Growing roses

Water-wise lawn replacement 

(For other online garden tours, see the listing at the bottom of this page.)

Shore Acres Gardens are lush, verdant, and quite remote.  These gorgeous gardens in a state park are, however, worth the detour from Highway 101 to the Cape Arago Highway, south of Coos Bay, Oregon. 

Begun in the early 1900s by Louis Simpson, a lumber and shipping baron, the gardens were carved out of a densely forested stretch of the Pacific Coast as part of an enormous and impressive estate.  No expense was spared.

In the early 1920s Louis Simpson's home burned to the ground, so he and his family moved into the gardener's cottage (in this photo) while his new, and larger, mansion was being built.  The new home was not yet complete when the 1930s brought financial ruin to Simpson.

The estate was sold to the state of Oregon in the 1940s and became a park.  Over the decades since, the gardens have been beautifully maintained, but the partially finished mansion was razed.  An open meadow facing the Pacific is all that remains.

To the south of the formal garden is a large lily pond shown here in mid-July.

Two hidden treasures of the Shore Acres gardens are beyond the lily pond.  A trail that appears to lead into the woods, leads instead to a formal rose garden just south of the lily pond that is more lush and healthier than any rose garden we have ever seen -- ever.  

Another path goes to the sheltered cove where the Simpsons entertained the many guests who visited them.  Nothing remains of the cabanas and other amenities Louis Simpson had built on the cove's sheltered beach.

Take these Hot Gardens online preview tours, too:   
Santa Barbara Gardens
Huntington Gardens Desert Garden  - near Pasadena 
Tucson Gardens    
Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden  
Descanso Gardens   
Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanic Garden  
Arlington Garden - in Pasadena
Tropical Garden in the Dominican Republic   
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden  
South Coast Botanic Garden - near Los Angeles  
San Diego's Balboa Park botanical gardens 

 

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