Moving In-Land to Willamette Valley

We wish we would have kept track of the number of beaches we have visited since we entered into the southern edge of Oregon. This state passed the "Beach Bill" back in 1967 to establish that all its beaches were publicly owned. That means that resorts can't be built right beside the ocean and limit the beach to only their guests. So when we drive down Highway 101 we see public beaches one right after the other. When we were staying at South Beach, we counted 11 different state parks in 22 miles. We love that beaches are open, protected, and free to all people. Thanks Oregon for sharing them with us! One of the last beaches we visited was Seal Rock, close to where we were camped at South Beach State Park. It features another huge sea stack that protects part of the beach from the waves.

There is also a series of smaller boulders near the beach. Not surprisingly, with our binoculars we found seals on these rocks at Seal Rock State Park.

As much as we like these beaches, we've decided to head in-land to explore more of Oregon. So we headed east. We hadn't driven ten miles from the beach when we found ourselves already in the forest. What a difference in so few miles!

It was also in this forested area that we discovered the tiny town of Beaver, Oregon. We have a special place in our hearts for towns named "Beaver." We were both born and graduated from high school in Beaver, Oklahoma. We wanted to mail letters home to our parents in Beaver, OK from Beaver, OR. But this tiny town lost its post office several years ago. So instead, we include a picture in the blog of its main retail store--a curious blend of firearms and groceries.

We are now staying at Spirit Mountain Casino, who welcomes RVers in their security-patrolled RV parking lot for up to three days. We appreciate the hospitality of the Oregon casinos, who have helped us to keep our camping costs down. In the last six stops we have stayed at two state parks, one privately-owned RV park, and three casinos. So we stayed two nights in Grand Ronde, Oregon's Spirit Mountain Casino before we headed further in-land.

Our next stop is Silver Spur RV Park in Silverton, Oregon. We are now in Willamette Valley, one of the richest agricultural valleys in the United States.

Our timing in May just happens to correspond with the open houses for several of the flower companies that enjoy the Willamette Valley's growing environment. We drove to the Schreiner Iris Garden on a beautiful afternoon and got to explore their display garden.

The cool wet spring has delayed most of the blooms. That was probably good for us, because Denisa took way too many pictures of the irises that were blooming. This company has been publishing a catalog and selling irises since 1928. Now they sell them internationally via catalog and on-line. We checked their on-line website and found they have well over 1,000 different types of iris plants for sale.

There are over 500 named irises in this 10-acre display garden, plus countless other blooming spring flowers. The lupines were actually blooming more consistently than the irises the day we visited.

They have a thick catalog of irises that can be ordered and shipped. But it was more fun to see them in person rather than leafing through a catalog. They even have these long-stemmed irises that look like the wild ones we have been seeing on the trail.

Some of their irises were so deep purple, they were almost black. What a beautiful stop! As we drove away from the display garden, we could see the 200 acres of the working iris fields. They are just starting to bloom, but that is going to be an incredible sight along the highway when all of them show their flowery heads. We found out that they move the plants every year to new locations. So those thousands (maybe millions?) of plants are dug, divided and replanted every year.

Surprisingly, this isn't the only blooming flower industry in our neighborhood. Just down the road is the Adelman Peony Farm. We went to their retail store, where they were displaying a few of their current blooms. They ship these flowers all over the country, as well as sell the plants they grow on.

When we explained that we lived in a motor home and couldn't buy any of their plants, they were still very friendly. They gave us directions for walking to their fields filled with peonies as far as we could see.

Again, the cool weather has caused these flowers to bloom later than usual. This brilliant row of pink peonies are early-bloomers, and they are a stunning example of what the rest of these peonies will look like very soon.

There are 25 acres of peonies just waiting to erupt into bloom. We love factory tours, and we have just stumbled into the ultimate peony factory. More plants are made by dividing and then replanting from the mature plants, so this is the production line right here in this field.

We used to have a peony growing in our backyard flower bed, but that's our only experience with this flower. We just happened to meet this guy carrying a clipboard, making careful notes about the plants on the outside rows. He introduced himself as the guy that had hybridized the plants we were seeing now.

Because we were interested, he explained exactly how he takes pollen from one plant and used it to pollinate another plant. The mother plant is then stripped of its petals, and the bloom is bagged to avoid cross-pollination until seeds form. The initials of those two parent plants are abbreviated on the tags placed on these plants that were grown from those seeds. He told us that this process takes six years from that pollination process until this day when he is checking the adult blooming plants in this field in Willamette Valley.

His experienced eyes were looking at characteristics that we didn't know were so important to hybridizing a brand new kind of peony. It must have strong upright stems that can support many blooms. Until a plant is around six years old, they don't know what color or kind of bloom it will produce. A bad color or a tangled bloom or blooms that refuse to open or . . . There are many unplanned defects that can result from two perfectly good parent plants. He contended that most of his six-year-long experiments will end up trashed on the compost heap. He also knew that there was a good chance he would never see one of his new hybrids named or brought to market, as this is a very long and tedious process.

After we left the fields, we strolled through the display gardens that surrounded the house of the matriarch that started this company. We now have a much better appreciation of these peonies and the development of new colors and kinds.

At the peony store we actually found a brochure that described more of the floral companies that call the Willamette Valley home. We made one more stop at the Sebright Gardens. They specialize in shade plants, and walking in their display garden was a shady oasis of things that grow without sunshine.

You can barely see Denisa at the end of this long greenhouse. Inside are hundreds of different types of hostas, arranged in alphabetical order so they can help customers find exactly the plant needed for a shady spot.

We have had a beautiful afternoon wandering among the floral wonders of the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. After a first afternoon like this, we are looking forward to seeing more in this slice of His wonders.