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Despite its 400-year-old oak tree and half-century in the making - - if you count all the dreams and hopes -- The Oregon Garden has barely gotten out of the ground.
Officially opened earlier this month outside Silverton, Ore., about 15 miles east of Salem, the 63 acres of Northwest plants, ponds, groves and sculpture gardens are just a visual teaser to far more to come. The "garden," which includes an oak grove, a wetlands area and a conifer-alpine showcase, has 240 acres to grow into as well as a mission to educate, preserve and entertain.
On an amble or a volunteer-hosted minitram through the paved walkways of the world-class "outdoor rooms" of plants, visitors are astounded at how fast this garden has sprung up.
"Everything grows fast here. The climate is ideal," says Jim Browne, the garden's marketing director who previously spent 25 years heading up the Memphis Botanical Gardens in Tennessee.
A dream of the multibillion-dollar Oregon Association of Nurserymen, the garden, with a current price tag of $21 million, has bloomed due to donations from 7,000 individuals and corporations, as well as from grants, not to mention efforts from hundreds of volunteers.
The garden is not a showcase for Oregon alone. Instead Browne prefers to call it "a regional garden -- for all of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and northern California," and certainly everything that appears, from azaleas to cattails, grows in our backyards (with some help for some of us).
The land is a "gift" from the city of Silverton, which needed a way to treat its nutrient-rich waste water before dumping it back into Silver Creek. Irrigating the garden through 11 miles of PVC pipes and 23 ponds turned out to be the perfect solution.
Whether a garden lover or destination seeker, each visitor will find the garden requires at least a couple of hours to take in. With a cafe, shop, developing resource center and onsite classes, as well as an air-conditioned dog day care, enthusiasts can spend an entire day on...