"FROM JOSEPHINE TO EDITH: SONGS OF PARIS" -- April 22 at 7:30. Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. 202-357-3030. www.parisonthepotomac.com.
EVGENY KISSIN -- Wednesday at 8. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda. 301-581-5100. www.strathmore.org.
(Illustration by Isabelle Dervaux)
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ST. PETERSBURG BALLET THEATRE'S "ROMEO & JULIET" -- April 17 at 2. Center for the Arts, George Mason University, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax. 703-218-6500. www.gmu.edu/cfa.
SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHDAY OPEN HOUSE -- April 24 from noon to 4. Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol St. SE. 202-544-7077. www.folger.edu.
"TOULOUSE-LAUTREC AND MONTMARTRE" -- Through June 12. National Gallery of Art, East Building, Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW. 202-737-4215. www.nga.gov.
WASHINGTON BALLET'S "ROMEO AND JULIET" -- April 13-16 at 8, April 16 at 2:30 and April 17 at 1. Eisenhower Theater, Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. www.kennedy-center.org.
GARDENS OF EDEN
First comes the winter jasmine, then daffodils, crocuses and the other early bulbs -- but none of them are adequate preparation for the floral plentitude that is April: magnolias, tulip trees, forsythias, flowering quince, not to mention those little pink blossoms with the festival named after them. Love, like a garden, can spring up in the most unlikely places in Washington, and it needs to be watched for everywhere: in private arbors barely visible from the street and in grand public spaces with the whole world as an audience.
Those in search of a sure thing can't go wrong on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral, where spokeswoman Beth Mullen remembers seeing a guy a few years back with a forlorn look on his face and a dozen roses. "He looked grief-stricken," she says. "He'd come all the way down from New York to propose to his girlfriend, only to find himself surrounded by thousands of people" -- the regular collection of floral enthusiasts and goodness knows how many marriage proposers. "I took him over to Bishop's Garden," a secluded area with lots of little benches and intertwining paths, just one of a number of romantic pockets on-site. ("There's 57 acres, so there's lots of nooks and crannies.") Once summer hits, roses are in bloom everywhere, but spring brings its own special joys: When else might a pair of lovers spoon in the shade of flowering dogwoods?
Roses will also be in short supply at Hillwood Museum & Gardens near Rock Creek Park, but only until May, when the mass of trellises and cobblestones approaches Merchant Ivory brilliance. Bide your time at the Japanese garden, or the azalea- and pansy-flecked Lunar Lawn, where former owner Marjorie Merriweather Post used to hold her garden parties. But many of the dreamiest spots are really extensions of rooms in the mansion, such as the French Parterre, whose fountains and well-disciplined boxwoods suggest nothing if not the clipped elegance of the Luxembourg Gardens.
Georgetown's Tudor Place Historic House and Garden also specializes in what it terms "garden rooms," intimate spaces with lots of trysting possibilities. But curator Melinda Huff says not to miss the forested areas on the 5 1/2-acre grounds, or the grape arbor, or -- especially -- the sweeping south lawn. In spring, lovers of all stripes tote blankets onto the vast greenspace, their escapades watched over closely by the 200-year-old tulip poplar trees. The most romantic spot of all? A small semicircular bench in a remote corner of the garden. It's the one near the wrought iron railing in which the initials of Tudor Place's last owner, Armistead Peter III, are intertwined with those of his first wife, Caroline.
And finally, we're deeply indebted to special events coordinator Susan Burgess, who appears to have polled the entire terminally romantic staff of the U.S. National Arboretum, a fact-finding mission that produced the following interesting suggestions. The Morrison Garden in the Azalea Collection was a frisky favorite ("Check out the little gazebo down the hill from the azaleas," wrote one anonymous respondent), as was the Dogwood Collection ("Secluded. . . . Be sure to visit the pagoda"). Couples have also been known to frolic along the winding paths of the Asian Collection, though when the conversation turns serious (read: marriage), they tend to flee to the sober beauty of the Conifer Collection ("pristine, quiet. . . . It can feel like a chapel").
HILLWOOD MUSEUM & GARDENS -- Grounds open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 to 5. Also open noon to 5 on the following Sundays only: April 24; May 1, 8 and 22; and June 5. 4155 Linnean Ave. NW. 202-686-5807. www.hillwoodmuseum.org.
TUDOR PLACE HISTORIC HOUSE AND GARDEN -- Gardens open Monday-Saturday from 10 to 4 and Sundays from noon to 4. 1644 31st Street. NW. 202-965-0400. www.tudorplace.org.
U.S. NATIONAL ARBORETUM -- Grounds open daily from 8 to 5 except Christmas Day. 3501 New York Ave. NE. 202-245-2726. www.usna.usda.gov.
