Stories

We’re continuing our January highlight of the Oregon Coastal Province with an iconic coastal Oregon species – our Hairy Manzanita, or Arctostaphylos columbiana. The northernmost tree-forming manzanita and perhaps our most famous local manzanita, A. columbiana ranges from rocky British Columbia to coastal California, and is the namesake of the coastal town of Manzanita, northwest of Portland.

Portland Botanical Gardens’ unifying concept is to curate future collections around biogeography so that visitors may learn about each plant within the context of its ecoregion and community. This year, we will feature a dozen different biogeographic collections we hope to establish at McCormick & Baxter, beginning with the Coastal Province.

Following a year of due-diligence, site planning and relationship building, Portland Botanical Gardens released a Conceptual Master Plan in a September 16, 2025 press release. The following text is an excerpt from an article in Pacific Horticulture which describes PBG’s vision for the McCormick & Baxter Superfund Site and the many public benefits the proposal will […]

EVENT FULL For anyone not able to attend, please know there will be future tours & survey opportunities. If you are particularly keen on just a tour, please email info@portlandbg.org. Original Event Information Walking tour of the McCormick & Baxter Superfund site and preliminary botany survey DATE AND TIMESat, August 16, 202510:00 AM – 12:00 […]

This month we are remembering the life and legacy of Claude Cormier, Landscape Architect, who passed away in 2023. Cormier launched his office, @ccxa.landscape, with the Blue Stick Garden during the first @jardinsdemetis International Garden Festival in 2000.

PBG board members Ben Ngan and Sean Hogan first met one another in 1996 during the design of the @lansuchinesegarden where they assisted with fundraising and horticultural curation. Working with the Chinese Garden board and horticulturalists in our sister city of Suzhou, the two sought to showcase Portland’s prominent Asian-American communities through the authentic use of Chinese plants. Many of the specimens in the garden came as clones from Suzhou, with a focus on winter flowering and evergreen species.

This May we celebrate the legendary Sadafumi (Sada) Uchiyama, Curator Emeritus of the @portlandjapanesegarden. A fourth-generation Japanese gardener, Sada’s accolades are numerous and include receiving the “Exceptional Achievement” award by the Garden Society of Japan on their 100th anniversary – the first year the grand prize was awarded to a designer living and working outside the country.