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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2005)
DECEMBER 2, 2005 JUSt|OUt49 Paradise in Monmouth A trip to Dancing Oaks here is no doubt that the queer community summers working. Leonard had tak likes to garden. There is also no doubt that en a few plant identification classes we have made a big impression on the world and worked at a wholesale nursery of horticulture. Throughout this winter I am for nine years. Fred is a full-time doc going to visit some gay-owned nurseries in tor of internal medicine in Corvallis. T This is going to be very hard for me, because their Web site, they are members of checking out nurseries, buying plants and talking to eight plant societies. In their “spare really smart plant people is not my thing. You know time” they like to vacation, but for I’m totally kidding, right? 1 love this. them a vacation is a wildflower lour the area—some familiar, some not. I set out to visit a nursery that I had never been to before, Dancing Oaks in Monmouth. TWo cups of cof fee, as many doughnuts, an egg sandwich and a pit These guys are busy. According to Get Dirty with Dan BY DAN YOUNG ' Ty in South Africa or a trek into the The magical scapes of Dancing Oaks make the trip to Monmouth worthwhile. mountains of Chile to collect plants. drive from Portland to Monmouth; I know I’ll be back. Their love of greenery is obvious even before they The drive out there is beautiful enough, but when you stop or two later, 1 was driving up the long gravel road den. Water trickled out of rocks almost hidden by start talking about it. There was the mock orange phase, arrive you won’t be disappointed. The garden alone to the nursery. Through a gate made of colored glass rushes. Carnivorous and hardy pitcher plants edged the Rosa rugosa period, the Phormium year.. .and now would be reason to go, but the plants for sale will defi and metal bits, past a long row of eucalyptus, 1 was the koi-filled pool. Everywhere 1 turned and looked, 2006 will be the year of the Kniphofia. Judging by the nitely leave you without enough money to go out the greeted by two of the nicest plantsmen I’ve met. there was something great to look at. newest beds in the garden, it doesn’t look like bamboo next weekend. Even I—who have told myself, “No more is that far away from becoming an obsession, either. As new plants this year!”—couldn’t resist. Oh, well, I nev er was one for great feats of self-control. © Leonard Foltz and Fred Weisensee made me feel wel Around another comer were gravel-mulched beds come the moment I closed my car door. A quote from full of hardy cacti and agaves. One more turn and we the late great plantsman J.C. Raulston hung on the passed a few new beds with bamboo and towering The garden and the retail nursery seem to go hand door of the office: "If you are not killing plants you are Nicotiana tobbacum from Mexico. The whole time I and hand here. Being able to see a plant in the garden really stretching yourself as a gardener.” I knew this kept wondering what would be blooming here and is a great selling point, and having the nursery allows was my kind of place. there earlier in the year. Yet fall color and structure them to grow plants for their garden. "We are like are not overlooked in this garden. heroin junkies with our own pharmacy,” Fred says. We set out to explore the beautiful and quiet four- they put it, "We have no discipline to specialize.” acre display garden. The guys started planting 10 years Past all this, we came to the pavilion: a big, open Their addiction is infectious. Throughout the ago and have created a lovely garden. Plants were feeling house surrounded by a wrap-around porch spring, summer and fall, they are busy hosting classes well-labeled and combined wonderfully. Through a and lots of windows that look out onto the gardens. and giving lectures on gardening, both at their nurs maze of gravel paths, we came upon a long cedar per We settled down there for coffee and chatting. Tiny kit ery and at garden clubs. Along with the lectures, small gola draped in climbing roses and various vines. Huge tens tugged at my shoelaces as I started to learn the group teas and after-dark garden tours are also on list purple fruits hung off an Akebia trifoliate, making me story of Dancing Oaks. of things to do at their nursery. Both fill up fast, so if stop to check them out a little closer. At the end of the Ten years ago Fred and Leonard decided to move pergola was the first of two water features in the gar- 1 back to the family farm where Fred spent his boyhood you would like to take part, plan well in advance. I definitely would recommend taking the 90-minute RED LIGHT • CASH FOR CLOTHES • RED LIGHT • CASH FOR CLOTHES 1 Deiic-totM lnxyt y d'oetcvre $$$$$$ SE 36TH & HAWTHORNE $$$$ SW IITH & STARK $$$$$$ D ancing O aks is open from 930 am to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday between March 1 and Oct. 31 Fortunately, if you need a little plant fix in the winter, you can call to set up an appointment. The nursery has a Web site, www.dancingoaks.com, where you can find direc tions, get a little sneak peak at their garden and browse the plant list. They are located at 17900 Priem Road and can be reached at 503-838-6058. To reach D irty D an , e-mail dirtydthegardener@yahoo. com.
