The Lan Su Chinese Garden

25 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by bonniehull in Architecture, Art work, Celebrations, Drawings, Garden, Just visual, Modern Life, Uncategorized

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Aislinn Adams, Chinese gardens, dinosaur lunch, Edgeworthia, formal gardens, Lan Su Chinese Garden, Sidney Day

The Lan Su Chinese Garden (poetically “Garden of Awakening Orchids”) in Portland was completed in 2000, and I’ve long wanted to go for a visit. R noticed this year that our Oregon Historical Society memberships gave us free entrance to the garden in March so it became the birthday excursion last Thursday, my birthday AND Sidney Day. The three of us did a little fern trimming at Fernridge and then headed downtown…where Sidney petted a fierce Foo dog before we went in…

The booklet given to visitors told us that “The Lan Su garden is considered the most authentic Suzhou-style Chinese garden outside of China. The more than 500 tons of rock in the garden are from China. 65 artisans for Suzchou (Portland’s sister city) lived in Portland for 10 months while they assembled and completed the structures that were crafted in China. The garden features more than 300 plant species and cultivars found in traditional Chinese gardens.” The “LAN” in Lan Su represents PortLANd and the Su from SUzchou…hence the combining of the two sister cities.

If you go on a Thursday morning you might want to take advantage of the free tai chi group…on the terrace of the Hall of Brocade Clouds…

But my delightful first encounter was with a beautiful Edgeworthia…

which took my breath away. There were tree peonies in evidence everywhere, though not in bloom until May. Around the grounds in various of the buildings was a temporary show of botanical drawings which were beautiful and I delighted to find several by my neighbor Aislinn Adams, including this one (sorry about the photo Aislinn)…

Sidney, however, had found the koi and we did lots of running the paths as the fish swam back and forth…

and the paths are also beautiful…

and all of the traveling revealed MORE Edgeworthia…hooray…

Mine has a ways to go…

there were waterfalls…

and many gorgeous wooden details on the buildings themselves. Really, put this on your calendar for May and go see the garden in Spring bloom…I know I will, and you won’t be sorry.

Then on to lunch with the dinosaurs and a little drawing…

Back to Fernridge for some birthday action…

and then the lovely day had to end…

…And Speaking of Gardens…

28 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by bonniehull in Architecture, Design, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Modern Life, Preservation, Trees, Uncategorized

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Edith Schryver, Elizabeth Lord, formal gardens, Gaiety Hollow, garden drawings, garden lunch, Lord and Schryver Conservancy, Salem Gardens

A couple of weeks ago I spent three days in the Gaiety Hollow garden, the home garden of landscape architects Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver. The L&S Conservancy asked me to do some drawings for their upcoming fund raising campaign…a campaign to repay the generous donor who bought the house and garden, and is allowing the Lord and Schryver advocates five years to begin rehabilitating the garden and raising the funds for purchase and maintenance. (Check their new website here…)

The house sits on busy Mission Street in Salem, but on a hot summer day the beautiful garden is a refuge. I set up my little drawing table under the shady arbor and got right to work…

and here’s a vintage photo of the same view…

and here’s Jon instead of a statue…

One of my favorite parts of the garden has been sadly lost in the last few years…this beautiful 300+ year old oak tree which predated the garden, the neighborhood, the town, white settlement…was at the end of the allee of rhododendrons and azaleas…

but here’s the old oak still standing at the other end of the allee…as living things gardens keep changing, providing gardeners with opportunities and challenges…

and here’s a vintage hand-tinted shot of the garden at it’s very beginning…about 1932 maybe…

and a view from the bedroom window today…

My three days in the garden were serenely spent drawing and photographing…

walking through the garden over and over to let the “feel” of the place, the karma of the place, sink in…

vinatge photo of the same view…

friends came and brought lunch everyday…

and stayed to walk the garden…

and all the time I spent in the garden I felt the presence of Lord and Schryver…STRONGLY!!…they were right there.

As the Conservancy’s fund raising campaign begins I’ll be posting occasionally, plus I’ll soon start a new blog about the garden…stay tuned….and begin thinking about your future donation…?!?