February 5, 2026 "Bulbs in Their Habitats" Jane McGary relates the habitat characteristics of bulbs in their natural habitats to suggestions for placing them in the garden to suit their needs. Illustrated with photos of geophytes in nature from various countries.
Jane has been growing geophytes (bulbs, corms, tubers, etc.) since the 1980s and has a large collection. She is a past officer of this chapter, and an officer of the Pacific Bulb Society.
November 6 - CW-NARGS - “Short Takes” for November 2025
Ann Goetcheus: Worm Farming Ann gardens on a double lot in Southeast Portland. She is actively involved with the Hardy Plant Society and CW-NARGS. She has cultivated worms since black bears rolled her compost bin in the Connecticut Hills. These days the worm bin resides in her garage. Ann travels widely with various horticulture groups, the focus on gardens around the globe.
Karen McCarthy: Challenges of the High Desert Karen is a “commuter” CW-NARGS board member, attending board and general meetings from her home in Madras, Oregon, where she maintains a garden and nursery. She will talk about the challenges of growing plants on the “other side” of the Cascades.
Dave Dobak: Unexpectedly Expanding Garden Dave spent 30+ years as treasurer for the CW-NARGS chapter before “retiring” to be our tech person, manning the laptop for slide presentations at our meetings. He lives in Milwaukie, where he downsized from the home garden he shared with his wife Jan. An avid traveler, hiker, and photographer, plants are a central focus to his life.
September 4, 2025, A Dry / Rock Garden with Thomas Van Hevelingen, co owner of Van Hevelingen Nursery. Thomas will speak on applying dry gardening principles to the rock garden & borrowing rock gardening techniques in the dry garden. An exploration of the intersection of two popular gardening methods through the lens of a few popular genera (Daphne, Scutellaria, Teucrium, Tulbaghia)
Thomas is Oregon born and raised on the potting bench and has seen over three decades of growth, successes, and even the occasional failures at his family nursery in Newberg, Oregon. Aside from chatting with plant nerds, his hobbies include designing and maintaining an experimental dry garden on the nursery property, botanically-motivated travel, and breeding new selections of Cistus and Lavandula.
May 8, 2025
Linda Beutler of the Rogerson Clematis Gardenwill speak on "Small Clematis for the Rock Garden"
April 3, 2025
This meeting will be one of two pot shows this year.
Plants for the display should be in clean pots and show flowers and/or interesting foliage. You may also bring cut flowers from your garden in a suitable container. Please prepare a clearly readable label on a piece of paper or card-stock which can be placed in front of the pot. This will prevent visitors from damaging your plants when they pull out the labels!
Please check your plants before the show to make sure they aren't hosting slugs or aphids. We don't want this to be a super-spreader.
This event will be in person only.
March 6, 2025
Garden Adventures on the Edge
Norm Jacobs and his wife Deb Zaveson have created Arbutus Garden Arts which, after several iterations, has settled into Southeast Portland. While Deb has retained an eclectic taste in plants, Norm continues an interest in Asian garden design. The nursery specializes in Japanese maples, dwarf conifers, Epimedium, and woodland (species) peonies, all propagated and grown from the plants which have performed well in the garden. They trial new introductions and propagate limited numbers deemed suitable in the face of climate change. Norm’s March 6 talk, "Garden Adventures on the Edge,” will address inspirations gained from gardens visited recently in Japan and Scandinavia with continuing new plant experimentation and development. One direction this has taken them is to create a crevice garden, which he will talk about briefly.
February 6, 2025
From Habitat to the Home Garden: Cultivating Alpine Plants from Mountains Around the World
Join Mark Akimoff as he shares stories of his adventures to far-flung landscapes, from the Southern Alps of New Zealand and the Andes of Chile to the flower filled tundra of Alaska's White Mountains. He’ll also explore closer-to-home regions, including the Cascades, Siskiyous, and Wallowas. This talk will highlight remarkable rock garden plants observed in their native habitats and the challenges and triumphs of cultivating these unique alpine species in his Willamette Valley Illahe nursery. Check out Mark's website at https://www.illaherareplants.com His nursery is fabulous!
November 7, 2024
Rock Garden Highlights at Leach Botanical Garden
Drawing inspiration from Lilla and John Leach’s love of botanizing in the Siskiyou Mountains, the Rock Garden at Leach Botanical Garden features plants connected to their trips as well as alpine and desert species and has continued to expand in the decades since its initial construction. Join gardener Sam Mularz as he delves into highlights of the Rock Garden collection throughout the seasons, discusses maintenance practices and challenges, and outlines current projects and plans for the future.
Sam Mularz is the primary caretaker of the Rock Garden and Riparian Zone at Leach Botanical Garden. He began his career in botany working public land stewardship positions around the Pacific Northwest. While moving up and down the Cascades, he spent summers backpacking and developing a passion for native alpine and subalpine plants. Since joining Leach in 2022, Sam has enjoyed applying his passion for these species to tending the rock garden there.