Portland Oregon - May 22, 2016

We spent a day at the Portland Test Rose Garden and Japanese Tea Garden. We were fortunate in our timing because the roses were in a full bloom cycle.  Even though it was overcast and showery, we spent several hours wandering around the over 10,000 rose bushes. The fragrance was amazing! I got lots of names of roses I want to put in my backyard - I lost six roses due to the drought. The difficulty will be narrowing the list down to six. Shakespeare is right "Of all flowers, me thinks a rose is the best."

They must have little elves come in at night and take off all the imperfect leaves - I didn't see ANY rust, mold or spider mites. And the rose petals were rarely deformed. I was in rose heaven!  The only disappointment I had was in the gift shop.  I expected lots of books on roses and their care.  But the store was very small with just little tourista items, nothing educational.

Just up the mountain from the rose garden is the Japanese Tea Garden.  There is lots of construction going on so getting to the garden is a challenge.  We took a shuttle which delivered us to the front gate rather than try to walk up the muddy path - a good decision.

Portland likes to claim that this is the most beautiful Japanese tea garden in the U.S., but I have to say that I much prefer the one at Huntington Gardens.  Maybe once they finish their construction of a tea pavilion it will be better, but the garden itself is not as beautiful or peaceful as Huntington's.

The weather held pretty steady with just a few showers until just as we were leaving the tea garden.  Then it poured for about 15 minutes. Lucky for us,

We walked around the downtown a bit and had dinner at a Yardhouse.

The next two days were spent in family history research and included a drive out to Lonview, Washington where one of my great-uncles settled in the late 1940s. I found gravestones and obituaries, but didn't learn much more about my great-uncle than I already knew. 

Tomorrow we head to Seattle and that much closer to Alaska!

 



So many roses! Russ took over 300 pictures - don't worry, they are not all here.



The garden is set out in terraced levels on the mountain.

There were a couple of showers, but most of the time we had partly sunny skies.  

I have never seen dogwoods in full bloom - they are gorgeous.

There must be 100 petals on this rose.

The Japanese tea garden had several vistas such as this one of contrasting tree surfaces.

There was a guest exhibit of American bonsais.  These trees were about 180 to 500 years old and had been in training for 4-6 years.

A Zen garden.

Nothing is in straight lines.

There are several water features, including a pond, waterfall and fountains.