Webinar June 26 at noon, or register for access to recording later

Rant readers – don’t miss the free webinar about the fabulous new mostly-native gardens around the newly transformed Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in  Washington, D.C. No matter where you live, you can tune in to the free webinar about the new garden, designed by acclaimed ecological garden designer Patrick Cullina (of High Line fame!) and implemented by Alex Dencker, shown above.

(Locals to the area may remember Alex from his days working at Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, Md., where I first met him. While working there he studied horticulture at U.Maryland, and he’s worked at the Smithsonian since Behnkes closed in 2019.)

Here’s how the museum describes the event:

After more than a decade, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum (NASM) revitalization is nearly complete. Along with a complete redesign and rebuild of the interiors, the garden outside the building was redesigned and replanted. Join Smithsonian Gardens horticulturist Alex Dencker for a look at the new Flight Garden at NASM. Alex will highlight some of the 14,300 perennials (75 taxa) and 122 trees (11 taxa) planted since March 2024 and share how the garden will invite visitors to explore the beauty and wonder of flight through the lens of plants.

Register here. A recording of the webinar will be posted on Smithsonian Gardens “Let’s Talk Gardens” Video Library. If you would like to help support education programming like Let’s Talk Gardens please visit our “Donate Now” page. Please submit any questions to: MunnKA@si.edu

And more good news –  Alex tells me that the Smithsonian’s “Let’s Talk Gardens” videos are all available on YouTube right now and are definitely worth a look.

I visited the museum this week and was lucky enough to get an around-the-building tour of the 53 garden beds on the 10-acre site with Alex himself.  He estimates that 70-75 percent of the plants here are native (sorry, I didn’t ask how that’s defined for this garden). But unlike some naturalistic gardens we’re seeing these days, there was plenty of color, and the plants were massed, so they really pop.   

So I’m happy to report that I was wow’ed by the new garden, especially the filled-in beds that were planted just last summer. Kudos to Cullina and the on-site team!


The New Air and Space Museum

After the long renovations, about half the museum reopened recently, and the rest will open next month.  I found these icons of aviation history are still hanging in the main hall of the museum.

I do wonder if this is new, though – a large exhibit about America and speed, including cars and motorcycles. 

And the two gift shops, spread over two stories, are a bigger focus than ever, resembling a fancy Barnes and Noble.  I’m told this museum (the most popular in DC) is quite the money-maker, and I can see how!

Coming…the Bezos Learning Center

What won’t be open for a few years is this large addition to the museum, made possible by a $200 million donation from Jeff Bezos ($70 million going to renovating the existing museum and $130 to the new learning center.)  Click here for more info about it.