Portland: Floramagoria

The last day of the 2014 Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland was a busy one. After the Ernst and Fuller gardens, Rhone Street Gardens, then John Kuzma's garden (posts 1 and 2) it was off to Floramagoria -- I wasn't sure what to expect here. Was it a nursery, a private garden, or a public one? (I purposefully avoided reading about any of the Fling stops before the trip as I wanted to be completely surprised).

As the bus got deeper into a residential area, it was clear that this was going to be a private garden -- and as the bus pulled to a stop... The front garden was quite shady but had a wonderful mix of foliage colors and textures, some sculpture visible, and large rocks. But the front garden is just an appetizer (or is it a smokescreen?) for what's going on behind the house.

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I really enjoyed the front garden...

...such a restful, refined space...

...with the only mature Fargesia robusta that I've ever seen in person!

I then went around the side of the house where the vegetables and herbs lived in stock tanks:

(I heard later that we were told to go around to the back from the other side of the house as that's the preferred path of discovery. It's difficult to hear these types of directions when you're in garden discovery mode.)

Besides all of the edibles, this side of the house contains a bee hive and a great little tool shed:

That's exactly what my tool collection looks like...

...if you could pick up the shed, shake it around, then dump the contents about my garage. Maybe kick a couple of tools under a table or into a dark corner too. Exactly.

Looking back toward the front:

Moving to the back of the house, you get a feeling that the front and side gardens are not the main attraction:

And you'd be correct!

The back garden is a party -- there's no other way to say it. Such a collection of colors and textures and sculpture and decor, this is a space for entertaining, and not always in a reserved way I'd guess!

Plenty of seating under the covered deck:

And under the gazebo (if that's the correct term):

But who wants to sit when there's so much happening all around!

Those are bamboo canes painted glowing orange, but the bamboo that really glows for me is the Fargesia nitida 'Jiuzhaigou 4' (I think that's what the owner said -- there are a lot of 'Jiuzhaigou' versions...)

Not all of the color is provided by blooms of course:

But there are blooms and texture everywhere!

How can this even be the same garden?

That's the view standing under the "gazebo" and looking to the back corner. Such a calm, quiet space, much more like the front garden was, but still a party: there was a bubble machine up in that tree!


As I did with the John Kuzma garden, I'll leave my up-close views of the details of this crazy, wonderful space for tomorrow's post -- and there are some great ones!

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