens, the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden (which sounded the most interesting to me), and the Butterfly/Pollinator Garden.
Mary Livingston Ripley Garden
The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden runs along the eastern side of the Arts and Industries Building. Collector, scholar, and avid gardener, Mrs. Ripley championed the establishment of this beautiful garden in 1978. The garden is home to a variety of plants whose color and aroma stimulate the senses. It contains a variety of unusual trees, shrubs and perennials.
 |
| Bug Hotel in the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden |
 |
| Ripley Garden with the Arts and Industries Museum behind |
 |
| Ripley Garden and Hirschhorn Museum |
 |
| Not a giant v-jay -- Aristolochia gigantea ssp brasiliensis |
 |
| Aristolochia peruviana |
There is a fabulous living wall in the Ripley Garden that everyone but me saw and took a picture of. How did I not notice it? Don't know, maybe I was catatonic from the heat. Here's a post that Smithsonian Horticulturist Janet Draper wrote about it.
Also, here's a Pinterest board about the garden.
Butterfly Garden
The Smithsonian Pollinator Garden is a 400 x 40 foot area that showcases the interdependency between plants and their pollinators, including bees, beetles, and butterflies. It is located on the East side of the National Museum of Natural History.
 |
| Thalictrum rochebrunianum |
 |
| Great pairing of Tithonia and blue Salvia |
The Pollinator Garden has a Pinterest Board too.
US Botanic Garden
From the Smithsonian Gardens we had to make our way down several city blocks to the US Botanic Garden and Conservatory, just outside the Capitol Building, where our idiotic Congresspeople meet. I would have enjoyed this walk a lot more if it hadn't been so. damn. hot.
Established by the U.S. Congress in 1820, the U.S. Botanic Garden is one of the oldest botanic gardens in North America.
Established in 1820, the US Botanic Garden is one of the oldest botanic gardens in the country. You can read about the history of the US Botanic Garden here. |
| Water feature inside the conservatory |
 |
| Big ball of Tillandsias |
 |
| Enormous Castor Bean plant |
That was about the limit of my exploration inside the conservatory. I found an air-conditioned room where I could sit until bus time, so that's what I did.
*****************
That's the end of my sucky pictures from Day One of the 2017 Fling. I can hear your sigh of relief.
Did I mention it was hot?
