Chihuly’s art pops with multi-hued glass in every lively color, shape, texture and size imaginable.
pieces, viewed from a network of pedestrian paths lined with foliage. On one edge of the outdoor space, a towering lemon-lime-colored glass monolith (with astounding spiky edges all around) stretches out of the ground toward the deep blue sky. The color contrast appears surreal. There are dogwood and magnolia trees, hydrangeas and honeysuckles, Chinese wild ginger and sapphire blue sea holly. Passion flower vines, Japanese ferns and fountain grasses co-exist peacefully with irises, orchids, and apricot chrysanthemums. In a cheerful instance of art imitating life, a spherical yellow and orange sun shines brightly at the center of everything. And there’s yet another plus point at Chihuly Garden and Glass. From the outdoor grounds, visitors can look up- up-up to gain a very clear perspective of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle. To learn more about Chihuly Garden and Glass, visit chihulygardenandglass.com. International Rose Test Garden/ Portland Rose Garden The third jewel in our Pacific Northwestern garden series is the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon. Located in popular Washington Park on Kingston
Avenue, this 4.5-acre paradise features breathtaking blooms of roses, roses, and more roses—of every conceivable color and type. In fact, you can see 8,000 roses representing more than 610 varieties from all over the world. April through October are prime months for visiting the International Rose Test Garden (commonly called Portland Rose Garden), with June being the peak month for blooms. Garden admission is free. Portland earned the name “City of Roses,” back in the early 1900s, largely because of community-wide efforts to line city sidewalks with 500,000 rose bushes (all namesakes of a trendy French dressmaker Madame Caroline Testout). The resultant 200-mile-long trail of pink petals was credited with attracting tourists to Portland’s Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905. A decade later in 1915, another avid rose enthusiast, Jesse A. Currey, convinced city officials to start a test garden to preserve European rose species that were at risk for destruction during World War I. Established in 1917, Portland’s International Rose Test Garden still stands proud as the USA’s oldest public continuously running rose test garden. Today’s visitors can attend a free public tour of the Portland Rose Garden at 1 p.m. seven days a week between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST GARDENS
COAST TO COAST SUMMER MAGAZINE 2017
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