Photo: Alice Joyce
Plant shopping while in Portland?
You’ll want to plan a stopover at one of the Portland area’s most enticing plant emporiums:
Cistus Nursery, operated by plantsman extraordinaire, Sean Hogan;
author of Trees For All Seasons … & … Flora: The Gardener’s Bible.
Zonal Denial: Cistus (Photo: Alice Joyce)
I reconnected with Sean during a trip to Portland, and reveled in the opportunity to revisit his Portland home. Its well-known, head-turning parkway and lush front yard plantings were featured in my book, Gardenwalks in the Pacific Northwest. Sean’s private garden in the rear of the house is an intimate, visually exciting space teeming with rare plants.
After catching up on the changes since my last visit, we made our way 20 minutes north of Portland to Cistus on Sauvie Island, a bucolic landscape of you-pick organic farms to delight foodies, beach camping, and a marina situated along the Multnomah Channel.
Fuchsia boliviana ‘Alba’ (Photo: Alice Joyce)
The Cistus nursery set-up is instructive and informative, with signage that helps to explain plant groupings and cultural needs. If you’ve a passion for plants, Cistus might prove irresistible, with arrays of exceptional species and cultivated varieties.
Cistus on Sauvie Island (Photo: Alice Joyce)
Stroll through the nursery’s borders and you’ll discover a wealth of specimens with uncommon foliage and flowers; rare trees that demand pride of place as focal points; shrubs and succulents for varied habitats and garden conditions.
Albizia j. ‘Summer Chocolate’ (Photo: Alice Joyce)
Fargugium ‘Kaimon Dake’ (Photo: Alice Joyce)
Drought tolerant plants are becoming ever more popular, as the issue of global warming comes to the fore, and concern for water usage increases.
This is a pretty darn nice nursery. I wish I live closer to see it in person, but thanks for taking us along.
Thank you for the virtual tour. I like visiting nurseries too, and it was fun to read about one I will probably never see. Beautiful pictures too.
Interesting link, thank you for sharing.
Excellent, that looks full of interesting plants. I like the sign zonal denial.~~Dee
Hello Alice, we love cistus especially Peggy Sammons and Corbariensis but sadly they have suffered over the past two winters…but we will persevere with them for they are so superb in flower and in leaf…I hope the wine is flowing sweetly for you….