Season’s Greenings: National Parks and Historic Places runs Thursday 26 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027 at the U.S. Botanic Garden, 100 Maryland Ave SW. The Garden states that admission is free and that no tickets are required. Six December evenings push the close to 8 p.m. with live music and food and drink vendors: 8, 10, 15, 17, 22 and 29 December. On those six dates the show costs a group nothing per person.
That zero is published and dated. A holiday package built on a paid attraction has to price against it.
The published hours, and the exception
The Conservatory runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and closes on 25 December. The gated outdoor gardens open at 7:30 a.m., and the outdoor train display runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the same closure. The regular seasonal extension to 7 p.m. covers 1 April to 15 September, so the 8 p.m. December closings are program nights rather than a winter rule. A group that plans around one of the six dates gets three extra hours inside the show at no charge.
No rate, no reservation and no ticket product appear on the exhibit pages. There is no allotment to sell out and no per-person price for a bundle to absorb.
What the trains carry
Model trains run around national parks and historic places built from plant parts. The published list names the Grand Canyon landscape and its depot, Mount Vernon, the Statue of Liberty, the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone and the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site. The D.C. landmarks return in the same material: the Lincoln Memorial, the U.S. Capitol and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, surrounded by poinsettias from heirloom to newly developed varieties. The Garden frames the 2026 train show around the 250th anniversary of the nation.
The Garden lists the show’s location as Outdoor Gardens. The train display sits outside, and the Garden states it may not run in inclement weather.
The route the Garden prints
Take the Orange, Blue or Silver line to Federal Center SW. Leave the station, walk north along Third Street SW for two blocks, cross Independence Avenue, and continue one block to Maryland Avenue. Metrobus D10 stops behind the Conservatory at Independence Avenue and First Street SW, and D1X stops on Independence Avenue at Third Street SW.
Parking is the cost the Garden cannot remove. The Garden has no lot and no spaces of its own, metered street spaces sit within a few blocks, and tour buses park off site. A group that drives pays for the evening. A group that stays on the Blue, Orange or Silver line pays a fare.
Four Tuesdays and two Thursdays
The late nights fall on 8, 15, 22 and 29 December, all Tuesdays, and on 10 and 17 December, both Thursdays. Six dates, four of them on the same weekday. A request that names those nights targets a defined window, and the hotel answer can be compared across the six.
hotelhaggle publishes its own terms. Submitting a request costs nothing. Hotels bid against each other. The rate is paid to the hotel with no markup. Replies typically arrive in 24 to 72 hours, and group rates begin at 10 rooms a night with some properties quoting from five.
Five answers to request in writing
Ask each property for the nightly rate on the named dates, the room type behind it, the cancellation date, the parking charge at the property, and whether the rate holds if the group adds a room. None of the five appears on the Garden site, and the Garden page settles the attraction line at zero.
Run the arithmetic on the room alone. A group of ten booking one late evening carries no ticket line, one transit line and one parking line. The room is the only line with a market behind it.
What the anchor does to a package price
A bundle that adds a paid attraction to a holiday stay adds a gate charge beside a gate that does not exist three blocks from Federal Center SW. The comparison a buyer can run has three lines: the room, the ride and the parking. The show line is fixed at zero on the six late nights and at zero on every other day of the run.
Price the room against that. Keep the ask to the six named evenings, put the five questions in writing, and leave the free anchor where it is, published and dated.
