Discover Metropolitan Washington Through Its Gardens

July 1, 2004 -- “I am thrilled to see a thorough and useful guide to Washington’s public gardens. Barbara Seeber has carefully chosen these gardens to provide opportunities for learning about design styles and the plants are appropriate for this region. In addition,
everything one needs to know about each garden is included, from its size to its website, plus directions for visiting—terrific!”
James van Sweden, ASLA, author, Gardening with Nature and Architecture in the Garden

Washington, D.C.: Most of the millions of annual Washington, D.C. visitors only see the “major sights” of the city, like the Smithsonian museums and the White House. Both visitors and locals frequently overlook Washington’s real jewels – its beautiful gardens. Few cities can boast the rich history and diversity of gardens as the Nation’s Capital. In "A City of Gardens," Barbara Seeber, an award-winning garden writer and gardening expert, offers 30 of Washington, DC’s most glorious gardens to visitors and locals––complete with signature plants, plans, and the personalities who shaped them. "A City of Gardens" looks at the traditional and the contemporary; the manicured and the naturalized; the aesthetic and the practical; national treasures and national parks. The book is the third travel guide in Capital’s popular Washington Weekends series of fascinating sites in and around our Nation’s Capital.

These gardens range from kitchen garden to historic showplace, from arboretum to downtown pocket garden. This newest guide in Capital’s popular Washington Weekends series offers natives and visitors a rich array of treks through DC’s gardens, with up-close and in-depth looks at the plants, the plans, and the personalities that shape them. It is an insider’s guide to these remarkable spaces, highlighting designs and designers, new cultivars and native species, garden ornament and sculpture, greenhouse and gift shop attractions, garden trivia and historic tidbits. Web sites and directions tell visitors exactly how and why to visit each. Illustrated with spectacular black-and-white photographs, "A City of Gardens" is a regional travel guide written by a highly knowledgeable garden-lover for all who love plants and gardens, botany and horticulture, and landscape architecture in a city rich in all.

Keith P. Tomlinson, the manager of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, says, “Barbara Seeber takes us on a tour unlike another. Recognizing the diversity of public gardens in the Washington metropolitan area, Seeber looks at Historic Estates, Botanical Gardens, Parks and even Contemplative gardens. 'City of Gardens: Glorious Public Gardens In and Around the Nations Capital' is a wonderful addition to any gardener’s bookshelf. Indeed, we are all more likely to visit and enjoy these exceptional places with such a fine guide in hand. Without question, this is a book endowed by the heart of a writer who knows the importance of gardens and their spiritual enrichment to the human condition. Enjoy!”

Featured gardens include: Dumbarton Oaks, Oatlands, Folger Shakespeare Library Elizabethan Garden, Franciscan Monastery Gardens, Jefferson Memorial and Tidal Basin, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Lafayette Park, and Pershing Park.

Barbara H. Seeber is a gardener, garden writer, and editorial manager at the National Geographic Society. She writes for several garden magazine, including Garden Design and Horticulture. She won the Garden Trowel Award from Garden Writers’ Association of America for the Best Magazine Article of 1997. She is a graduate of Columbia University and the University of Texas, and a long time resident of Washington, D.C.

A City of Gardens:
Glorious Public Gardens In and Around the Nation’s Capital
Barbara Seeber
May 2004 ISBN 1-931868-40-9 $20.00
Paper, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2, 307 p.p. + 40-50 b/w photos



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