PNW Gardens: Portland Japanese Garden

Portland, OR | $ (prices vary, see site) | Private non-profit leased to city, inside city park

Mar 16, 2023

611 SW Kingston Ave,
Portland, OR 97205

503-223-1321

Nestled into the giant conifers of the West Hills, the Portland Japanese Garden sits inside the larger Washington Park “complex” of parks and natural areas scattered across the West Hills of Portland, connected by a myriad of trails, and maintained by Portland Parks and Recreation or other public/private partnerships.

You can absolutely combine a visit to both the Japanese and Chinese gardens in Portland in a single day, and if that is all the time you have on a fair-weather day, it isn’t a bad way to fill it up. That’s what I did a few years ago, after living here for a decade. You can see the Lan Su Chinese Garden pictures in an upcoming post.

A Japanese garden gate with tiled roof and white stucco wall, stone path starts and contues through it, a forested hillside beyond beckons with lush green vegetation. — The original east side entrance gate (Antique Gate), no longer the first “structure” you come to when entering from the east side, but still a place to stop and reflect.

The main entrances to the garden, on either the east or west side, are fairly new and the first I had been through either one. I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures, but they are worth contemplation and observation if and when you visit.

The east side entrance, closest to the International Rose Test Garden, is rather modern and has a terraced water feature. The west entrance is carved into the hillside and has a pretty major feat of masonry (aka the Castle Wall) in the supported hillside. That upper west entrance (known as Cultural Village) is also where all the newer, enlarged, and/or modernized buildings are now, including a restaurant and outdoor courtyard.

A tumbling stream bed with lots of rocks and boulders and a Japanes lantern. May trees, shrubs, and ferns dot the landscape. — Walking up the winding trail from the east side entrance through the forest.

The bonzai trees are in small pots with very little soil and covered in moss. The Japanes maple has light green to peach leaves. The evergreen is asymmetrical and yet structured horizontally from being clipped. The dogwood blooms are bright white bracts of four. — Flowering dogwood and bonzai Japanese maple and evergreen trees.

A traditional Japanese garden landscape with a central area of raked small rocks in wavy patterns surrounded by temperate garden beds of shrubs and trees with a backdrop of giant evergreens. — The popular Flat Garden.

A laceleaf Japanese maple tree of advanced age with green-to-red leaves and lichen covered contorted trunks and branches.

There is a famous Japanese maple picture that makes its rounds every now and then and it is this tree. Though prime time is not in June but in the fall when the colors are at their best and the light turns the contorted trunks and branches into blackened ink painted over fire.

A lush Japanese garden with pond and surrounding garden beds of temperate shrubs and trees, backed by large evergreen trees, and a raised terrace are with buildings just out of view. — North side of the Moon Bridge in the Strolling Pond Garden, Cultural Village is just visible above in the back.

A series of photos of the Strolling Pond garden with koi fish in the water, irises in bloom, reflections of leaves, and a Japanese lantern covered in moss. — The Strolling Pond Garden and Zig Zag Bridge, south side of the Moon Bridge.

Somehow I left this visit also not having taken any pictures of the Sand and Stone Garden or the Natural Garden. I know I have other pictures of those areas from previous visits but they are currently on an inaccessible external hard drive that I still have not cracked. But it makes a great excuse to go back soon and take new pictures!

Go back to the series landing page here:

Apple Annie

PNW Gardens, a Series

This is not a complete list of gardens in the PNW that I’ve visited, just ones that I know that I have photos of to include in a post. I may find more. I also have a hard-drive of photos from a DSLR that I used almost exclusively for about four years that I have yet to get into post-Firewire collapse, so that could alter this as well. But I won’t know u…

2 years ago