Set on twenty-five acres adjacent to Rock Creek Park, Hillwood’s gardens feature a diverse and fascinating array of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, offering something to see in every season. 

Plants to note in the gardens:

• This year’s summer seasonal display is comprised of more than ten thousand warm season annuals and tropical plants. Flowers and bold foliage can be found throughout the grounds. A highlight is out in front of the greenhouse. Waves of bright magenta sunpatiens and soft blue scaevola create a high-impact bed edge in front of a taller pink salvia. The pots along the walk are overflowing with more sun impatiens mixed with pink mandevilla vines, black magic colocasia, and a white euphorbia.
• The cutting garden is also a feast for the eyes. Staff and volunteers harvest weekly but there is so much to see. One particularly interesting plant in bloom is the Maryland wild senna (Senna marilandica). A tall Mid-Atlantic native, it is part of the pea family and develops yellow flowers along the stem that mature into long seedpods. This plant has high ecological value as the pods provide sustenance for wildlife in late winter. Maryland wild senna is also the larval host for several different species of sulfur butterflies.
• On your way to visit Fragile Beauty: Art of the Ocean, check out the bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) blooming along the path to the Adirondack building. A DC native shrub, it puts up feathery plumes of flowers that can easily reach one and a half feet long. They are a favorite of many pollinators and often eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies are seen visiting. The deciduous shrub can make a nice, mounded suckering stand and the attractive palmately compound leaves often turn yellow in the fall. 

Highlights in the greenhouse:

• Even through the heat, there are orchids to see in bloom. Several moth orchids are still going strong. A very nice specimen is Phalaenopsis Sogo Yukidian x P Sogo Davis “S-583” with large white flowers with a hint of pink. Typical moth orchids are often recognizable by their flat broad flowers trailing off a single stem. The leaves are wide and flat and arranged in rows opposite each other. Can you identify other moth orchids blooming in the greenhouse?
• In the west orchid house, a dancing lady orchid (Oncidesa Sweet Sugar) is putting on quite the show. The long cascading branches of bright yellow flowers stand out across the room. Looking carefully at the blooms will reveal a head, hands, red bodice, and yellow skirt set off by an extravagant red spotted costume piece giving this orchid its common name. Though a hybrid, its relatives are native to much of South America, Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, and even Florida.
• There is a very unique looking dendrobium orchid (Dendrobium Green Leopard) growing in the entrance house. The flowers are a chartreuse-green while the lip is striped and spotted in a dark maroon. The back of the petals and sepals are spotted too. Each cane is producing a flower spike to really pack a floral punch. There are many different types of Dendrobiums and their requirements can differ. Dendrobium Green Leopard prefers high light levels and warm temperatures.