This glorious garden bed, mirrored on the other side of the door, flanked the front door of Hillwood Estate. This grand place was the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post and since her death has been open to the public to enjoy.
After going through the Visitor Center you are greeted with a grand motor court and the entrance to this magnificent home. It is amazing to think this palace (of sorts) is in DC. Mrs. Post lived and entertained in this home for almost twenty years. She has a fabulous collection of both French porcelain and Russian artifacts. The daughter of C.W. Post was married four times, her third husband was ambassador to Russian. While living in Russian she built her collection. Upon her death the home was turned into a museum. The house was designed to showcase her collections. Photos were not allowed within the house, so please click on the link to see the art collections. I was especially interested in the Fabergé eggs. Such magnificent work!
The self guided house tour is available with headphones which makes it nice to go at your own pace.
The gardens and lawns are beautifully designed. The rose garden was first on the garden tour.... loved the cooling shade of the arbor.
You know you are wealthy when you have your own putting lawn....
Around the corner from the putting lawn it the main lawn, the Lunar Lawn. Grand entrances at every turn.
The Lunar Lawn is framed with American Elm, Ulmus americana, I believe they said six. Two were killed by the Dutch Elm disease but there were others on the property that were moved to replace them to maintain the symmetry.
From the porch, looking over the lawn the view is long -- though over the years the trees have obscured much of the view. If you open this photo and look really hard, in the center above the lion's shoulder blades you can see the top of the Washington Monument.
Below the lawn is the Japanese Garden, with tumbling waterfalls. I think my favorite was the Japanese Garden.
In the front of the house is a cutting garden, I want one of those!!
Roses and peonies going strong!
In the background is the greenhouse.
Don't you just love the color combo in this Iris?
From the cutting garden I wandered into the greenhouse. Along with many orchids there was a blooming cactus..a red one, similar to my Epiphyllum oxypetalum. (no name tags in the greenhouse)
I will leave you with the collage of the greenhouse blooms. Check back for the third day's tour..... hard to believe we did so much in three days!
