Lisa Graff lives on a 37 acre estate in Portland, Oregon and has created a 1 acre perennial garden around her beautiful mansion along with pools, waterfalls and fountains. The main entryway has 3 Monkey puzzle (Auraucaria araucana) trees, one of which has many cones. The back of the house has a fountain and runnel…

Small plants are getting more popular because of their low maintenance and their ability to fit into a small garden. Dwarf conifers are usually evergreen and come in great variety. Here are some at Dawn Gardens: Alberta Spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’) I planted 100 of these in 2003 and now some of them are 8′…

You can’t beat Lavenders for foliage fragrance and summer color. There are many varieties from dwarfs to 5′ shrubs. Lavandula ‘Grosso’ Lavender  & Yarrow (Achellia ‘Sunshine’) Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote Blue’ is a dwarf variety. Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas) Dwarf Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas ‘Ron Lutsko’) Lavandula stoechas ‘Ghostly Princess’ Lavandula stoechas ‘The Princess’ Lavandula allardii…

The garden tour is officially over but I have a day on my own in Venice so I will show you what I find about this city. A group of us decided to go together and hire a guide to take us around. There were 5 of us and Cristina Taddeo was a superb guide….

This is the last day of the garden tour and there are no gardens in this post but there is interesting history. I will be on my own in Venice tomorrow but will send a blog showing what I find. We stopped in Verona for a guided tour of the old city. They were having…

The post on Trauttmansdorff Garden was too long so I will post the rest of the day’s activities on this new post. Some scenes on our way to the castle. There were a couple of castles along the way and apple orchards. The Tyrol Castle that we saw was a complex of several buildings inside…

We have stayed at such a beautiful hotel these 2 nights that I have to show you before we start our tour of the Dolomites. The grounds of the hotel go right to the beach at Lake Garda.The name of the hotel is Dulac Et Du Parc Grand Resort View from my room Some of…

The largest lake in Italy is Lake Garda and we visited 2 wonderful gardens there today. HELLER GARDEN There are so many plants in the Heller Garden that there is no chance for a weed to get established. There are plants everywhere among the tall trees. It is a whimsical garden with a lot of…

We saw 2 gardens at Lake Como and another one not on the itinerary. The roads around Lake Como are so narrow that 2 cars can barely pass. When 2 buses meet it is a big problem. Our bus had to back up. VILLA DEL BALBIANELLA Here are some views on the way to see…

The first garden we saw today was in Lombardy, Italy then we crossed the border to Switzerland to visit another garden. VILLA CICOGNA MOZZONI Entry courtyard Note how fresh the colors are on the ceiling frescos because the sunlight can’t reach them. The frescos on the south wall are faded out by the sun. The…