Now numbering over 1,600 items, the Horticulture Services Division's Garden Furnishings and Horticultural Artifacts Collection spans the period from 1835 to 1955. Hundreds of pieces are exhibited in the Smithsonian gardens and interior plant displays in the Smithsonian museums surrounding the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Horticulture Services Division is responsible for maintaining the objects and their supporting documentation.

The many Smithsonian gardens near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. offer perfect spaces in which to enjoy the dozens of historic urns, seats, and fountains from the Horticulture Services Division's (HSD) Garden Furnishings Collection that are on public display.

Garden Furnishings Collection
The Horticulture Services Division's collection currently includes at least two dozen different seating designs and more than 35 distinctive motifs on urns and vases. Ornate cast iron fountains provide grand centerpieces for some of the Smithsonian gardens.

Horticultural Artifacts Collection
The Horticulture Service Division's historic collection of seed packets, advertisements, and wire frames used for funeral arrangements increases an understanding and appreciation of the horticulture trade's enhancement of life's everyday and special occasions with flowers and plants.

Costume Accessories and Decorative Arts Examples of antique bouquet and posy holders, table decorations, shadow boxes, and ornaments reveal how everyday surroundings were embellished with horticultural details.

For more information about the Posy Holder Collection