A winter visit to Portland's Japanese Garden

I spent New Year's Eve wandering Portland's Japanese Garden. It had been awhile, maybe seven years? That's if my 2018 visit was my last, which seems possible.

My visit started around 2pm, but thanks to the sun's low winter angle most of my photos feel like they were taken much later in the day. 

The first two images were near the parking lot. This is the lower entrance gate you walk through to start the climb up to the garden.

Split bamboo fencing along the way.

Looking up to the Gift Shop and Japanese Arts Learning Center.

Since I'm always focused on the plants, the mite-infested bamboo near the entrance jumped out at me. I had an issue with bamboo mites on my Sasa palmata f. nebulosa several years ago. I cut it all back and thankfully haven't seen a reinfestation on the regrown culms.

At the upper entrance gate...

One of the kadomatsu.

Once in the garden my camera started snapping in reaction to the mossy green beauty.

One of many decorative straw wraps around trees in the garden.

This is why I made the trip to visit, the garden's yukizuri.

From the garden signage: 

• Yukizuri are considered part of the Japanese garden winter scenery and are support systems to protect and prepare trees for winter.
• The technique is both practical and aesthetic. Straw ropes are cast down from a central pole almost like the frame of an umbrella. They help protect branches from breaking by heavy snow that might otherwise erase the intentional and time-consuming pruning our gardeners do.
• Yuki means snow and tsuri means lifting.

Most of the rope supports were simply a cage-like structure over the tree. There were a few like this one however, where the ropes were actually tied onto the branches, this style seems so much more supportive. 

The overall effect was pretty magical. 

The moss islands in the Flat Garden were covered with conifer needles and the edges "stitched" down.

Such an interesting texture.

Never one to wish for snow (or worse, ice) I stood there imagining how fantastic this would look with flakes falling from the sky.

Eventually I tore myself away and walked around to the back of the Pavilion Gallery to look for Mt. Hood.

There she is!

The pathway took me back around the opposite side of the Flat Garden, so of course I had to stop and admire some more.

Then I came up on the Sand and Stone Garden Overlook. The scale is difficult here, the garden looks like a tiny toy-scape.

I thought I'd fast-forward to when I was down at garden-level

I'll admit I'm not really a fan of this style (plants! where are the plants!?!) but there it is.

More straw tree jewelry...

And other sights...

Looking down...

Looking up...

Camellia!

The Heavenly Falls.

Looking towards the Moon Bridge.

Podocarpus fruit.

This was my last photo in the garden, although I did walk around the Portland International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park and photographed the restroom building shrouded in moss and various plants, check that out over on Instagram.

The Bit at the End

Attendees of the Portland Fling in 2014 visited the Japanese Garden, and in fact the group photo was taken in the nearby International Rose Test Garden, see that image at the top of the page here. I'm not in the photo because I skipped out on that morning's activities to get my garden ready, as it was the next stop on the itinerary. Oh the memories! In case you haven't heard the Garden Fling will return to Portland in 2027 (July 22-25), I have no idea whether or not the Japanese Garden will be part of the itinerary as I'm not part of the planning group this time... it was A LOT of work! My hat is off to those who are planning our next Portland Fling; Anny, Jane (a two-time planner!), Theo, and LaManda.

—   —   —

To receive alerts of new danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. Please note: these are sent from a third party, their annoying ads are beyond my control. 

All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.