The beautiful International Rose Test Garden, Portland

August 09, 2008

Entry to the Rose Test Garden

We visited the International Rose Test Gardens in Portland. Getting there was easy with a car, but would have been a little difficult on public transportation – (the last bus you have to take is on an hourly schedule).

Rose Test Garden

The rose garden is free. There is a loaner map you can get at the gift shop, which will show you where the different areas are of the garden. If you are looking for a particular rose, there is an information center in the middle of the garden with a list of all the roses in the garden.

We really enjoyed wandering around, taking photos and smelling the roses. There’s a beautiful view over the city, as the garden is up on a hill. We got lots of planning ideas for our garden – every rose is labelled, and so we took lots of notes of our favourite ones. The gardens are kept up remarkably well – almost everything was in bloom. We were able to see a lot of “new release” roses that are not yet commercially available, as well as a lot of classic roses.