No trip to the Portland Rose Garden should omit mentioning the Miniatures they have there. Actually, they are arranged in two or three different places, including – as the picture below shows – a “test garden” for varieties they are working into their rotations.

(click on any image to enlarge)

Following through with what I already revealed elsewhere to be my own sinful sort of relationship to roses in general, I am so adoring of those which mix and blend the bloom colors – or those which change during their own brief maturation.

These two-colored miniatures just really struck my fancy. I would so love putting some of these in myself someday and I do plan on it. And, yes, there have been occasions when I have planted miniatures in my own projects – far more than I may have led us to believe. Working with as many rockeries as I have, they fit like Alpine Perennials into the cracks and folds of rock arrangements and do so with some startling durability.

We now move to those which change on demand. Or seem that way, at least. If you don’t much care for the colors of these roses, you should just come back tomorrow when they look different!

More red and whites in yet another area of miniatures, I’m afraid my biases have left out some other gorgeous choices.

These orange ones, for example, are simply radiant. They are also profuse as they can be.

The yellow rose below I liked not only for the perky and effervescent color but I also was most attracted to their wild bloom formation – almost star-like. It seems a complete departure from the standard rose petal.

These shown below look somewhat bedraggled and all and, the truth is, we did catch them on the downside of their prime blooming era. But not by much! Simply beautiful, one can see what they bring to the party and why I would still opt to feature them, even if they are half-past spent. Indeed, these were a real favorite of mine, revealing yet another sort of petal formation – more like a spray.

And now we move to another dimension of the Portland Rose Garden – its overall landscaping, disregarding for a few moments the extreme gorgeousness and ridiculous profusion of the roses they feature.

Below is a Hardy Fuschia, hard by a grouping of rose blooms but over by the overall edge of things where a hedge separates the Rose Garden from a very tranquil small garden setting, composed primarily of plants and grass.

Here is the other edge of the fuschia, looking backwards with the hardy fuschia at the remote end of this hedge and the killer plants in between. Hosta, arranged in a landscpaed form, separated by deer ferns stand out dramatically as they always do and with such a rich and hearty foliage and bloom.

Around the corner is the garden referred to. Incredibly tranquil and just gorgeous in its lushness, this is one of those classic gardens the screams for solitude and reflection (is that possible?).  😉

The Astilbe looking all hot-to-trot mixes with the Hydrangea in the above picture to present a full vision of lush and quieting Flora. Bordered with the always-orderly Boxwood hedge, the anarchy gets toned down a bit, resulting in an enforced order that relaxes the eye as well as the senses. About this time, one could definitely lay out for a good nap.

Hydrangeas are actually another virtually “featured plant” on these grounds. And we are talking about all sorts of different Hydrangeas, by the way. The rosy pink blooms of this one below contrasts markedly with the blues of the ones following that.

Here is an orderly row of  light-toned blues and whites, all bulky and full as they so often are.

And here is my personal favorite Hydrangea – a “Lace-Cap” bloom variety which has always stuck me with its different look. Profusely blooming, as is the wont of Hydrangeas the world over, this one seems somehow economical in it’s presentation, while still profuse. I find the blooms to be complex and minimized.

Yet another Hydrangea here, still among the “Lace-Cap” varieties, this one is stuck back in the depths of the garden so rife with perennials and ferns.

Another view of a Lace Cap blue, this one sun-washed and still-vibrant, I like the Begonia under, trying to assert itself among all the gigantic blue blooms.

Overall, this great urban garden features a wide variety of sights and pleasures, many of which are fairly unintended. Take some of these anarchistic-minded roses, for example, poking through the periphery of hedging surrounding the more formal display areas.

Here is another delicately-placed straggler looking as good as a plant can look while being allowed to basically just plain “roam”:

And, finally – speaking of Hydrangea’s – we have this interesting vine, long since overgrowing the building underneath it and now acting as a roof:

This is simply one of the most gorgeous gardens I have ever seen. It’s hard to get enough.

Everyone loves Roses. Hey, Niels, I have another Portland Rose Garden post!! (Niels is my Danish friend who runs Roses in Gardens – the link is in my “Blogroll” – and he may well be the single most knowledgeable person I know in the “Rose Love Business”.)

(click on all images to enlarge like crazy)

Let’s be clear, right off the bat. I was never that amenable to planting roses on my projects. Working as an installer, offering warranties on roses seemed suicidal, somehow, owing to their seemingly constant need for maintenance. Sure, I would plant some climbers on fences and posts, around gazebos and etcetera, but I always took more care with them than I probably should have. Unlike those nutty and stunningly hardy grapes, which seem to thrive in asphalt and the worst soils, roses always required extra amendments and all those things contractors under time constraints hate. I did find shrub roses, later, to be exceptionally hardy and I began a planting fest which continues to this day. If you notice in this little artificial mountain I planted for a couple in Reno, you can see what I mean. I used the deepest reds I could find, all of the Meidiland variety…………I found out these were extremely hardy and they needed little if any maintenance.

And, having said all that, there are few cooler plants. I visited the Rose Garden with my friend, Paul, yesterday and snapped about 100 pictures. He’s a landscaper with his own gig going and he had some time. We make this trip together about once a year and this year it was as wonderful as ever. I guess Portland is going to keep this garden around a while!  That, my friends, sure seems to be a good thing.

I don’t know any of the Rose’s names. I do that act of willful ignorance purposefully, too. Delving that deep would require a commitment of energy I just cannot afford – why? – because there must be a doggone million names is why! 😉  Honestly, I do know a few – ‘Double Delight’ has always just “sent me”, I readily admit. The ‘Peace Rose’ grabbed my fancy as a child, so it has historical staying power. The rest? Let’s just say I like to think I know “pretty” when I see it. And there was a lot of “Pretty” at the old Rose Garden. This, to me, is pretty:

As you can see, I am especially taken by those roses whose blooms come out one color, then change as they flower. I am utterly fascinated by that. The miniatures I feature either later in this post or in Part 2 are especially prone to that. I am also fascinated by all those sexy multiple colors they now produce – as mentioned, the ‘Double Delight’ has always been a favorite – and the many variations of reds, whites, oranges and yellows you find in these exotic flowers.

And the smells!  Oh my. Good Lord, that place should be against the law.

For a while, I thought it was me, actually. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered it was just the dang roses.

To be honest, we actually caught the garden in the downside of last week’s best possible display. It has cooled recently and we could tell the flowers we saw yesterday had just finished a remarkable breakout of blooming. Just the same, even with them at 90%, they tend to rock the senses.

I think the Rosecrucions were onto something. With more shovels, they might have amounted to something.

I am also a total sucker for the Lavender Roses. The problem with them seems to be getting the timing exactly right. Just the same, this one still looks good.

OK, for $100, how many blooms are there in this picture?

What the —-? Why is this Poppy in here? Pushy little bugger, eh?

Because there is more than just roses in this fabulous Garden. Here, for example, is the amphitheater, hard by the Garden, which is now featuring music nightly, throughout August. It’s frankly hard to imagine a nicer setting.

Incredibly, even huge people enjoy the garden. Face it, this is not the posture of someone whose Mom is making him behave – not that she ever could. Ex-football players have rights, too!!

Just as fortunately, they allow Mental Midgets to peruse the garden as if they were normal! The guy on the right here was delighted at the news!

The Portland Rose Garden offers far more than merely world-class roses in their prime. Always well-known and justifiably famous, the Rose Garden also benefits from features which would be their very own destinations, even without the gorgeous and World-Famous Roses.

It is, without doubt, a dramatic site. You get the sense of drama as you enter the place, with this peek at downtown on the descent into the garden itself.

Another view:

And then there are the immediate surroundings, which encompass the Rose Garden. Wow. The Weeping Beech Tree in this photo and the one following offers a dramatic sweep of cascading lines, almost waterfall-like, easily matching the impressive impact of those giant Douglas Firs around and forming the virtual walls of the garden itself. Protected by these behemoths, the garden gives an amazing serenity – cutting out noise and urban pollutions and allowing to focus on such small things as Roses.

But it is the statement made by the Beech which causes my wonder at the foresight of those who planted it where it is. See if you agree with me:

For my money, a “better” look:

And here, the sense of “Enclosure” which is so forceful and quieting:

Make no mistake, the quiet of this Garden is unrivaled in any other Garden outside of possible the Portland Japanese garden which is across the street. I am not sure this is not the most ideal setting for a garden of its type I have literally ever seen.

This little purple flower seems to agree:

Thanks for joining the Mental Midget on this painful exercise in flower-gawking.

Next? After yet another interminable post about this little garden, I promise I will feature dirt. I know so many of you are waiting with bated breath on more posts about dirt and gravel. Be patient. 😉