Big old remnant Cedars in the Asian Collection

I have mixed feelings about them. They are beautiful but the do cast awfully heavy shade year round and drop heavy branches on plants underneath them. Plus the Cedrus atlantica isn't really Asian, though the Deodar's are. Anyway I do like the cones; they're always arrayed in such balanced patterns that you can almost shoot randomly with a camera and get a well composed picture. I guess, like people, some plants are more photogenic than others!

Iris ensata cultivars flowering in the Central Valley in the Asian Collections at the US National Arboretum

What can I say? They're beyond superlatives!