Nestled between the bustling streets of D.C., surrounded by iconic national landmarks, the United States Botanic Garden provides a peaceful sanctuary for visitors attempting to escape the noise. 

This past holiday season, from Nov. 23, 2023 to Jan. 1, 2024, the United States Botanic Garden in D.C. hosted its free annual Season’s Greetings event, adorned with decorations that celebrate the season in a natural style. Visitors enjoyed natural holiday decorations and both indoor and outdoor displays. Outdoor gardens hosted model trains and a plethora of plant-made animal displays. Inside, organizers set up poinsettias and plant-based D.C. landmarks throughout the Conservatory. 

The Season’s Greetings event continues to grow as the exhibits expand. The toy trains in the Holiday exhibit were introduced in the 1990s, and in 2004 the Botanic Garden added the plant-built D.C. landmark displays, said Public Affairs Specialist Devin Dotson. Today, the event continues to be a prime attraction in D.C., attracting around a quarter of a million visitors each year. 

At the Season’s Greetings exhibit, guests could walk through the carefully designed outdoor gardens that display this year’s theme — pollinators — and admire the model trains that loop around the exhibit. Constructed from plants, each exhibit portrays different pollinators and the plants they pollinate. The garden included a chocolate midge pollinating a cacao flower, a gecko pollinating a Trochetia flower and a lemur pollinating a traveler’s tree flower. For visitor Cristie Carlisle, the unique exhibits brought her back to the Botanic Gardens multiple times throughout the holiday season.

“It’s so cool, the little sculptures and the trains through the whole exhibit. It’s amazing,” Carlisle said. “Everybody’s reactions to them as well, everyone is just so happy to see them.”

Visitors could also admire festive lights and Christmas trees displayed throughout the gardens. Poinsettias, holiday decorations and 22 DC landmarks designed from plant matter filled the Conservatory for guests to enjoy. This past year, the Botanic Garden was home to over 1000 poinsettias with 24 varieties, including seven to eight-foot-tall heirloom poinsettias, Dotson said. Amidst the blooms were the D.C. landmark displays, including the Lincoln Memorial, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the U.S. Capitol. Designed from plants, the landmarks include a placard so visitors can learn more about the plants and the nation’s capital in a festive way. 

“[The D.C. landmarks] are made from acorns, cinnamon sticks, grape vines and all sorts of fun plant materials,” Dotson said. “It’s a unique way to celebrate the holidays and I think that we do it well.”

Preparation for this year’s event was extensive, beginning in January 2023. Though the 2023 exhibit just recently closed, Botanic Garden staff have begun meeting with artists to discuss and plan sculptures for the 2024 show, Dotson said. After the initial meetings, artists will design the custom models. In June, they will grow thousands of poinsettia plants, and in late October, they will start to prepare the display for its opening in the last week of November. 

Apart from holiday events, the United States Botanic Garden is open year-round for visitors. Having opened in 1820, it remains the oldest public garden in the United States and continues to fulfill George Washington’s vision to have a botanic garden in D.C. 

One of the main attractions for year-round visitors is the Conservatory, which holds a variety of indoor gardens that represent different habitats, with information on an array of plants. Guests may also visit the Outdoor Gardens and admire exquisite flowers, various Mid-Atlantic plants and a pollinator garden. The Botanic Garden also encourages younger visitors to come to the Children’s Garden, where they can learn more about nature by digging, planting and watering the garden.

The United States Botanic Garden also offers a variety of programs, including workshops, children’s programs and tours. For Garden Monitor Angelia Hardie, seeing people enjoying the environment in the garden is what makes it so special to her. Hardie fell in love with the Botanic Garden when she started working there in 2016 and, after taking four years off, returned to the Botanic Garden for this year’s Season’s Greetings. 

“I just like being in the holiday spirit, the spirit of the season,” Hardie said. “I just love to see people happy and out enjoying a good atmosphere and environment, and seeing the flowers, poinsettias and the Christmas trees.”