Trees of The Oregon Garden

My mom and I share more than our first names.  We both like gardening, trees, plants, birds — well, the outdoors as a whole.  Her visit this summer was a good excuse to go see The Oregon Garden in Silverton.  We had the dog and 3 kids along and a schedule, and since I’m always off to a late start we only had a few hours at the garden.  No doubt we missed a ton, but I’ll go back again some time.

Funny, Loree just put up a Danger Garden blog post on this place. (Even though I love her blog, I’m not stalking her.  Honest!) You should hop over and read the great summary she wrote since I couldn’t say it better. I’ll just say, “What she said.”

I liked this scene near the garden entrance, after passing the water garden. The trees are Pacific sunset maple, Acer truncatum ‘Warrenred.’

Fearing we might use all our time there, I hustled the kids through the Children’s Garden. A group of Sequoiadendron giganteum ‘Pendulum’ greeted us at the ‘Weird Plants Garden’ section. 

The girls got to playing right away under this tree.

I didn’t get a shot of the cute miniature train set up in the children’s garden, or the fun topiary sculptures.  I hope that over time this section will continue to develop.  The first children’s garden I encountered was the Hershey Children’s Garden at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, and so far I haven’t seen anything that measures up to it.  Not fair to compare as I’m sure an enormous budget accompanied the vision for Hershey.

When will my skinny little tree get full and big like this Cryptomeria japonica ‘Sekkan sugi?’

Now skip over to the conifer garden, which was full of cool stuff.

We’re greeted in the foreground by Norway spruce, Picea abies ‘Cobra’ backed by the golden sheen of oriental spruce, Picea orientalis ‘Skylands.’

Cobra’s skirt spreads out at her feet.

The oriental spruce looks brighter in the shot below.  Its narrow columnar form makes it a good garden tree candidate.

Speaking of narrow and columnar, have a look at this bald cypress Taxodium distichum ‘Peve Minaret.’

It gets a little help maintaining this narrow habit. It must look awkward in the winter when it loses its foliage.

I didn’t see tags for this grouping, but they must be weeping Alaskan cedar, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula.’

Deciduous trees mixed in with the conifers include this variegated ginkgo, Ginkgo biloba ‘Variegata.’

This Himalayan cedar, Cedrus deodara ‘Silver Mist’ was more blue/silver than my photos show.

A graceful dwarf form of dawn redwood, Metasequioia glyptostroboides ‘Miss Grace’ shows off more blue-gray foliage.

Weeping white spruce, Picea glauca ‘Pendula’

Japanese cedar, Cryptomeria japonica ‘Spiralis’

If you don’t care for the skinny bald cypress you might like this one, Cascade Falls weeping bald cypress, Taxodium distichum ‘Cascade Falls.’

Zebrina western redcedar, Thuja plicata ‘Zebrina’

This dawn redwood, Metasequioa glyptostroboides ‘Gold Rush’ wasn’t in the conifer garden, but it wowed me on the way out.

I admired this last conifer, weeping blue atlas cedar, Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca pendula’ trained on a trellis near the gate.

I hope to return and see the things I missed.  Maybe it will be sooner than later, since I haven’t been able to find my keys since my visit there!