For the most special plant place close to Portland...

Here is a link that might be useful: Cistus Nursery

if you are doing a washington park trip, i would take a stop at the chinese gardens first. get there around lunch, the food and tea in the teahouse are worth the stop. one of the more authentic chinese restaurants in portland (not much chinese food here). after the chinese garden, you can hit the rose garden, then the japanese garden. thats a whole day right there.

cistus (linked above) is a really amazing place. if you were to make a trip of it, i would go to joycreek nursery, then head to sauvie island, stop at kroger's farms to pick up food. then head to a beach to eat and swim. then head over to cistus and the blue heron herbary if you have time. both joycreek and cistus are very mail order friendly, so you can pick out your plants and have them ship them.

another full day trip would be to head south from govt camp. hit one green world, then the oregon garden, then silver creek falls. one green world is another mail order place, so you can have your plants shipped. the oregon garden needs about 50 years of growth to be a truly spectacular public garden, but its pretty great as is. the town of silverton is a nice spot for lunch.

Some of us have found The Oregon Garden to be oddly tacky, during my one visit what came to my mind was "giant motel landscape" - and in fact it was later sold to a concern that has built accommodations on the site. Be sure to visit the web site, do other checking to get an idea if it is the kind of thing you would enjoy before committing to the trip out there.

oh its tacky!

i think thats why it needs about 50 years. almost everything built from scratch starts out a little bit too much "of its time". they need a few more impressive, mature plants to anchor things.

he he thanks for the info - and warnings! We are more into nature than into, um, highway department gardening.

There is a realistic possibility that we'd get to Sauvie Island by boat. I will have to check into all these shops (think I found One Green World once, during my quest for gooseberry standards).

I've never been to a motel with a conifer collection like they've got at the Oregon Garden.....

Don't miss Powell's City of Books or Washington Park, the Japanese Garden and International Rose Text Garden are spectacular and the Chinese Garden is really nice too.

let me refine what i mean by tacky--

if the gardens remind me of a hotel, its more along the lines of a 4 star hotel, or a wedding space. they try a bit too hard. but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to see and enjoy, especially if you aren't familiar with the sort of plants that are grown in the NW.

Here is a link that might be useful: some nice pics of ore garden and falls

If you like things really natural, there is the Audubon Society which has hiking trails and nature walks through the forest west of the zoo and rose garden.

I've been looking at a website lately for Secret Garden Growers in Canby, but know nothing about them personally. They are open Saturdays or by apt. If you were interested in native plants there is Bosky Dell Natives in West Linn.

The conifer garden was the only part of the whole giant effort that was anything like what one might hope was going to be done reading about it before they got started. Somehow, a huge dork factor came into play along the way and determined how most of it was done. When we asked at the information counter about a couple unlabeled specimen trees that interested us we were told they hadn't been keeping records of such plantings!

And like many other Aberratums seen on this side of the Atlantic the conifer garden was badly overplanted, destined to become a ghetto unless half of it was dug up and re-spaced some time in future.

One Green World in Mulino, about 20 miles outside Portland, would only be open on "second Saturdays", in your case 14 August. The website links for these events merely repeat the June offerings, so the featured August fruits would be a surprise to you.

For organic vegetable trials, Learning Garden Laboratory in mid-southeast Portland would work. It is a collaboration of several agencies, led by Portland State University. Their summer hours are hard to find, perhaps you can get an answer from an email link on the website. There is also a community garden on the same property, access via the SE 57th Avenue side. People can wander through. The Metro sustainable gardening exhibit is also on the 57th Ave approach

http://www.pdx.edu/elp/learning-gardens-laboratory

http://www.onegreenworld.com/

sorry to hijack this thread with oregon garden miscellany... but speaking to the corporate dork factor effect (where one wishes the "plant nerd" effect would be taking place): in the children's garden, they lined the sandbox area with euphorbia. i wrote them to warn them that children stick random things in their mouth, and that chewing on a euphorbia would be a bad idea: no response. i assume my email went into a dead letter box.

but still, i swear, a drive from govt camp to one green world, then to oregon gardens, then silverton for lunch, then silver creek falls. thats a good day.

When first publicized the main intent seemed to be to provide a showcase for Oregon nursery products, a coming together of all the many different kinds of plants being grown by operations dispersed throughout the valley. Sounded marvelous, instead we got what we got - with it doing so poorly that it ended up being sold.

The aquatic system that was built into it is noteworthy and might be of interest even if the horticulture mostly does not appeal.

The entrance fee was not cheap, otherwise the silliness might have been less irritating.

You can see current fees and get the tone of the place from their web site, make your own decision.

Well, it certainly isn't Butchart, Van Dusen or Longwood Gardens but it is worth the occasional drive as far as I'm concerned. Love the Thai Dish restaurant on Water St. too.

I don't profess to be a professional photographer but here are my pictures from three visits from 2004-2009

Here is a link that might be useful: Oregon Garden photos

There are a few nice gardens out here, but I'm surprised that someone would come to this area and not spend most time visiting places like the Columbia River Gorge, the Painted Hills, or Jedediah Smith Redwoods a few miles over the south border.

I'm pretty sure we'll get to (sail!) the Columbia River gorge, as well as plenty of mountain hiking. But I have found with these multi-generational trips that large gardens are a good option to mix in -- a real destination for the seniors & strollers, and keeping everyone else interested for a while too. Maybe the PNW gardens I see in magazines are all Seattle not Portland? (just teasing! I think Washington Park will be perfect.)

I really do appreciate all the suggestions, opinions, discussions. In my NE garden I favor veggies and 1840 heirlooms; MIL is in the High Country Gardens space.

If I were from Massachusetts I'd go to Mt. Hood and see some nurseries on the way near Boring and Sandy. They don't have mountains like that back east. Timberline Lodge and the sub-alpine landscape is a real treat.
Washington park, of course.
Mike

I came across an interesting garden in Portland open to the public last night online, this site has some photos-

http://www.learn2grow.com/inspirations/greatgardens/public/BishopsClose.aspx

The plants may be of interest more in spring when the magnolia collection is blooming. Has anyone been there?

It is on the west bank of the Willamette opposite Milwaukie and is near the Berry Botanic Garden, which I also have not seen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bishop's Close

an Olmstead! neat! Would love to hear if anyone has seen it lately.

British woodland garden style although clearly kept groomed rather than wild-looking (naturalistic). Good for trees and shrubs, does also have carpets of small plants like winter aconite. There is a wild garden section out on the south end, with native wildflowers and a viewpoint over the river. Certainly worth exploring at any time.

The Berry Botanic Garden has closed or soon will, due to inadequate financial resources.

I looked at the Berry Botanic Garden website and it said they are open until October, but they have a small parking lot so people must call for a reservation so they can fit people in, usually the same day. I haven't been there.

There is info and photos on their website.

How about McMenamin's Edgefield? Not sure how it looks during the summer, but I always loved it's ambiance.
http://www.mcmenamins.com/54-edgefield-home

Here is a link that might be useful: Edgefield

I love Edgefield. It looks great in summer, covered with flowers.

Alas, I've returned home from Portland and am unable to provide much of a travel report. My party was plagued by health problems & I managed an hour in Powell's (got three great garden books for under $10 total and have since devoured _Lanning Roper and his Gardens_), two outings sailing on the Columbia River, and three short hikes on Mt. Hood: the campground below Timberline Lodge, Trillium Lake, and Sahallie Falls. Lupines and their friends... others in the water meadows that I can't name. Beargrass already passed... So I'm taking a rain check on all your great suggestions and hoping to get back in a year or two... Thanks to all!