2010 International Clematis Society Conference
Portland, Oregon
September 6th through 14th, 2010

Registration for our 2010 Meeting and Conference in Portland, Oregon, USA is now closed. We have a very healthy 75+ attendees, both regular attendees and some newer faces. Although registration is now closed, this page will remain for information purposes.

We look forward to meeting clematis friends old and new at the 2010 International Clematis Society’s annual conference, held in Portland, Oregon, and hosted by the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection (FRCC). This will be the second IClS trip to Portland, previously visited in 2001. Most of the gardens and nurseries we tour this year will be new, and some were just a dream in 2001. Highlights include a morning at Kinzy Fair, a country garden with hundreds of clematis, an afternoon at Silver Star Vinery in southwest Washington, and you won’t want to miss Brewster Rogerson’s “Nearly 90th” Birthday Party. Attendees will also visit the new location of the Rogerson Clematis Collection at historic Luscher Farm, and help us vote on seedlings being evaluated. A complete schedule of events follows this introduction.

Our conference is centered at University Place, a conference center/hotel owned and operated by Portland State University, in downtown Portland. Conference attendees must make their accommodations reservation separately from their conference registration. Visit their website here (http://cegs.pdx.edu/stay/upl) to make your reservations. They are holding a block of rooms for us at $79.00 USD per night per room, which includes a continental breakfast, but not tax. This room rate begins September 5th, for those arriving early. If you need parking, the fee is an amazingly reasonable $5.00 per day in their secure parking lot, and you may buy a 10 day pass for $50.00. This fee extends to those not staying at University Place, who may be wishing to leave their cars at the hotel during the day. Day passes may be purchased at the registration table at the conference.

University Place will have a hospitality room set up for IClS attendees (a schedule will be available for when volunteers are staffing the room), and they have a lovely restaurant and bar for onsite food and drinks! They have a heated pool, and the hotel is only one block from Portland’s new Green Line trolley, which connects you to all Max lines running throughout the greater Portland area. All trolleys are free to ride in the downtown area, with the free zone extending to Lloyd Center Mall.

Contact information for University Place:

University Place
310 SW Lincoln St.
Portland, OR 97201 USA
503-221-0104
Email: uplace@pdx.edu

University Place, its restaurant, and all public transportation are non-smoking. This is true for all restaurants and public houses, and most of the gardens and nurseries we will visit. Please ask before smoking.

Items of note:

• In the USA, a 12 hour clock is used, and dates are written with month first, day, then year, e.g. 9/6/2010 is the date the conference starts.
• Early September usually brings excellent weather to the Portland area, so expect it to be warm and perhaps even hot. Rain is never impossible here. There are no formal dinners planned, but perhaps a bit of party wear should be included for Brewster’s Nearly 90th party, and you’ll want your dancing shoes the final night.
• Questions about registration details should be directed to info@rogersonclematiscollection.org. If you are trying to find a room-mate, contact us there.
• Planners on the Portland end: Registrars, Linda Beutler, Rick Meigs, and Sally Geist; Catering, Nancy Dunis; Volunteer Coordinator, Sally Geist; Coach Services, Nancy Goldman and Lucy Hardiman; Over-seas Plant Inspection: Maurice Horn.

Buying Plants for Over-seas Transport:

There will be several opportunities for conference attendees to buy plants (all kinds, not just clematis). The schedule is arranged so that at the final nursery stop on the final day, Joy Creek Nursery (JCN) will have an inspector on site, and volunteers can assist in preparing plants for travel. The phyto-inspection certificate is $21.00, payable that day at the nursery.

The onus of knowing what plants may or may not be allowed to travel into your home country or state falls on you the shopper, not on FRCC, the IClS, or Joy Creek Nursery. We urge you to obtain that information before leaving home. Individuals traveling with a few plants in their carry-on luggage will require no further inspections to leave the US. It is up to the individual to find out what may be required to enter your home country.

There will be additional fees for those wishing to have plants shipped directly from JCN to your home (for individuals) or business address (for nurseries). Please contact info@rogersonclematiscollection.org for more information.

Schedule of Events:

The conference begins on Monday, September 6th (which is the Labor Day holiday in the US) with:

• Registration in the University Place lobby from 2 to 6 pm, along with a book sale and a marketplace with other items of interest to clematarians.
• From 5 to 6 pm “Happy Hour” drinks and nibbles will be served around the pool garden adjoining the lobby. We will use the Astoria room if the weather is wet.
• Dinner will be served in the conference center upstairs, followed by introductory remarks, a jovial photography debate (film vs. digital), and a special performance of the Goddess Flora Chorus and Deadheading Society. We will end the evening with “home movies”, selected attendees will present recent pictures of favorite clematis.

The next day, Tuesday, September 7th, begins with our tour of Kinzy Fair.

• Kinzy Fair is the garden of Millie Kiggins and Penny Vogel, with Penny being the clematis collector, and Millie building the structures for them to grow on. This 20+ year old country garden is filled with many other fascinating plants spread over 3.5 acres of farmland in the rolling foothills of Mt. Hood, outside the town of Estacada, Oregon. An article about this garden is provided in your hospitality bag.
• Lunch will be served at the garden, and we will leave at 1:00 pm
• Most attendees will have the remainder of the afternoon free.
• The IClS council will hold its business meeting from 2 to 5 pm in the Astoria room at University Place.
• At 5:30 pm, coaches will take us all to the Lucky Labrador Brew House in northwest Portland’s Pearl District, for a casual sandwich and pizza buffet dinner, along with beer tasting and tours of the brewery. A special bottling has been prepared for us. The “Lucky Lab” also brews its own non-alcoholic root beer and cream soda.

On Wednesday, September 8th, we spend the day touring gardens around the Oregon state capitol, Salem.

• Our first stop is the small garden of Doris Starrett. Doris is FRCC’s volunteer coordinator, and her garden, most of it in a steep incline, is a testament to the kind of example she sets FRCC’s volunteers. Many of Doris’s clematis flow downhill rather than climbing up, and she also has a number growing in containers.
• Next we tour Salem’s historic Deepwood Estate, one of the jewels in the career of landscape architects Lord & Shriver. We will have lunch here after a docent-led tour of the gardens.
• In med-afternoon we’ll stop in at Pat & Dave Eckardt’s garden, also in Salem. Both Pat and Dave are keen plant collectors, and Pat is also a garden artist, so the stained glass and mosaic projects you see throughout the garden are her creations.
• We finish our day at Fergusson’s Fragrant Nursery in their original location in St. Paul, Oregon. Owner Danielle Fergusson has created a masterful display garden, with fragrant plants in bloom every season of the year. This is a full service garden center, with all kinds of plants available. Her staff will prepare a tamale buffet for our evening meal, with the assistance of the St. Paul Garden Club.

Thursday, September 9th is the day we take care of business!

• The day begins at University Place at 9:30 am with the general meeting of the International Clematis Society.
• At 11:30 lunch will be served in the conference center.
• We leave University Place at 1:00 pm on coaches bound for Silver Star Vinery, outside the town of Yacolt, Washington. Silver Star Vinery is a mail-order clematis nursery owned by Debbie Fischer, and she has been planting display gardens in anticipation of our visit. Debbie is also sponsoring and preparing (with help!) our evening meal, traditionally cooked Pacific Northwest salmon, baked on cedar planks. Clematis will be for sale here, as well as plants from Collector’s Nursery, which some IClS visitors may have toured in 2001. Diana Reek is the proprietor of Collector’s Nursery.

Town & Country is the theme of our option-day, Friday, September 10th. Attendees will choose from the following options that take you out to the woods, the mountains, or tour you around town:

• Option 1 (package #1 on the registration form): keep the day to yourself, and enjoy downtown Portland. A map of downtown highlights is in your hospitality bag, and you are free all day to wander at your leisure. Lunch and dinner are on your own.
• Option 2 (package #2 on the registration form): Rejoin Debbie Fischer and Diana Reeck for a bus tour of the Mt. St. Helen’s National Monument. This tour begins with a museum tour in Cougar, Washington, and you will pay for your lunch at the Cougar Resort (budget $8 to $12 for this meal). After lunch, the bus will make several stops for short easy hikes as you tour the devastation area from the volcano’s eruption in 1980, and witness the landscape’s amazing rejuvenation. Dinner will be on your own when we return to U-Place. Space is limited for this option, and if it has been filled before you register, we will contact you for a second choice selection.
• Option 3 (package #3 on the registration form): Back by popular demand, spend a day in the Columbia Gorge with Maurice Horn. This year we will travel to the dry end of the gorge, viewing the dramatic and distinct change from the wet west end to the high desert end of the gorge. Lunch will be in Lyle, Washington, on your own at the Lyle Hotel (budget $8 to $12 for this meal). We visit a native plant nursery near White Salmon, Washington, before crossing back to Oregon for more short hikes into the woods. Dinner will be on your own when we return to U-Place. Space is limited for this option, and if it has been filled before you register, we will contact you for a second choice selection.
• Option 4 (THIS OPTION IS NOW FULL AND NO FURTHER REGISTRATIONS FOR IT WILL BE ACCEPTED.): Join Portland native Linda Beutler for a tour of historic Portland gardens, all owned by members of the Kerr family. We start at the garden of Peter Kerr, known as Elk Rock. The garden, which also became known as Bishop’s Close when it was donated to the Episcopal Archdiocese of Oregon, overlooks the Willamette River from southwest Portland. After exploring this large estate garden, stroll down the lane to the garden of John’s daughter, Lady Anne McDonald. This garden is now owned by Susan Bates, who has enhanced its charm with her own outstanding plantsmanship. We’ll eat our box lunches (provided) as we travel to the garden of another Kerr daughter, Jane Platt. This garden, facing west, further up into the hills than Elk Rock and the Bates garden, has long been a favorite destination of photographers, having been carefully designed by Jane to show off her prized plants to their best advantage. This garden is maintained by her son, David Platt. This tour ends in mid afternoon, and dinner will be on your own. Space is limited for this option, and if it has been filled before you register, we will contact you for a second choice selection.

We will spend Saturday, September 11th in and around the city of Lake Oswego, southwest of Portland.

• Our first and longest stop of the day is at Luscher Farm, home of the Rogerson Clematis Collection. Farm Director Karen Davis and RCC curator Linda Beutler will give you a tour of the farm and general overview of the clematis display gardens before you will be free to view a demonstration of RCC’s propagation methods, take docent-led tours of the display gardens, or visit the test plot and help evaluate and suggest names for our seedlings. Break food and a late lunch will be served under the spreading Copper Beech in the Beech Tree’s Garden, and we will leave the farm at 2 pm.
• Mike and Linda Darcy will be our next hosts for a tour of their garden in the Uplands neighborhood of Lake Oswego. Mike is a well known gardening broadcaster, and the garden reflects his eclectic tastes, which do extend to clematis. Linda Darcy is an accomplished floral decorator, and this is a apparent in the plant selections. While touring the garden, be sure to stop by the mid-garden patio for a tasting of Oregon wines. Nibbles will also be served, and soft beverages.
• The last stop today is at the country garden of Charlene and Bill Tuttle, in the Rivergrove neighborhood of Lake Oswego. This deep rambling garden ends at the Tualatin River. Charlene is a self-described plant-hoarder, with dozens and dozens of clematis. Dinner will be served here.

Speakers’ Day, Sunday, September 12, will be back at University Place. The day’s speakers are (the order of appearance not yet determined):

• Duncan Donald, international clematis registrar for the Royal Horticultural Society.
• Chris Sanders, of Bridgemere Nurseries, UK (speaking on the Montana Group).
• Lyndy Broder, of Stockbridge, GA (speaking on growing clematis in a humid climate),
• Brewster Rogerson & Linda Beutler, on the deep history of the Rogerson Clematis Collection.
• A buffet lunch will be served adjoining the conference room.
• At 5:30 pm we leave by coach for Brewster’s Nearly 90th Birthday Party and dinner, hosted by Howie and Sally Geist at their southwest Portland home and garden. Spirits from the Lucky Lab Brew House will be on hand, courtesy of Sally and Howie. A spectacular birthday cake will be provided by the IClS in PDX planning committee. The Geist garden has been carved out of a wooded slope, with climbing roses and clematis rambling down the terraces.

The last day of the conference, Monday, September 13th, finds us traveling to Sauvie Island and Scappoose, Oregon.

• The first stop is Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island, owned by international plant explorer and garden designer Sean Hogan. The extensive display gardens along the driveway vividly express Sean’s love of plants from all over the world. Some of you may recognize this property as adjoining the site of the former Exuberant Gardens Nursery, visited in 2001.
• Our last private garden of the tour is our extended lunch stop at George Soule’s garden, also on Sauvie Island (box lunches provided). George’s garden reflects his long experimentation with plants for form and texture, but maintains a rural garden feel. His garden adjoins the island’s extensive wildlands reserve, and it is a pleasant stroll to the shore of Katherine Lake. Bird-watchers, bring your binoculars, as the island boasts a year-round population of Bald Eagles, Osprey and other large raptors.
• Next we visit Joy Creek Nursery in Scappoose, Oregon, and their ever-enlarging display gardens. An extensive woodland walk has been added since 2001. Here is where all plant inspections will occur, and plants may be prepared for travel. There will be ample opportunity to shop the nursery and sample JCN staff member Ramona’s famous cookies.
• For our final evening, all we have to do is let the breaks off the coaches and roll downhill to Mark’s on the Channel, a rustic and charming floating restaurant situated at the end of a pier on the Multnomah Channel of the Columbia River. Here we will enjoy a festive final buffet, followed by dancing. Mark’s is usually closed on Mondays, so this is a very special event indeed, and we hope a festive finale to a busy and exhilarating conference.

Tuesday, September 14th is your travel day. We wish you all a safe and pleasant journey home, or to further adventures.

Conference Registration and Payment

Registration is now closed. We are hard at work getting ready for the conference and look forward to seeing everyone.

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