Cultivating diplomacy
Stopping to smell the flowers
Arlene Marturano

Arlene Marturano is a master gardener, writer, and educator. As an advocate of gardening as a tool for learning, she helped develop the Carolina Children's Garden at the Sandhill Research and Education Center. She is an education consultant with T.E.A.C.H.

marturano@yahoo.com

In spring, the 27 embassies of the European Union in Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle neighborhood host a public open house to share their culture via food, films, art, architecture, gardens, and conversation.

Since receptions, press conferences, and ceremonies often take place in the gardens, each embassy has its own unique way of landscaping with plants conducive to the climate of D.C. but appropriate to the native country.

Luxembourg welcomes visitors with a rose garden of deep crimson flowers mirroring the same bold hue in its flag.

The formal entrance arch to the embassy is flanked by pedestal urns filled with manicured dwarf Alberta spruce skirted in blue pansies.

Crimson roses welcome visitors to the Luxembourg embassy.

Hydrangea and chrysanthemums provide seasonal color around formal boxwood hedges in front of the Romanian embassy, and the yellow rose, a symbol of friendship, dominates the oval entranceway rose garden.

Instead of olive, carob, and citrus trees native to Mediterranean Cyprus, the row house embassy building is nestled in dogwood, magnolia, and maple. Floral patterns are repeated in interior woodwork, sconces, railings, and carpets.

Visitors sampled from trays of halloumi, a goat and sheep milk cheese rolled in wild mint leaves and honey caramels, both exports of Cyprus.

The contemporary design of the new Italian embassy (c.2000) is a departure from neighboring neoclassical architecture. The angular building grows out of an undisturbed hardwood forest formerly owned by the Mellon Foundation.

The design brings the outdoors inside. The large glass- domed atrium makes the sky the ceiling and creates a feeling of warmth in a large circular sunlit reception area. All interior windows are framed in dark green marble to capture the natural view, like a painting.

The exterior of the building is constructed of 42,000 blocks of rose Asiago marble custom cut in Italy. The interior floors are Italian marble as well.

The embassy vibrates with aesthetic sensitivity - from classical paintings and ancient artifacts to contemporary Murano art glass and leather conference chairs that unzip to become chaise lounges.

Although embassies were only open for a few hours, they offered a glimpse of culture and cultivars of the countries and a brief flirtation with the natural and man- made beauty of Europe.