Tuesday, July 6
Travel independently to Portland; check into the Inn at Northrup Station for five nights. The all-suite hotel, located on the streetcar stop, is surrounded by restaurants and boutiques. 6 p.m., wine and cheese reception at the hotel.

Wednesday, July 7
We will be greeted by the curator of the Portland Japanese Garden, Sadafumi Uchiyama, and enjoy entrance to the gardens before they open to the public. This is considered the finest Japanese garden in the U.S., and we’ll have a private, guided tour with the curator and head gardener.

Next we visit Lucy Hardiman, one of Portland’s best-known designers. The garden surrounds her Victorian home on a corner city lot.  She uses her garden to test plants and design ideas. 

After this we tour Nancy Goldman’s Nancyland, where plants and art mingle. The front garden includes two unique pebble mosaics by Jeffrey Bale. The garden has been seen in numerous publications and on Canadian TV’s Weird Homes.

Our day ends with the fabulous garden of Jeffrey Bale, featured in many books and magazines. Jeff was originally trained as a landscape architect, and his fabulous pebble and stone mosaics grace some of the most fascinating gardens you are likely to see.

Thursday, July 8
We start at garden designer Susan La Tourette's garden, featured in Sunset magazine in June 2009.  She endeavors to create a tranquil space with "little nooks that make you feel as though you have escaped civilization and remind you of happy moments."  On the entry path bowls of water encourage one to slow down and take notice.

Next, our escort, Mike Darcy, will give us a personal tour of his garden, where he tries out new plants and pushes the zone.

After lunch we will enjoy a visit to Bob and Mignon Ervin’s urban farm on a hillside overlooking Lake Oswego and Mount Hood. Their sustainable garden is dedicated to organic food production, with ducks, chickens, honeybees, and a family vineyard.

Next we will tour Susan Bates’ garden, formerly belonging to Lord and Lady McDonald. This is a subtle garden that relies on foliage for stunning vistas.

Later we visit the English-style Elk Rock Garden of the Bishop’s Close, designed by Olmstead and Son, designers of Central Park in New York City.

Friday, July 9
We visit landscape designer Tom Vetter, known as "Portland's Picasso of Plant Combinations," whose garden is beautifully planted to shine in every season. Plants show off their textures and shapes in bold plantings that highlight the contrasting forms and colors. The back garden features gold foliage plants and clumps of white birch trees that glow beneath the canopy of Douglas firs.

We continue to designer Bee Smith’s very large and personal garden. Bee has wonderful stories to share about all of the great aspects of her garden that shows her love of rust and the color blue. Known as the "Champion of Found Art," Bee frequents junkyards and collects rusting objects to create large scale sculptures and furniture for the garden.  She writes,  "Come walk a trail into the creek watershed, visit the blue-bottle labyrinth, and pause in the fairy tea party glade.  A folly surveys the tapestry while a moon gate leads to a meditation bench."

Next we visit Luscher Farm, which houses a Clematis display garden surrounding a century-old farmhouse.

Our day concludes at Terra Nova Nursery, owned by cutting edge plant genius Dan Heims, who is responsible for the huge popularity of the many new Heuchera varieties. The nursery is where they do their breeding and tissue culture. There are no plants for sale here.

Saturday, July 10
We start with visits to two small private gardens. One, belonging to Fe Neely, will amuse us with a “blast of color” from brilliant annuals, perennials and roses.

Our next visit is to Carolyn Guinther’s woodland garden with log gazebo, perennials, rock garden, evergreens, waterfall and pond, all conceived as a natural coast range landscape by a gardener who does all her own work.

Our last stop is to the beautiful display gardens at Joy Creek Nursery. Plant collections include clematis, hydrangeas, penstemon, and hosta, with many choice plants for sale.

Tonight we will enjoy a very special farewell dinner in the garden at Meriwether’s Restaurant, which was featured on a television show directed by Mike Snyder, one of our hosts.

Sunday, July 11
Today features a private docent-led tour of Lan Su Chinese Garden, an authentically built cultural heritage garden and living museum of Chinese trees and flora. Within this scholar’s garden serpentine mosaic pathways lead to harmonious landscapes of plants, water, stones, pavilions, and poetry. The collection includes hundreds of native Chinese plant species and forms.

After our visit we will proceed to the airport.


Tour Land Cost per Guest
Based on 35-42 guests: $918; Single supplement: $398.

Costs Include the following: