Portland: A Gardener's Paradise

It's the 'City of Roses' and much, much more

By Laura Schulte
For Oregon.com

If a few April showers bring May flowers, what do plentiful Pacific Northwest showers bring to the city of Portland? A gardener's paradise of lush green foliage and waves of blossoms nearly year round!

Owing to mild winters, sunny summers and a reliable water supply, Portland is home to a collection of some of the most beautiful and diverse public gardens in any American city.

The International Rose Test Garden
The most famous of Portland's gardens is the International Rose Test Garden, located in the Washington Park area at 400 SW Kingston St. Here roses of every color and variety are displayed in neat beds in a terraced park overlooking the city.

Ever since its founding in 1917, the garden has received the best roses from around the world. At first, European enthusiasts rushed to send hybrids to the new garden, hoping to save rare specimens from destruction during World War I. Today, growers send samples to be judged every June during the Portland Rose Festival, when experts inspect blooms and choose winners in the prestigious Portland Best Rose Contest.

For the visitor, the International Rose Test Garden promises row after row of fragrant flowers during spring, summer and even into the fall months. Most of the garden is arranged for viewing by category with each colorful variety clearly marked for identification. Volunteers are available for questions as they deadhead bushes to ensure better blooms.

Of special note are the dramatic Shakespeare Garden, which features botanicals mentioned in the bard's works planted along formal walkways, and the Gold Medal Garden, which displays award-winning roses along beautiful paths surrounding a fountain. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

Note: in winter months rose bushes are cut back to stems.

Directions To The International Rose Test Garden: Take West Burnside Street heading west, turn left on SW Tichner Street, turn right on SW Kingston Avenue, park in the lot near tennis courts, then walk down stairs to the Rose Garden.

Soothing water features and carefully placed decorative rocks make every secluded corner of the Japanese Garden something special to discover.

The Japanese Garden
Only a few hundred feet from the International Rose Test Garden, but a world away, lies one of the most authentic, Japanese gardens outside of Japan. Situated on a hilltop above the rose gardens, Portland's Japanese garden offers visitors tranquility, beauty and relaxation through five formal gardening styles including a pond garden, a natural setting garden, a sand and stone garden, a flat garden and traditional tea garden.

Because the Japanese believe gardens are for reflection, colorful blossoms (which can be too exciting) are kept to minimum. The breathtakingly beautiful tapestry of calming greens, browns and grays are disturbed only in spring when the azaleas bloom in pinks and purples, and in fall when the maple leaves turn brilliant red.

In addition to elegantly manicured plantings, the Japanese Garden is known for one of the best views of Mt. Hood, and for the sparkling orange, purple and gold residents of its koi pond.

Directions To The Japanese Garden: Follow directions for the International Rose Test Garden. The parking area is well marked. Either walk up wooded hillside path to the entrance or take the free shuttle from the parking area.

The Classical Chinese Garden
Dedicated in 2000, the Classical Chinese Garden is an authentic Suzhou-style garden on a full city block in the heart of Portland's Chinatown neighborhood at NW Everett Street and Third Avenue.

Painstakingly built by artisans from Portland's Chinese sister city, Suzhou, the garden is designed to slowly reveal its orchids, bamboo and waterfalls as you wind through paths, stroll under archways and look through windows. Around each bend is a carefully constructed, picture-perfect arrangement of flowers, trees, rocks and water. Each vista is framed in beautiful architectural elements.

And after a stroll, what better way to relax than with a cup of authentic Chinese tea? Here in a recreated 16th Century, Sung-style Chinese teahouse, you can enjoy teas from around the world as you ponder the cosmos in the garden's traditional reflecting pond.

Recreating one of China's most beloved gardening forms, Portland's Classical Chinese Garden promises artfully landscaped beauty behind every opening in this tranquil urban space.

Directions To The Chinese Garden: Drive to NW Everett and Third Avenue where on-street, metered parking is available, or take the light rail system to the Old Town/Chinatown stop.

The Peninsula Park Rose Garden
Although it is not as well known as the International Rose Test Garden, the Peninsula Park Rose Garden is older, and in the opinion of many devotees, more beautiful. It is a classic sunken formal garden, planted in 1900 and includes brick walkways, a historic gazebo bandstand, a central fountain and thousands of blooms displayed in symmetrical plantings.

Located in the Piedmont neighborhood at 700 N. Portland Blvd., the garden shares the park with a playground, sports facilities and the city's oldest community center. Enjoy ambling through grass-lined paths, dip your toes in the cool fountain waters or take in the view from one of the many benches on the upper walkways where the thick fragrance of roses wafts up from the blossoms below.

While more than 8,000 plantings in the 2-acre site ensure a floral show comparable to the test garden, Peninsula Park has one advantage over its better-known counterpart: a relative lack of visitors. On any give day you are likely to have this Paris-worthy park almost all to yourself!

Directions To Peninsula Park Rose Garden: Take I-5 North to the Portland Boulevard exit. Turn right onto Portland Boulevard and then turn right onto Albina Street. Park on the street parking close to the corner of Ainsworth and Albina streets to view the park from its most impressive entrance.

Crystal Spring Rhododendron Gardens
What began in 1950 as a rhododendron test garden has blossomed into a dazzling collection of rhododendron and azaleas amidst attractive water features, winding gravel paths and stone masonry. Plantings of rhododendron from around the world burst into color in the spring months, then calm down to provide a tranquil, green habitat for waterfowl throughout the summer and fall seasons.

Wander gravel paths past waterfalls and lagoons as you take in the verdant surroundings. For added fun, buy birdseed from the admission stand (when available) to feed to ducks, geese and many other migrating birds that make the park a temporary home. Signs along paths help you identify the park's wildlife.

Directions To The Rhododendron Gardens: Cross the Ross Island Bridge (US 26 E) heading east, take to 99E south ramp to SE McLoughlin Boulevard, turn right onto SE 23rd, right onto SE Bybee and follow curve around to SE 28th Avenue. The parking lot and park entrance are on the left side of the street.

The Portland Memory Garden
Established in 2002, this garden is especially created for sufferers of Alzheimer's disease. Located at SE 104th Avenue and Powell Boulevard in the southeast corner of Ed Benedict Park, the Memory Garden occupies a quiet area away from other park activity and traffic noise.

Designed with wheelchair-bound visitors in mind, raised plantings of colorful aromatic flowers line wider paved, flat walkways. Ample benches provide plenty of space for relaxing. One of only eight such memory gardens in the country, this demonstration garden is meant to foster understanding of Alzheimer's and its effects.

Directions To The Memory Garden: Take I-84 East toward the airport then merge onto I-205 heading south. Take Exit 19 (Division St./US 26E) toward Gresham/Mt. Hood. Turn right onto SE Division, then left onto SE 92nd, left onto SE Powell Boulevard, and then continue to SE 104th Avenue.

At only two feet across, Mill's End Park, the world's smallest city park, is one Portland treasure that is easy to miss - look closely for Leprechauns!

Leach Botanical Gardens
Leach Botanical Gardens at 6704 SE 122 Avenue, could be Portland's very own secret garden. Located in a residential southeast neighborhood, the gardens were developed as Lilla Leach's personal effort to fulfill her love of botany.

Currently, the 15-acre park features diverse growing areas and an impressive collection of over 2,000 hybrids, native and non-native plants. Among Leach's collections are species of alpines, medicinal herbs, rock garden plants and camellias. A self-guided tour winds along trails and affords views of firs, ferns and wildflowers in this environment of lush, overflowing, mature plantings.

Directions To Leach Gardens: Take I-205 to Foster Road (exit #17), head east on Foster Road to SE 122 Avenue, turn right (south) and continue for three blocks to the parking lot next to Johnson Creek. Walk across the street to arrive at the Manor House and Gift Shop.

If You Still Have Time - Mill's End Park
While not quite a garden, Mill's End Park, located downtown in the middle of a crosswalk on Front Avenue at Taylor Street, is one of Portland's most noteworthy green spaces. It was begun years ago by Dick Fagen as a lighthearted way to fill in a hole, which had been dug for a light pole that never arrived.

Today it is the world's smallest city park, at only two feet across! Fagen, a columnist, planted a few flowers in the hole to improve his view. Then he went on to write about the imaginary, wee inhabitants of the park and the many festivities they staged under the flowers. Now, years later, many Portlanders who share Fagen's sense of humor add their own touches to the tiny park.