Berry Botanic Garden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Berry Botanic Garden is a nonprofit botanical garden located at 11505 SW Summerville Avenue, Portland, Oregon. The garden is open during daylight hours seven days each week; an admission fee of $5 is charged for non-members. The site has a small parking lot, so asks that people call to advise they are coming.
The garden began in the 1930s as the personal collection of Rae Selling Berry (1881-1976), who obtained seeds from plant explorers including Frank Kingdon-Ward, Francis Ludlow and George Sherriff, and Joseph Rock. She also collected plants herself from the Western United States, British Columbia, and Alaska. Particular strengths of her garden were her species rhododendrons and primula collection. In 1938 she established the garden's current site, and the garden became a public, nonprofit organization in 1978.
The garden has continued to develop since it became a nonprofit organization. At present its major collections are as follows:
- Alpine Plants - high-mountain alpine and subalpine plants, with the most delicate specimens in cold frames.
- Native Plants - about 200 of approximately 5,000 regional native plants.
- Primulas - plants started from primula seed collected by Asian plant expeditions, augmented by later international seed exchanges.
- Rhododendrons - over 2,000 specimens representing 160 species. Two species rhododendrons, R. decorum and R. calophytum, now grow in a mature forest of over 150 trees.
A major part of the Garden is the Conservation program, featuring a seedbank of over 14,000 accessions, or packages of seed, representing over 300 rare or endangered plants.
