Portland Gardens

Portland earned its nickname, The Rose City, in battle, or at least because of it.  Not many cities can say that, I would guess.  In the early 20th century, as World War I was raging in Europe, Portland planted a garden.  This was not just any garden, it was the International Rose Test Garden.  A safe haven, to be exact.  While men were dying in battle, a certain subset of Europeans (namely gardeners), feared not only for the fate of their countries, but the fate of their roses.  In order to prevent those roses from being bombed, burned, and trampled into extinction, they sent samples of them to Portland for safe keeping, trusting in the knowledge that the green thumbs of Oregon would preserve them.  Well, mission accomplished (and not in the premature standing on an aircraft sense).  That rose garden now holds something crazy like 5,000 species of roses.

You might think, after an introduction like that, that we would have visited this garden.  Sorry, we didn’t.  I just really liked the story.  We did, however, visit two other phenomenal gardens in Portland, which certainly did nothing to dissuade us from the belief that in the hands of the Portland gardening community, nearly every plant on the planet is safe.  The first garden on our itinerary was the Portland Classical Chinese Garden.  This garden is, indeed, a classical Chinese garden, and a beautiful one at that.  To build it, the city ripped up a parking lot and facilitated the creation of the garden on one city block in the middle of Portland’s China Town (which was once one of the 4 largest China towns in the U.S.).  The garden is spectacular.  With plants, trees, bodies of water, and traditional Chinese buildings creating an incredible oasis in the middle of the city.

Our second garden visit was to the Portland Japanese Garden.  I love Japanese gardens.  In fact, when we re-landscaped our mini backyard in Erie, I specifically had the designer incorporate elements of Japanese gardens into it.  While our backyard turned out wonderfully, you will not be surprised to hear that the Portland Japanese Garden is better.  It is so good that the former Japanese Ambassador to the United States once said that he believed it might be the finest traditional Japanese garden in the world, including in Japan.  Now you can see why those European rose growers felt confident in the fact that Portland was a good choice.  This garden spreads across 5 acres and includes formal tea gardens complete with a tea house, strolling pond filled gardens, and Maggie’s favorite, the Zen garden: a classical sand and stone garden usually reserved for Buddhist monasteries.  The Zen garden is about the size of 1/2 of a football field and it takes the gardener who rakes the sand 3-4 hours to complete the job.

We coupled our visits to the gardens with little journeys through parts of the city.  Portland is a great city.  If Seattle is the high tech, green, progressive city, of the west coast, Portland would be its younger sibling.  That younger sibling that maybe dyed his hair, got a few tattoos, ran with the wrong crowd a bit, but still could solve differential equations while quoting poetry over a cup of coffee.  While Portland certainly has its hip, trendy, glass building/imported car neighborhood, it also is still awash in funky, bohemian neighborhoods that attract all kinds of people and give off a great energy.  A huge plus for Portland is also the fact that it is home to the finest bookstore in the United States of America (without hyperbole), Powell’s City of Books.

Powell’s is a book lovers nirvana.  The flagship store in the center of Portland is a four story building that covers an entire city block.  Apparently, you could put the Chinese Garden in there.  I wouldn’t know for sure, but I can tell you that if you are looking for a book, you can find it here.  Or more likely, you can ask one of the myriad employees who work there to find it for you.  If you don’t seek help, you may find yourself far enough away from your starting point that water and some trail mix would be appreciated.  In addition to the flagship store, Powell’s has stores dedicated to technical books, home and garden books, and neighborhood branches in other parts of the city so that you don’t need to burn an ounce of foreign oil to get your books, which are probably printed on paper from the many clear cut forests of Oregon.  Kind of a Hobson’s Choice it would seem, but one that at least can provide for a dose of written enlightenment.  

Our 3 days in Portland were outstanding, it is a city that I look forward to going back to each and every opportunity I get.