Portland Rose Garden

I had a chance to go to the Portland Rose Garden the other week. I was excited as this was my first trip to Portland, the city of roses. It was a beautiful June weekend and I was hoping to see some good blooms. The Rose Festival was also happening.

International Rose Test Garden

The International Rose Test Garden is the main, famous garden, although there are some other smaller ones around the city. Its a few minutes from downtown but its easy enough to get their by bus, bike, or train.

Its a very nice walk and there's also a Japanese garden as well as the Oregon Zoo. I was in the mood for some roses though, of course.

Unfortunately, not only were they not in bloom, but it was closed for the morning. I managed to sneak in and grab some pics though, even though it was mostly bare canes. In doing some research I found that it tends to bloom anywhere from May to June, depending on the weather. I had to be careful as they are quite serious about their flowers here:

The garden is huge and has a massive amount of variety. Its broken up into a couple of different sections, a Shakespeare area, for example.

This Hot Tamale had a few blooms. I loved the yellow color. It was definitely a nice teaser for what it could be. I could have easily spent several hours there.

I have a trip planned for June 2012 so I'm hoping that its going to be a lot more showy that time.