Day 1, Friday, July 31
Tour members arrange their own transportation to Portland and The Heathman Hotel, where a reservation has been made. We will gather for a welcome dinner this evening (included in tour price).
Day 2, Saturday, August 1
We’ll start the day at the garden of Dan Heims, the founder of Terra-Nova Nurseries, a plant breeding and wholesale nursery known for introducing many popular coral bells, coneflowers and pulmonarias, among others. His 1/2-acre property is the culmination of 45 years of plant collecting and includes 1,300 plants he recently moved from his previous garden. The front yard is dominated by a 75-year-old tree-form photinia and beds filled with hostas and a wide variety of shade-tolerant companions. Follow the fruit-and-veggie- filled sideyard to the backyard, where you’ll discover a patio perfect for enjoying this relaxing retreat. A waterfall and koi pond, Japanese maples, crevice and rock garden along with rare trees, shrubs and unusual perennials from around the world make
this garden a plant-lovers delight.
Next we’ll visit the garden of Kyle and Iva-Marie Connall. This Mediterranean garden blends drought-tolerant plantings with a modern aesthetic. Mature eucalyptus and hundreds of lavender plants greet you along the driveway. A gravel courtyard with palms, hibiscus, jasmine and a water feature adds a tropical feel. In back, a large border with pathways, a firepit, and a cacti section completes the landscape.
We’ll make our final stop at the colorful fields of Swan Island Dahlias, a family-owned dahlia nursery that’s been in business for 98 years. The Annual Dahlia Festival begins this weekend, and includes live music, food vendors and, of course, lots of dahlias! You’ll be able to grab a late lunch at the food trucks here.
We’ll return to the hotel for some free time and dinner on your own this evening.
Day 3, Sunday, August 2
After breakfast we’ll travel to The Oregon Garden, a 130-acre botanical garden that showcases the diverse botanical beauty of the Willamette Valley and Pacific Northwest. More than 20 themed gardens include a sensory garden, rose garden, pet-friendly garden and one of the largest collections of dwarf and miniature conifers in the United States. You won’t want to miss the 400-year-old signature oak and the Hiroshima Peace Tree, a gingko descended from the trees that survived the 1945 bombing of that city. Want to see the whole park? Take one of the narrated tram tours that departs every 30 minutes.
After a stop in Silverton for lunch on our own, we’ll travel to Sebright Gardens, known for its huge selection of hostas and other shade plants, and the 4-acre display gardens are well worth a visit. We’ll spend time here exploring all the enticing plant combinations and have time for some shopping too!
Finally we’ll visit Helena and Dan Wagner’s 4-Season Garden. This Asian-inspired retreat is compact and serene, filled with a wide range of plant combinations with all-year interest. Follow the winding gravel path to a cozy seating area where you can enjoy a rich variety of trees, shrubs and perennials that create stunning color and texture contrasts from one season to the next.
We’ll return to our hotel this evening and you can have dinner on your own.
Day 4, Monday, August 3
We’ll begin our day at the Lan Su Chinese Garden. This classical walled garden encloses a full city block and is home to hundreds of plants native to China that surround a small lake stocked with beautiful koi and goldfish. As you walk through traditional handcrafted buildings, keep an eye out for poetry inscribed on rocks, doorways and buildings, discover sculptural stone from the Lake Tai region, a type of limestone known for its interesting shapes and holes, and take a break to enjoy the views along with a cup of tea in an authentic tea house.
For lunch we’ll make our first foray into the thriving Portland food truck scene by visiting a nearby “food pod”, a curated collection of food trucks. There will be lots to choose from so you can find what looks good to you that day, place an order and enjoy your meal in the community seating area.
After lunch we’ll enjoy a guided tour of the International Rose Test Garden, which boasts more than 10,000 roses representing 610 different varieties. You’ll find something in bloom here from May through October. Though founded at the start of World War I, the roses in the garden today are all commercially available, and it’s an active test garden for new introductions.
Next we’ll cross the road and make our way up the hill to Portland’s famed Japanese Garden. Designed in 1963 by Professor Takuma Tona of Tokyo Agricultural University, the 5 1/2-acre garden opened in 1967. This urban oasis looks out over the bustling city, providing a tranquil retreat. Generous paths take visitors through the Flat Garden, Tea House, Natural Garden and Strolling Pond Garden.
After our time in public gardens today, we’ll have a more intimate experience at the Greenwood House. This historic home and garden, built in 1929, was one of the first designed by Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver in the Portland area. The original pieris hedge, camellias, rhododendrons and a large styrax tree shield the house from a busy street. More recent additions include Japanese maples and conifers. The casual perennial garden continues to evolve as older varieties fade and are replaced with newer introductions. Janet and Ed Roberts created carefully tended color schemes to coordinate with their collection of Vietnamese pottery.
Tonight we’ll explore downtown Portland on our own for dinner.
Day 5, Tuesday, August 4
Our first stop today is in the heart of North Portland at the garden of Peter Eastman and Dayrol Griffin, who have been gardening there since 1988. As you approach the house you can’t miss the curbside plantings filled with xeric sun-loving specimens. In the rest of the yard you’ll find two different garden rooms. The first is filled with conifers, deciduous trees, shrubs and shade-loving perennials. The second is a tropical garden bursting with tender plants in a riot of hot colors from summer through fall.
Next we’ll visit Iseli Nursery where we’ll also have lunch (included). This wholesale nursery specializes in trees and shrubs of all kinds and has an amazing demonstration garden filled with dwarf conifers, Japanese maples, ornamental trees and shrubs that’s colorful year-round.
Our final garden visit of the day is Loree Bohl’s Danger Garden. She says that it may be the smallest garden on the tour, but she makes up for it by “cramscaping!” What was once a narrow lawn-covered yard is now filled front and back with an ever-changing palette of plants. The front yard is a xeric garden that’s watered just once a month and the back is home to a large magnolia and lots of shade perennial companions. Containers feature prominently in this garden and at last count there were more than 350, including numerous agaves and other spiky plants that give the garden its name.
We’ll enjoy a special seed to plate dinner experience tonight at The Side Yard Farm, an urban farm in the heart of Portland (included in tour price).
Day 6, Wednesday, August 5
We’ll start our day at Mike Hicks and Megan Big John's quarter-acre West Linn garden, which is a lush, ever-evolving tropical oasis. Built from a blank slate, it now features sculpted plant rooms packed with exotic treasures like tree ferns, bananas, a carnivorous bog, tetrapanax, schefflera, cannas, tropical containers and many unique species that create a vibrant, vacation-like escape.
We’ll have our lunch at Broder Söder (included), located in the Nordic Northwest Cultural Center. After our meal you can browse displays and explore the grounds, which include the giant Ole Bolle troll, made of recycled materials and designed by artist Thomas Dambo.
After lunch, we'll visit Carol Atherton’s ¾-acre garden, where her collection of Japanese maples accents the woodland garden, five water features, and in the sunnier spots, a hummingbird garden. See if you can find the secret garden, and enjoy more than 50 panicle hydrangea specimens
Next, we’ll visit Bruce Wakefield and Jerry Grossnick’s Old Germantown Gardens, a 2-acre hillside with a huge variety of plants and garden styles. Follow the winding paths to see a rock garden, woodland plantings, ponds, a bog garden and a greenhouse full of unusual botanical treasures. Next to the house is a French-Italian-style terrace with a fountain,rill and lots of containers. They’ve recently restored the woodland trails at the back of the property, where you can stroll to see native plants and maybe catch sight of the local elk herd!
We’ll finish our day at our local host Gene Rozenboom’s De Tuin Bij Montmore. Here he turned a steep hillside backyard into an garden with dry-stacked walls, lush shade perennials, dwarf conifers of all types and more than 60 cultivars of Japanese maples. The newest part of the garden was installed after some trees came down in a storm and was inspired by Piet Oudolf’s Singer Laren Museum design. Texture is the focus here until waves of colorful annuals and perennials burst into bloom in summer, accenting several new sculptures.
Dinner is on your own this evening.
Day 7, Thursday, August 6
We’ll begin our final day together at Lux Perennial Nursery at the home of owner Lisa Graff. Her English-inspired garden with a mountain view includes more than 8,000 flowering plants packed into colorful borders. Winding paths in the front yard showcase Lisa’s flower color palette. Take a seat on the patio or or in the cozy gazebo and enjoy the view, and take notes on her English borders with 3-season appeal. Don’t miss out on a chance to shop at the nursery too!
We'll stop at a local restaurant for lunch together (included).
Dairy Creek Meadows is the garden of Craig Quirk and Larry Neill. This 30-acre retreat is surrounded by forest and an alder-lined creek. Naturalistic plantings inspired by Piet Oudolf are at the heart of the property and are centered on two connected glass houses that include living space, a propagation area and plenty of room for their cactus and succulent collection. As you wander outdoors, you’ll find an impressive crevice garden packed with more succulents and other rock garden treasures. Wander further and you’ll find a bog garden, vegetable and cutting gardens and two tranquil ponds along a fern-line trail.
Finally, we’ll visit Mary and Harlan Courtney’s Hilltop Artistic Gardens. This 5-acre garden in the foothills of Northwest Portland reflects Mary’s idea to turn an acre of sloping lawn into garden terraces that look out over the valley and coastal mountains. As you explore, you’ll find several seating areas with beautiful views and unique sculptures created by Harlan. Circles, curves, and gabion walls are unifying elements throughout. Recent additions include 10 circular Corten steel gardens (many with conifers), a grand gabion staircase, and a pergola made from a repurposed satellite dish, where you can sit and enjoy the spectacular views of the gardens and valley below.
Tonight we’ll gather at the hotel for our farewell dinner (included in tour price).
Day 8, Friday, August 7, DEPARTURE DAY
Our time together has ended, but garden lovers always find fresh inspiration wherever they are. Tour members can choose to return home or carry on the adventure.
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