by Peggy Robin
Season's Greenings 2024
November 28, 2024 – January 5, 2025
Location: Outdoor Gardens, 100 Maryland Ave SW
Our popular annual holiday display “Season’s Greenings” features model trains in the gated outdoor gardens, festive lights throughout the Garden, and the poinsettias, holiday decor, and D.C. landmarks made from plants inside the Conservatory. On the lawn in the gated outdoor gardens, G-gauge model trains circulate from 10:00-5:00 daily through displays of pollinators made from plant parts. These scenes range from oversized models of native U.S. flowers like milkweed and bats pollinating a banana to an orchid bee pollinating a vanilla orchid flower, a chocolate midge pollinating a cacao flower, a lemur pollinating a traveler’s tree flower, and more!
The Garden will be closed on December 25.
Visiting Tips
- The Garden is busiest on holidays and the weekends surrounding holidays. For a less busy experience, visit during the week if possible.
- For safety, it is recommended that visitors wear a mask and maintain social distance between your group and others.
- Strollers are welcome at the Garden, but personal property must be kept in the owner’s possession at all times.
- The outdoor train display may not run during inclement weather.
- Please be mindful of terrain changes (stone, gravel, grass, etc.) as you make your way through our outdoor gardens. For additional accessibility information, please visit our Accessibility page.
Hours
- The outdoor train display and Conservatory hours are both 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily between Nov. 28, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2025, closed Dec. 25.
- On Dec. 8, the gated outdoor gardens will open at 10:00 a.m. to accommodate the Garden’s sensory-friendly programming. For additional information on programs for special audiences, please visit our Accessibility page.
- The Terrace Gardens and Bartholdi Fountain and Gardens are open dawn to dusk daily.
- There is no admission fee and no tickets are required to visit any area of the U.S. Botanic Garden, including the holiday train display.
Evening Hours and Music
On select Tuesdays and Thursdays -- December 10, 12, 17, 19, and 26 -- the Conservatory and outdoor train display will have extended hours, staying open until 8:00 p.m. There will be live holiday music and food and drink vendors during these evenings.
Outdoor Train Display
This year, the holiday display includes a model train display in the gated outdoor gardens, with trains running from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. between Nov. 28, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2025, closed Dec. 25. The train display will run until 8:00 p.m. on select Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The trains will run through a display of pollinators and their related plants all made from plant parts. Tickets are not required to view the trains or any part of the USBG’s outdoor holiday display, and the train display may not run during inclement weather.
The pollinator-plant scenes made from plant parts include:
- Euglossine orchid bee pollinating a vanilla orchid flower
- Chocolate midge pollinating a cacao flower
- Bat pollinating a banana flower
- Lemur pollinating a traveler's tree flower
- Gecko pollinating a Trochetia flower
- Honeycreeper bird pollinating a lobelia flower
- Pygmy possum pollinating a banksia flower
- Mosquito pollinating an orchid
- Yucca moth pollinating a yucca flower
- Milkweed flower and milkweed beetle
- and more
About 75% of all flowering plant species need animal pollinators for reproduction. As a result, pollinators contribute to ecosystem health and a sustainable food supply.
Conservatory decor featuring DC Landmarks Buildings and Poinsettias
Inside the Conservatory, explore more than 20 landmarks and monuments from around D.C. made from many different plant parts. Each building is a unique plant-based masterpiece. Distinctive architectural details are fashioned from hundreds of dried plant materials. Learn about the plants that make up our famous DC landmarks buildings:
- DC Landmarks Building Materials Guide (U.S. Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and more ...)
Gift Shop and Coffee, Drinks
A gift store run by the Friends of the U.S. Botanic Garden and local D.C. small business Rewild will offer a variety of botanically-themed gifts for purchase in the Conservatory's West Gallery, open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.
Vintage Views will offer coffee, hot chocolate, and other drinks and snacks for sale just inside the gated outdoor garden near the trains.
Sensory-Friendly Program Dates
These early or late openings provide museum access to individuals with cognitive and sensory processing disabilities and their families by offering early entrance for registered participants, pre-visit materials, and a take-a-break space.
Upcoming events:
- Sensory-Friendly Evening at the Garden, Dec. 7, 5:30 - 8 pm. Registration required.
- Sensory-Friendly Morning at the Garden, Dec. 8, 8:30 - 10 am. Registration required.
Our Horticulture team grows thousands of poinsettias each year. Learn about growing poinsettias, their history, varieties new and old, testing more sustainable growing media, and more!
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The "Get Out!" event of the week is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local, usually on Thursdays, but this week, was delayed until Friday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
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