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Someday The Oregon Garden will be a world-class collection of floral specimens. Someday it will be a lush world to be savored by hours of strolling.
Someday the 120 acres near Silverton will be a top tourist attraction in the Northwest. Someday. Just perhaps not quite yet.
That's not to say visiting The Oregon Garden now isn't worthwhile. It just depends on your level of fascination with the early days of creating a major horticultural attraction. The garden is mostly about potential - its full future years away. Designers don't expect the garden to be considered "mature" until around 2010.
The Oregon Garden's slogan is "Come Watch Us Grow," and for now that is the main fascination: watching nature's slow march.
During my visit last summer, much of the project had that "just in the ground" look. Trees that in future years will shade walkways are belt-high saplings. Large swaths were filled up with low-lying "cover" plants that one day will be a secondary feature but then stood out to the eye.
"Too many posies - I didn't come to see posies," said a lady in a floppy...