Dear Magnolia friends,
Hopefully you have all had a great magnolia season! Believe it or not, it is time now to start thinking about the next Magnolia Society Annual Meeting that will be held in Portland, Oregon from May 29-31, 2009. I have just returned from a 16-day visit to Oregon where a few of us got together to plan the upcoming meeting. You should find this extremely exciting and not your typical “magnolia” meeting! Many of you might wonder about the late May date. As you know, we rarely ever catch the perfect blooms at our meeting early in the season.
By planning something a little later, we can see many other plants at their prime, as well as some magnolias in bloom. There will be a wealth of magnolias, but also much, much more! For those of you who have never been to Oregon, and even for those of you who have, be prepared to see a stunning part of the world. Oregon is arguably the most beautiful state in the USA and has a huge range of climatic and geologic features – from sandy or rocky ocean beaches to high, snow-capped mountains to vast expanses of desert. There are many goals for this trip: for people to get together and renew friendships, to see magnolias, to visit many outstanding gardens and to show people just how amazing the Pacific Northwest truly is! I hope to see all of you in Portland next spring.

PRE-MEETING
FRIDAY, MAY 29 We will be visiting Stanley and Sons Nursery. The nursery specializes in conifers and Japanese maples, and has pioneered unique marketing techniques to expand the distribution of these trees. Stanley and Sons produce 425 cultivars of Japanese maples and hundreds of different conifers. The highlight of the nursery is their impressive display garden that features magnolias, maples and conifers. Many of these plants are 25 years old and have become noteworthy specimens. Although still relatively young, a treasure in this garden is the 12 foot tall Cathaya argyrophllya, one of the oldest trees of its type in the USA.
From Stanley and Sons Nursery will we drive up to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood for lunch. The lodge offers year round snow skiing (yes, we will see plenty of snow) and has a sensational view down the Cascade mountain range to the south (hope for clear weather!).
After lunch, we will go to Terra Nova Nursery, which is a tissue culture company that specializes in developing wonderful new and exciting perennials by using traditional breeding as well as mutation techniques. Their intriguing display garden features many of their own introductions. We will have the opportunity to go into one of their tissue culture labs to see how the entire process works. Although photography is prohibited in their trial gardens, with luck, we will be allowed to see where the next generation of fascinating new plants is being evaluated.
We will end our pre-meeting tour with a visit to Multnomah Falls. This incredible waterfall is 620 feet tall and is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the USA. The visitors’ center offers food and beverages and has spectacular views of the falls. The trail system takes you so close to the base of the falls that you might get wet. If you want to take a fairly strenuous hike, the trails continue up the side of the gorge. There are magnificent views of the Columbia River from the trails, but don’t forget to look at all of the lovely native plants as you walk!

LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 29
The Board of Directors will hold its meeting, with dinner included.

MSI ANNUAL MEETING STARTS
FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 29 - This will be the official beginning of our Annual Meeting. We will have a social gathering with hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. This will be followed by our Annual General Meeting and an open session for discussions on magnolia topics and/or slide presentations from our members. Please bring some slides of your favorite magnolia, your garden, or pretty much anything else. NOTE: we will not have a digital projector available – slides only.

SATURDAY, MAY 30 We will start the day off with a visit to Sebright Garden, which specializes in hostas and iris. They have 500 hosta cultivars for sale, and their active breeding program with iris has produced some truly outstanding plants! I’m not an iris collector, but after seeing the fantastic selections that are being developed, I may have to change my mind!!! There is a very nice display garden highlighting hostas but also a diversity of unusual woody trees and shrubs. Truly a delightful nursery and garden!
Our next stop will be at Heritage Seedlings, Inc. in Salem, Oregon. Heritage Seedlings is a large wholesale nursery. Their specialty is growing a wide range of ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials from seed. They are the largest producers of magnolia seedlings in the USA! They will show us some of their techniques in seedling production as well as a very innovative method of grafting/budding trees. They also will show us one of the most impressive greenhouses designed for woody plants that I have ever seen! We will have lunch at the nursery alongside the scenic Santiam white-water river.
Heritage Seedlings is also working on a 140 acre restoration project that has oak woodlands, riparian, savannah and prairie areas that are being returned to native species. We will be privileged to see this unique program sited in the mountains of the Willamette Valley. The scale of this project is awe inspiring and represents a true love of nature and a wonderful example of industry giving back to the world.
Our last stop of the day will be at Schreiner’s Iris Garden. This very large nursery covers hundreds of acres, including their 10 acre display garden that is absolutely stunning! Beautiful beds of iris interplanted with a dazzling array of perennials, all coming together to produce an incredible tapestry of colors and textures! This garden is so splendid that I have personally been to see the display for 3 out of the last 4 years!
We will have our banquet tonight, followed by our guest speaker, Dan Hinkley. Although he no longer owns the nursery, Dan is probably best known as the creator and original owner of Heronswood Nursery. Dan has traveled the globe in search of the best trees, shrubs and perennials that you can imagine. He is a much sought after, world renowned, speaker. We are extremely fortunate to have him as our guest. The title of his presentation will be announced at a later date.
After the lecture, we will have our plant auction. If you are able and willing to bring plants or other items to donate to the auction, please contact Pat McCracken @ 919-618-1330 (yes - it is not an Oregon area code).

SUNDAY, MAY 31
Our first stop of the day will be The Elk Rock Gardens of Bishops Close. This beautiful 13 acre garden was designed by Olmstead and was planted in the early 1900’s. The enchanting setting is on the bluffs overlooking the Willamette River, and it contains many of the largest magnolias in the PortlandMagnolia sargentiana var. robusta with a 3-4 foot diameter trunk and 60 foot spread, and Magnolia dawsoniana with a 2.5 foot diameter trunk that is 40 x 40 feet tall and wide. The garden has many other large specimen trees: a “baby” Sequoiadendron giganteum that is 5-6 feet in diameter, plus several large Japanese maples and rhododenrons. There are many short trails wandering through the woodland gardens to my favorite part of the garden – a forest of mature Arbutus menziesii with their glossy red-brown trunks, hanging from the bluffs along the Willamette River. At our next stop, we will visit the crown jewel of the meeting! The garden of the late Jane Platt is certainly one of the most spectacular private gardens that I’ve ever seen. The garden was created by Mrs. Platt ~1939 and is truly a plant lovers’ garden! There are simply too many remarkable trees to list, but here are a few of my top picks: the original Magnolia stellata ‘Jane Platt’, a 40 foot tall Davidia involucrata ‘Platt’s Variegated’, a 20 x 20 foot Clethra barbinervis with beautiful bark, a 9 foot diameter Sequoiadendron giganteum, an enormous Davidia involucrata, a large Quercus ponticum, a huge Cornus controversa, and a 15 x 15 foot Fothergilla major. This is only a tiny list of the great trees in this garden. There are many large magnolias as well, several of which will be blooming. This garden is absolutely one of Portland’s most brilliant gems! Following this, we will head into downtown Portland and drop off everyone in Chinatown for lunch on your own. There are hundreds of excellent restaurants within a few blocks, so it should be easy for you to find any type of food you might want. After lunch, we will meet at the Portland Classical Chinese Garden which is a reproduction of a temple garden in Suzhou, China. Situated in the middle of downtown Portland, this exceptionally well-designed garden’s peaceful feel is juxtaposed against the modern skyscrapers and bustle of the city. This garden is all about details and you should take the time to enjoy the amazing stonework and carpentry! There are some very choice plants scattered through the garden. The one that I like best is a multi-tepaled Magnolia delavayi just inside the main entrance. We will finish visiting the Chinese Garden in the early afternoon and you will have the remainder of the afternoon to enjoy the city. A must see is Powell’s Bookstore – this is the largest bookstore in the world and covers an entire city block four stories high! They have a seemingly limitless array of all types of books, and a fantastic section on gardening. You can easily catch the train back to the hotel from downtown when you are finished sightseeing. This evening, we have the great fortune to be hosted to a casual dinner party in the garden of Sean Hogan, owner of Cistus Design and Nursery. Be prepared to be completely overwhelmed by the tremendous range of plants in the garden and at the nursery. You will have the opportunity to stroll through the garden and nursery while enjoying a buffet of locally grown produce and also be able to purchase plants. Cistus Nursery undoubtedly has the largest availability of wild, weird and wonderful plants in the Universe. (OK, at least on this planet!). The collection contains ~ 30,000 taxa, but they are not all available at the same time. Truly a magical venue to end our meeting. Sadly we will have to say goodbye to some of our friends after the evening is finished, but for those of you who will continue on with the post-meeting tour, the fun is just beginning!

POST-MEETING
MONDAY, JUNE 1,We will get an early start and head south to Eugene, Oregon to visit Gossler Farms Nursery. The nursery sells a wide range of woody and perennial plants and has a nice display garden containing many magnolias, rhododendron, mountain laurel, and many other woody trees, shrubs and perennials. A few of the highlights are a 50 foot tall Magnolia hypoleuca, a 20 foot tall Magnolia x wieseneri and a 30 foot tall Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’. We will have lunch here and also the opportunity to purchase plants. Our next stop will be the garden of Bryan and Cassandra Barrett. The garden has been carefully designed as a series of “rooms”, each completely different from the others. The Barretts are landscape designers and their gardens are used to teach people how to utilize their space and at the same time feature unusual and underutilized plants that are well adapted to their area. My personal favorite two gardens are the meadow garden which is composed primarily of natives, and a creek-side woodland garden that has a beautiful display of woody and perennial plants. You will easily see the Barretts’ love of rare plants and nature combined exquisitely in their garden. Our last stop of the day will be Hendricks Park. The park is situated on 78 acres in the foothills of the mountains and is defined by an over-story of mature native oaks with an under-story of rhododendrons. There is a HUGE Pterostyrax sp. that dominates one part of the park. The garden contains many large magnolias that are of historical importance. One of our members will explain the history of the garden while we visit.

TUESDAY, JUNE 2 We will start our day with a visit to Northwest Garden Nursery. This nursery specializes in Helleborus and Podophyllum, (oriental mayapples). Plants are available for purchase. At first sight, the garden appears rather small and unassuming, but you quickly realize that it is an immaculate combination of a spectacular rock garden and attractive woodland gardens with a tremendous range of woody and perennial plants. The range of plants and the skill of gardening are equally incredible. They have been breeding Podophyllum, and have produced hybrids with deep red, glossy foliage and bright red flowers – when I saw these plants I was truly speechless. (If you know me, you KNOW that takes a lot!). These hybrids are the most beautiful perennials that I have ever seen! Worth the entire trip just to see these fantastic plants!
We will now start the less formal part of our tour to see the true meaning of what Oregon is all about. The rest of the trip we will primarily be visiting wonderful scenic sights. We will take a memorable drive from Eugene through the coastal mountain range to the central Oregon coast. The shoreline of Oregon is often rugged and wild with gigantic rocks and sheer cliffs plunging down to the pounding waves, and punctuated from time to time with wide sandy beaches. The coast is well known for its overpowering beauty and we will stop at several places to enjoy the views.
Our goal for the evening is to reach Bandon, Oregon. This is where the really huge rocks and cliffs along the coast truly begin. The town is small and an easy stroll will take you past many interesting specialty shops and some delightful restaurants. We are hoping to schedule one of many surprises at this stop. (You will have to attend to learn of the surprises!) The beach is easily accessible and a terrific place to watch the sun set. If the tide is out, you will be able to explore a series of sea caves and see the wide diversity of plant and animal life in the tide pools. Keep your eyes open as we drive down the coast – there is a resident pod of humpback whales that is often spotted along the coast.

 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 From Bandon, we will continue south, down the coast. Twenty miles north of California is the town of Brookings, which has a frost-free climate. It is always amazing to see tropical plants growing outside this far north!

Darlingtonia californica

Starting here, as we approach the Oregon/California border, note the large fields of green “grass-like” plants. This 20 mile strip of the coast produces ~90% of the world’s Easter lily crop!
As we get into California, you will begin to notice Sequoia sempervirens (coastal redwood) mixed in the forest. We will make a stop and hike through Stout Grove, with giant trees towering 350 feet tall and with 20 foot diameter trunks! I’ve been in this area many times but I’m still completely overwhelmed by the sheer size and beauty of this forest! This surely must be one of the most peaceful and majestic places on earth!
From the redwood forest we will travel back across the coastal mountain range and make a stop just west of the tiny town of O’Brian, Oregon. This mountainous area has some of the most unique plant communities in the world.

Calypso bulbosa - Hardy Orchids

The mountains are composed primarily of serpentine rock which contains very high levels of magnesium that would be lethal to most plants. The plants in this area have evolved to survive, and actually require, this toxic soil. Most exist no place else in the world. You will also see large bogs with Darlingtonia californica (insect eating plants), hillsides covered with Rhododendron occidentalis, Trillium, orchids, Iris, and Phlox just to name a few of the wonderful plants in this vicinity. If time allows, we will explore other sites in this area of the Siskiyou Mountains.
Our evening stop will be in the town of Ashland, Oregon, which has a quaint downtown with a wide range of shops and wonderful restaurants. Ashland is world famous for its Shakespearean theatre and if you like, you will have the opportunity to see a play late in the evening.

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 4 From Ashland we will start heading north and will make a surprise stop (no, I’m not telling!) on the way to our lunch break at the rim of Crater Lake. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the USA and the 7th deepest in the world at 1943 feet deep! The lake has formed inside the crater of an ancient volcano and is 6 miles wide. Hopefully we will have a clear day and if so, you will have a breath-taking view as you eat lunch. Note: we will be at high elevation and the temperature can be quite cold – we WILL see many feet of snow. The average snowfall at the rim of the crater is 533 inches!
After lunch we will stop at an ancient lava flow that destroyed a large area of forested land. There are many tree casts (holes in the lava where the trees burned out) throughout the lava field and you will see the succession of plants that are slowly reclaiming this area. This is a very interesting area both botanically and geologically.
This next stage of our travels takes us into my favorite part of Oregon, the high desert. Most people don’t realize that the vast majority of Oregon is either arid or desert. We will only be in the desert for a short time, but you will see an amazing diversity of plants even though this area only gets 4-8 inches of rain annually. From the desert we head down into Prineville Gorge, in my opinion the most beautiful drive anyplace in Oregon. We will leave the sage brush of the desert and drive through picturesque old grove junipers that have taken hundreds of years of climatic abuse to become the natural sculptures that they are today. As we drop into the gorge you will suddenly be confronted by the massive lava flows that make up a large part of Oregon. At one point, you can count at least 21 separate lava flows that have built up on each other. This is one of the most geologically interesting areas that I’ve ever seen. Bring your binoculars to look for birds – there is ample evidence of many nesting sites on the basalt cliffs. From the gorge, we will travel a short distance to Bend, Oregon to spend the night.

FRIDAY, JUNE 5
We will head back toward Portland and the end of our tour, but we will be driving in the high desert with stunning views of the landscape including Mt. Hood and many botanical treasures! We will travel through the gorge carved out by the Deshutes River. The Deshutes River is well known for its great whitewater rafting. We will exit the gorge at the base of Mt. Hood and another surprise awaits. (Forget it. I’m NOT telling!) As we head up Mt. Hood we will stop to enjoy the huge diversity of plants: orchids, trilliums, mahonia, . . . Unfortunately our trip must end, so on to Portland we go!

POST, POST-MEETING
SATURDAY, JUNE 6 – FRIDAY, JUNE 12 This tour by necessity will be limited to a very small number of people and is certainly not for the faint of heart! This will be a one week tour focused on geology in WILD Oregon. This means – rock collecting trip! Oregon has a truly outstanding diversity of rocks and one of our stops will be the Rock Museum in Medford, Oregon, so that you can see what has been found in the state. The museum is absolutely world-class and has some of the most incredible specimens you will ever see!
Again, keep in mind, this is not a trip for everybody! We will be driving ~2000 miles, often on very remote dirt roads, and we will be digging in the dust and dirt for specimens. We will also be wading in creeks and rivers to collect rocks. You will see dry desert, where there are only ~2 inches of rain per year, huge mountains, astonishing scenery. We will be staying in inexpensive hotels, and will be wet some days and dusty/dirty on others. Some of the collecting areas are pay sites, but they are not generally very expensive. I can personally assure you of an unforgettable trip and you will take home some great rocks, if you want to do so.
This tour is only for a few very adventurous souls. If you want more details, please contact Pat directly at 919-618-1330. If you are interested, please let me know quickly since we can only take about 6 people.
Well as you can see, this meeting in Oregon will offer a tremendous range of plants and places to visit and hopefully you will take home with you the mental images and memories of what this truly amazing state has to offer! I can’t wait to show you the beautiful gardens, the ocean, mountains, gorges, deserts and natural wonders of Oregon. See you soon in Portland!
By Pat McCracken