Richmond

Richmond,  Virginia

Last week I visited Richmond, Virginia, with a friend of mine to explore the city and enjoy

spring flowers.  The city was bursting with flowering trees, bushes, and all kinds of

flowers.  Dogwoods, flowering cherry trees, magnolias, flowering crabapples, and

many more lined the streets and filled the yards.

This is the view from the cafe terrace of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  You can have

lunch here surrounded by a pool with goldfish and looking out at the sculpture garden.

View of the new wing of the museum, which has a fine collection.

Purple and white violas.  Violas are smaller versions of pansies, and they were found in

colorful clumps all over town.  They are one of the earliest spring flowers.

Yellow and blue pansies.  They make wonderful borders.

Across the street from the museum, to the east, is a district known as "The Fan," with wonderful 

old late 19th and early 20th century houses which have been restored and painted bright colors.

The area is about 6 blocks by 6 blocks, and most of the front yards are filled with flowers

and flowering bushes and trees.  A number of owners were sitting on their front porches and

were happy to talk about their houses and the area. 

This is a flowering dogwood tree.  They come in white, cream, pink, and rose, and they

could be found all over, on every street and block.

Rose and white dogwood blossoms.

White and red flowering dogwoods.

Close-up of pale yellow dogwood blossoms.

The yards were filled with tulips of every color.  These pale lavender ones were some of

my favorites.

Tulips these days can be found in many sizes, shapes, and colors.  This is a

very large Double Yellow tulip.

Many houses had pots of tulips on the porch.  The beautiful tulips are almost white on

the exterior and deep red in the interior.

The double pink tulips were spectacular.

A pot of peach tulips with white daffodils and blue grape hyacinths, with the sun shining

through the petals, was glorious.

A pale yellow double tulip surrounded by little blue and white violas.

Azalea bushes were blooming in many yards.

Mounds of white creeping phlox were often used with the azaleas.

Peachy pink azaleas were very popular.

Blue poppy anemones were always nice.

White daffodils with yellow trumpet throats  lined many walls.

Double white daffodils with peach throats were among the new varieties we saw.

Camellia bushes were as common as marigolds and loaded with flowers.

White Camellia.

Red Camellia, incredibly beautiful.

Pink Camellias

One of the nicest streets in Richmond is Monument Avenue, which runs for about a mile
and is lined on either side by handsome big old houses of the early 20th century.  The
street is also the site of six splendid bronze monuments in honor of some of
Richmond's most famous citizens.  Here at the East end of the street is the statue
of General Robert E. Lee.  At he far West end of the street is the statue of Arthur Ashe,
the great tennis player and son of Richmond.

A house on Monument Avenue.

House on Monument Avenue

Some of the houses on Monument Avenue are painted this pale peach color.

One of the owners along Monument Avenue obviously likes Pink Creeping Phlox.

Yellow daffodils lined the walkway.

Deep pink flowering cherry.  The flowering cherry trees in Washington were very late in
blooming this year.  In Richmond, they were right on time and came in many varieties.

Double Pale Pink Flowering Cherry.  The trees carried such massive bundles of flowers,
that it looked as if they would almost tip over.

Double White Flowering Cherry Tree

White Weeping Flowering Cherry Tree

There were also Weeping Cherry Trees in white and pink.

Spanish Bluebells

A single cluster of Double Pink Flowering Cherry blossoms.

Confederate Soldiers' Chapel.  There once was a home here for disabled veterans of the Civil War.
It was eventually torn down and only the chapel was preserved.  It is used only for special 
occasions like marriages.

The most important cemetery in town is Hollywood Cemetery, located on the south side
of town amid rolling hills.  Many famous Virginia citizens are buried here, including
two U.S. presidents , Monroe and Tyler, and also Confederate leader, Jefferson Davis.
This ornate tomb is for President James Monroe.

Resting after a long day.

I hope you have enjoyed this virtual walk through Richmond on a beautiful sunny sping day.

JB



__