The healing power of trees and gardens will be celebrated at the Portland Memory Garden in southeast Portland on Thursday, June 22. The 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. event marks the 21st anniversary of a public garden that is uniquely designed to serve people living with dementia, their families and the community at large. Located at Ed Benedict Park, it is one of a hundred gardens developed across the country to honor the 1999 centenary celebration of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Major partners included Legacy Health, ASLA, Alzheimer’s Association, Center of Design for an Aging Society, Portland State University/School of Urban Studies & Planning, and City of Portland Parks & Recreation.
Postponed for a year due to COVID-19 concerns, the anniversary gathering is spearheaded by the Legacy Health Therapeutic Garden team that has developed over a dozen therapeutic gardens in the Portland Metro area over the past 30 years. Attendees are invited to bring pictures, storytelling and memories of the garden, and to bring a lunch and take a break in nature. Located near the intersection of I-205 and Powell Blvd., the garden address is 10401 SE Bush St.
JFS is proud to have played a small part in the creation of the Portland Memory Garden by providing some of the trees that now play a big part in the success of this healing environment. Donating trees to this and to the Children’s Garden at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center introduced us to the magic of healing gardens, and (more importantly) to Horticultural Therapist Teresia Hazen, HTR. One donation led to another, to some tree sales, and to a decades-long, mutually beneficial, enjoyable relationship with Teresia and her team. We’re delighted to learn from Teresia that our trees can be found in all 12 of the Legacy Health healing gardens. Over the years, partnering mostly with Portland landscape architect Brian Bainnson, of Quatrefoil, Inc., Teresia has developed a winning formula for maximizing the healing power of trees.
Although Teresia has retired from her 30-year career with Legacy Health, she continues to share her passion for therapeutic gardens via the Legacy Volunteer program – assisting her successor, Meghan McKiernan, HTR, as needed. Respected internationally as a leader in the field of horticultural therapy and garden-making, Teresia stresses the vital connection between trees and good health as she lectures across the country.
“Trees, trees, trees are essential for the well-designed therapeutic garden,” Teresia declares. “They signal seasonal changes and are intentionally placed through the garden to carry the visitor intuitively through the sensory and seasonal experience. Different timing of leaf emergence, flowering, fragrance, fruit, fall color and other characteristics draw people through the garden space for more activity and movement.”
Trees play an important healing role in all of the Legacy gardens, and especially at the Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon (RIO) garden, according to Teresia, who selected each tree for every garden to serve a therapeutic role.
“The RIO garden tree collection supports cognitive work with awareness of shape, color, texture and tree form,” she explained. “In observation and discussion, the HTR guides the patient in talking about the shape of a columnar tree, a vase-shaped and a layered tree. This compare and contrast activity aids in cognitive retraining of patients recovering from stroke and brain injury, and so much more!
“All of this may be happening from a wheelchair or while a patient practices standing at a raised bed wall,” she added. “Patients go home with improved cognitive and safety skills and an excitement for choosing the correct tree for their home.”
Over the years, Teresia has developed a list of favorites, including the three featured below. All are thriving in the Legacy gardens including the Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center Healing Garden in Gresham, pictured at the top of this article. June Snow™ Dogwood graces the central garden bed, while Redpointe® Maple serves as a shady sentinel in the background. All are thriving and contributing to the beauty and healing power of this peaceful, leafy oasis. You’ll also find them in many of the garden centers of JFS customers across the country. A generous dose of good health and well-being is included with each tree.
Redpointe® Maple
Acer rubrum ‘Frank Jr.’ PP16769
Teresia finds this JFS introduction to be an excellent performer in her gardens as a fast-growing source of cool shade and dependably bright red fall color. A Redpointe® Maple planted in the Mount Hood Medical Center healing garden in 2009 now towers over the garden and provides cool shade. Noting that “trees are a major contributor of essential shade,” she adds that “patients, and all of us, need protection from the sun. Shade provides not only protection, but places to rest, contemplate, and be grateful for our blessings.”
Learn more about our best-selling tree
Golden Raindrops® Crabapple
Malus ‘Schmidtcutleaf’
Declaring that “every garden should have a Golden Raindrops® Crabapple,” Teresia has included this top-performing garden tree in many of her therapeutic garden designs. Deeply cut leaves, exceptional disease resistance and bright yellow fall color are among its many attributes. The tree pictured above blooms bright at the entrance of the Legacy Mount Hood garden. Its fragrant, starlike blooms attract pollinators in springtime, and birds find its sparkling golden fruit to be irresistible in autumn
View its multi-season magic
June Snow™ Dogwood
Cornus controversa ‘June Snow-JFS’
Visitors to the Legacy Health gardens will spot this elegant flowering tree in the many of the Legacy gardens, including the Stenzel Healing Garden at Good Samaritan Medical Center. Its white blooms, perched above green leaves on horizontally layered branches, etch a striking pattern on the red brick hospital walls. The springtime scene made it a perfect choice for the photo on our color picture tag and custom trunk wrap. Learn more about its all-season appeal.
Additional resources for learning more about the health benefits of trees and healing gardens:
Health Benefits of Nature – ASLA
Legacy Health – Therapeutic Gardens
