Holiday train display.Winter Display and Garden Railway Exhibit
Colors of the Season
December 1- January 6, 2013
Admission: 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.: FREE
(Closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1- New Years Day)
The house is cleared and the trains are shut down for maintenance from 5:00- 5:30 p.m. daily.
Open evenings 5:30-8:30 p.m. for Garden of Lights.
(Closed evenings Dec. 24, 25, Jan. 1, 2, 3, 2013)
Admission: Weeknights: $20 (Sun.- Thurs.)
Admission: Weekends: $25 ( Fri.- Sat.)
Winter Display 2012-'13: Colors of the Season
The winter plant display inside the conservatories coincides with the outdoor “Garden of Lights” and brings a different type of color and warmth to the darkening days at year’s end. The seasonally planted display will include flower color from Chenille plant (Acalypha hispida), Bouganvillea shrubs, Bell flowers (Browallia), several types of sage (Salvia), and poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima). Poinsettias will be displaying their traditional red and white colors, as well as non-traditional types, such as ‘Dulce Rosa’, colored in hot pink with an unusual shape. The frosty foliage of Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria) and Helichrysum ‘Icicles’ and the deep purple leaves of ‘Black Pearl’ ornamental peppers adds to and enhances the brighter colored flowers.
Many of the permanently planted tropical plants begin to flower now, as well. The two species of Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia), Heliconia angusta ‘Holiday”, Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) , Anthurium and others add festivity to the season.
All aboard! Don’t be left standing on the platform for this very popular holiday attraction. Once again we welcome the Washington Virginia Maryland Garden Railway Society back to construct the ‘G’ scale train exhibit inside the South Conservatory. Trains and trollies roll along their tracks through evergreens, boxwoods, poinsettias and other ornamental plants as they travel by town and country scenes, including a custom made, one-of-a-kind scale model of the outdoor Wheaton Ice Rink, complete with moving skaters and music. The Garden Railway opens with Garden of Lights.
The North Conservatory will be open during the week of November 26-30 for access to the garden railway, but parts of the conservatory may be closed at times for installation of the winter plant display.
Both houses will be open during the day for free beginning Saturday, December 1 at 10am.
Montgomery County Department of Parks