Iris & Peony Garden Tour

Several of the ladies went on a trip North of Salem on Saturday to tour Schriener's Iris Gardens and Adelman's Peony Gardens. They are about 2 miles apart off Interstate 5, on either side of the freeway, at exit 263. It was a cool day with the sun peaking out, just right for photography. Everything was at it's peak of blooming, though we could have been a week later for the peonies. The best time to see them is between Mother's Day and Mid June. They will still be great for a few more weeks now.

The iris gardens are inter-planted with lupine, delphinium, clematis, allium, poppies, columbine and all sorts of other stuff. Backed by huge old rhododendrons and azaleas, the gardens go on and on, and there was a pond too. The whole area is surrounded by fields of iris, row after row of different colors. They have a wonderful gift shop, and nursery area where you can buy iris plants or order bulbs for fall planting. We took lots of pictures, and worked with the intricacies of our cameras. Hopefully these will inspire us to create beautiful textiles

After shopping we went to Adelman's, it was just a short jaunt on the other side of the freeway. They had beautiful gardens planted with peony bushes, tree peonies and some iris and other filler flowers. The gardens are newer, and have some growing to do, but the flowers were amazing! Huge, full, rich colored flowers, filled with bees, and fragrance, enticed us to walk the paths, around a waterfall feature, and other statuary. They had picnic tables, so we took a nice break for lunch. Their gift shop and flowers for sale were wonderful, Amy had to get a deep red Japanese style peony, and the others got some cut flowers. They were going to be doing a flower arranging demonstration, but we did not stay around to catch it.

On our way home, we stopped at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest in Salem for some fabric shopping, an art gallery that Peggy had found on the internet, and Dutch Bros. for some coffee. We also had time to stop at the Eugene Textile Center, to see what they were all about. One of the guys was taking some shibori silk scarves off the the piping they were drying on, and they were gorgeous. They have a wide assortment of books and fibers, and wonderful classes several of our members have taken.