Gordon House Landscape Update

                The most recent installment phase of a landscape designed by Greenworks PC is nearing completion at the Gordon House in Silverton thanks to the generous help of many individuals and organizations. 

                 In spring 2007 the Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs provided the Gordon House Conservancy with the initial funding needed to begin installation of the first large trees and shrubs. Several more Oregon white oaks (quercus garryana) were added near the house, enhancing the native oak savannah that already surrounds the site. The addition of vine maples (acer circinatum) flowering currant (ribes sanguineum) and several western redbud trees (cercis occidentalis) now provides dappled light to the surrounding approaches to the entryway. Compact Oregon grapes (mahonia aquifolium ‘Compactum’), sword ferns (polystichum munitum), yellow twig dogwoods, dwarf redtwig dogwoods, snowberries (symphoricarpus albus), Nootka roses (rosa nutkana), kinnickinnick and azaleas both carpet and color the surrounding area. A Hick’s yew hedge offers a serpentine line which is enjoined by a circuitous planting of evergreen huckleberries (vaccinium ovatum). With its new curved planting areas, the house now typifies the kind of home Frank Lloyd Wright would have recommended to his middle-class clients.

               More native annual and perennial flowers and forbs were added over the years. We now have the following additions that will only continue to improve from year to year: western columbine (aquilegia formosa), goatsbeard (aruncus dioicus), trout lily (erythronium oregonum), great camas (camassia leichtlinii), common camas (camassia quamash), harvest brodiaes (brodiaea coronaria), Henderson’s shooting star (dodecatheon hendersonii), Oregon geranium (geranium oreganum), Oregon iris (iris tenex), common yarrow (achillea millefolium), river lupine (lupinus rivularis), Idaho blue-eyed grass (sisyrinchium idahoense), inside-out flower (vancouveria hexandra), and California poppy (eschscolzia californica).

               The project could not have been completed without the help of Gordon House volunteer gardeners, the cooperation of small local native-plant nurseries, and funding provided by the Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs, the Roadside Council, and individual museum visitors who participated in various fundraisers. Plants were purchased or donated by the following nurseries: Bosky Dell Natives, Inc., Leach Botanical Garden, Oak Point Nursery, Oregon Native Plant Nursery, Wallace Hansen (Native Plants of the Northwest), and Monrovia.

            In 2014, the Gordon House Conservancy was awarded the Ellen Ambuhl Conservation Award.  The Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs and the Oregon Roadside Council awarded funding for interpretive garden signage.  The signage recognizes the purposes of the organizations and tells visitors about the Oregon native plants and landscape design demonstrated throughout the gardens around Wright's organic architectural design.

            There is still work to be done, with many new projects in the works. The arrival of the remaining plants included on the plan: allium amplectens, collinsia grandiflora, woolly sunflower (eriophyllum lanatum), cow parsnip (heracleum lanatum), barestem lomantium (lomatium nudicaule), potentilla gracilis, and western buttercup (ranunculus occidentalis). This, combined with other efforts such as development of the Wright designed west lawn terrace, the continued self-publication of a seasonal Gordon House Garden Guide, development of the Elsa Coleman Memorial Garden, and an expanded volunteer effort will only help our garden to grow.