If you live in the Portland Area you know that this is Rose Festival time.  For the rest of the state it means we are reminded to get and enjoy our beautiful roses.  The hot weather we are having is great for roses, and most of your other garden plants.  There are some hot weather warnings though, make sure to water, especially your newer plants.  They can go into shock a lot sooner because they don’t have an established root system to help them stay hydrated.

This week we featured...

Heirloom Rose Days

We paid a visit to Heirloom Roses (503-538-1576) for their Rose Days event.  Heirloom not only grows roses, they also hybridize new varieties and this weekend you can get a sneak peak at some of the 1000’s they have growing for the future.  In addition to the roses, you can catch seminars from local gardening experts, enjoy the gift shop and stroll the huge display gardens.  We walked the gardens and gift shop with Louise Clements and saw some wonderful, fragrant beauties that included ‘Lavender Lassie’, ‘Jude the Obscure’, ‘Eden’, ‘The Impressionist’, ‘Amazing Grace’ and the huge rambler ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’, which has taken over a tree in the garden!

Amdro Ant Block

Ants are the #1 pest problem in the US.  There are lots of products that can get rid of them once they get inside your home, but we found a new product that will stop them before they invade your home, yard or garden.  Norm from Lilly Miller explained how the Amdro product creates a barrier to your home.  One of the big differences…ants treat this as a food.  The other products only take care of the ants that touch the product.  Amdro is a bait that they take back to the nest.  They take it back to the queen and once she is gone, so is the problem.

Pet Friendly Garden

It can be a constant struggle to have a pet and a nice garden.  We found a new demonstration garden at the Oregon Garden (1-877-674-2733) in Silverton.  Jill Martini showed us the new ‘pet friendly’ garden.  It is meant to show people how to build a garden where pets and people can enjoy the outdoors together.  The garden has signs that tell you how to protect delicate plants, create walkways, provide drinking water and places to rest for your pet.  They also have an informational kiosk that has a list of poisonous plant material that can be harmful to your animal.  Check it out the next time you are at the Oregon Garden.

Portland Nursery/Ockley Green

Portland Nursery (503-231-5050) has a long history of community involvement and we got to see it first hand when we paid a visit to Ockley Green School in North Portland.  Peggy Acott is the Community Outreach Director for the nursery and she is helping the school by providing plants, tools and materials for the kids to start up a vegetable and flower garden.  Peg Butler is the coordinator of the garden program for the school and she told us how this helps kids get involved and understand how things grow and what it takes to be a successful gardener.  Portland Nursery has helped dozens of causes in the Portland area and you can learn more by going to their website and clicking on the ‘In The Community’ link.

Enhanced Shade Woodland Garden

Some gardeners think that you are limited in the amount of materials you can choose from for a shady spot in your garden.  To find out the truth we traveled to Extra Perennial Nursery (503-628-1492) in Scholls to learn more.  Sharon Korpowski talked to William about enhanced shade woodland gardens and what that means.  An enhanced shade garden is one where you combine plant material that has similar growing requirements into a landscape, working with nature instead of against it.  She talked about pulling your eye from the woodland canopy to the forest floor and how you can use plantings to draw the eye around your garden.  You can also use structure in your garden to create small vignettes to look at.  If it sounds confusing, it is really simple.  If you need help for your woodland area, stop by and see Sharon or Ken at Extra Perennial Nursery.