Although I wouldn't have picked the name myself, I have to admit it makes me grin just looking at it: Le Tour des Plants. Start your hybrid and bicycle engines running, my gardening friends, because more than 35 locations throughout Oregon and southern Washington are going to be hosting "plantastic events" beginning on September 13th and lasting through the following weekend. We're talking gardening tours, scavenger hunts, accessible experts, workshops, rare plant findings, and, why not? Bluegrass music.
A superfueled tourist could start in Woodland, just north of Vancouver, Wash., and work your way down to Oregon's Willamette Valley without running out of things to do and places to see. Here are five suggested stops from the first day of the tour, Saturday, September 13th:
1. Boring Bark and Landscape Materials in Boring, Oregon, promises a free coffee tasting. That may be the place to start. You can sip coffee while you scope out landscape materials that include rarities like hazelnut shells among the stone, topsoil, gravel, rock, and bark dust products. The variety of fresh roasted coffees available is enough to make a grown woman weep.
2. If, like me, you are always on the lookout for unusual and rare plants, Dennis Seven Dees on Portland's east side is worth finding. Head for the collector's corner. If, also like me, collector's corners bring on a depth of greediness that I'd like to pretend I don't have, you might want to leave your credit card(s) in the car and just carry in as much cash as you can afford to spend.
On the chance that you will be traveling with a friend who is sure to become impatient at your need to spend quite a bit of time in the corner, he or she can take the gardener's quiz that will be broken up into question stations throughout the garden center. The lure of prizes is an incentive to at least try the quiz. If you bring kids, or are still kid-like yourself, Seven Dees promises a scavenger hunt focused on gardening themes.
3. Rose fanatics (you know who you are) can head for Tsugawa Nursery in Woodland, Wash., not just for the roses but because proceeds from the sale of five selected Jackson and Perkins rose varieties will benefit CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Abused and Neglected Children). Surely there is no greater pleasure than doing good while having fun.
Saturday at Tsugawa is also grandparent day. Anyone who is a grandparent, will be one, or wants to be one, will get 10 percent off purchases (with a couple of exceptions). The nursery is also planning to sponsor a scavenger hunt.
4. I can't seem to get away from lavender, not that I am complaining in any way. In my world it is impossible to have too much lavender. Its smell calms me even as I work with completely stressed people during the week. Some days I wish I could just hand out lavender bouquets to everyone I meet. The world would surely be a happier place.
The most promising lavender stop of the tour: Stonegate Nursery in West Linn, Ore. Their specialty gift shop is laden with lavender products, and they have more than 60 lavender plant varieties for sale. You can tour, sip lavender lemonade, and hear some great background music while you inhale the calming smell of the two and a half acres of lavender plants.
5. The J. Frank Schmidt, Jr. Arboretum, located between Gresham and Sandy, Ore., will be open to the public, for the first time ever, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on September 13th. This ten-acre arboretum has more than 400 varieties and cultivars of deciduous shade, flowering, and specialty ornamental trees. Rumor has it that every visitor will be given a copy of the arboretum's tree reference guide. Normally it costs $15. The arboretum will also hold its own version of a scavenger hunt, The Tree Treasure Trek.
There is so much more. Kym Pokorny, The Oregonian's garden blogger, will be at one of the nurseries, Farmington Gardens, to talk about favorite plants. In Gresham, Ed McVicker, a Japanese Gardening genius, will be at Al's Garden Center in Gresham talking about how to incorporate Japanese elements into a garden.
I'm planning to tour as many of these highlights as I can, granddaughter in tow. She loves scavenger hunts and, at a too young age, coffee. I love scavenger hunts and coffee. We both love listening to Rihanna's songs whenever we drive anywhere together. By the end of our day I expect to have learned, finally, all the words to at least one song. Hopefully she'll have discovered the thrills of lavender.
