If you’re looking for a little dose of tranquil nature during your visit to Old Town Alexandria, Virginia and the Washington D.C. area with Morrison House, you’ve got a feast of different options: from riverway greenspaces to nature preserves. Our region also comes well-endowed with some lovely botanical gardens, including several right here in Alexandria. Let’s survey the local floral landscape!
Green Spring Gardens (4603 Green Spring Road)
Green Spring Gardens shows off better than 20 themed demonstration gardens sure to inspire some ideas for your own yard while also lowering that heart rate amid a whole lot of visual beauty and calming fragrance. You’ll also find a native plant garden showcasing some of the D.C. metro area’s indigenous vegetation, plus a greenhouse, horticultural library, and the tour-able Georgian-style house built by the Moss family back in 1784. The manicured gardens come accented by a forested stream corridor spangled with ponds.
River Farm (7931 E Blvd. Dr)
Did you know that Alexandria is home to the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society? Now you do! The AHS occupies the historic and immensely scenic 25-acre spread of River Farm, first cultivated in the mid-17th century. George Washington acquired the property, set along the Potomac River, in 1760. River Farm comes quilted with multiple gardens, including perennial plots providing year-round loveliness, the shady Garden Calm (which boasts one of the heftiest Osage-orange trees in the country, a roughly 200-year-old veteran), the pond-anchored Wildlife Garden, the native-plant showcase of the André Bluemel Meadow (host to its own venerable tree: a black walnut thought to have been growing here when Washington owned River Farm), and an orchard of apple, pears, and persimmons.
The United States National Arboretum (3501 New York Ave, Washington, D.C.)
Among the multiple public gardens the nation’s capital maintains within easy reach of your guest room or suite at Morrison House, an unquestionable highlight is the National Arboretum, open every day of the year save Christmas. A world-class array of trees and shrubs populates this beautiful 450-acre property: the witch-hazels, apricots, katsura trees, and camellias of the Asian Collection, the splendid globe-spanning evergreens of the Gotelli Conifer Collection; gorgeous hollies and magnolias; and much else. The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum is an absolute must-visit for its outstanding displays of meticulously maintained dwarf trees (an art called bonsai in Japan, penjing in China). And don’t miss the native plants of exquisite Fern Valley.
Garden Touring Out of Morrison House
Here at Morrison House, you’ve got some extraordinary garden-scapes to enjoy, many of them—as both Green Spring Gardens and River Farm demonstrate—equally appealing to the history buff. Come avail yourself of our Autograph Collection hospitality and weave in some botanical appreciation to your Old Town Alexandria getaway!