One of my all-time favorite Washington DC activities is a weekend visit to the US National Arboretum, one of the great 
botanical treasures in the United States. It's spectacular any time of year, but in early spring, the focus is on flowering trees, and this cherry specimen is simply breathtaking.
It's just beyond the National Herb Garden, the nation's largest, which was a gift in 1980 from the National Herb Society. The garden's very formal design is the work of Thomas Wir
th of Sasaki Associates Inc. of Boston, MA. It's roughly in the shape of an old-fashioned key, and it includes a sunken knot garden,
a rose garden, and 10 separate speciality gardens (The Colonial Garden, The Native American Garden, The Fragrance Garden, etc), each with plants relating to the theme.
Herb Garden visitors shouldn't miss the adjacent National Bonsai & Penjing Museum with a grand entrance lined with Cryptomeria japonica and about 150 miniature botanical gems.
(click on images for larger view)
A short stroll away are the National Capitol Columns, 22 of the original 24 columns that once formed the east central portico of the US Capitol. They were dismantled in the late 1950s 
to make way for an addition to the building, and were left abandoned in a storage yard for many years. Rescued by an Arboretum benefactor, Ethel Garrett, the columns found a permanent home at the Arboretum in the 1980's. Mrs. Garrett persuaded a close friend, British landscape designer Russell Page, to select a site for the columns. He placed them in a rectangular configuration with a set of stairs descending to a fountain and reflecting pool, all surrounded by a large, open meadow.
The National Arboreum was chartered by Congress in 1927. There's far more to its 446 acres... and more on that in later columns.
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