For the company that now operates the Oregon Garden, providing inspiration to gardeners happens at the Village Green as well

COTTAGE GROVE — Moonstone Hotel Properties is the California-based company that now manages the Oregon Garden in Silverton and plans to build a hotel there next year.

If you want to see how Moonstone operates its properties, take a drive south to a 46-year-old resort in Cottage Grove that the company bought in 2002.

The Village Green Resort, a popular spot, whose past guests included former president Richard Nixon and actors Ernest Borgnine and Keith Carradine, now bears Moonstone’s mark of distinction: gardens.

Moonstone owner and CEO Dirk Winter, an avid gardener himself, has made major investments in gardens at his properties. The company is headquartered in Cambria, Calif., a mid-coast community, where six of its 11 hotel properties are located.

Just off Interstate 5 in Cottage Grove, the Village Green is nestled on 17 acres. Since Moonstone took over in 2002, it has developed a colorful array of themed gardens on 14 of those acres.

“Everybody loves it. We get nothing but good comments,” said Kent Goodman, the Village Green’s festival and tour director.

Goodman is coordinating the Village Green’s fourth annual “Gathering of Gardeners,” set for next weekend. It will feature speakers, workshops, displays, entertainment and tours of the gardens.

The gardens are open anytime for public viewing.

When Moonstone took over the Village Green four years ago, only 20 of its 87 rooms were operating and much of its vast “green” was overgrown with weeds.

Today, 87 of the 97 rooms are open, and interior and exterior renovations continue.

Each of the rooms will have a small fenced outdoor garden. Many already do. All rooms will also eventually have a fireplace and garden theme, including garden fence headboards and bumblebee pillows. The restaurant, which had been closed for years, is expected to reopen next week after extensive remodeling.

Cynthia Eichengreen, who worked previously as the horticulturist at Belknap Hot Springs, was hired by Moonstone to develop the Village Green gardens.

In 2002, her crew’s first task was removing vast amounts of blackberry vines and other weeds that had taken over. She then started designing and overseeing construction of more than a dozen themed gardens.

Eichengreen and Goodman took a reporter and photographer on a tour of the gardens Aug. 30, starting with The Courtyard/Wedding Garden, which features a gazebo, rose tunnel and fountain. It’s booked most weekends in the summer. “People love having weddings there,” Goodman said.

Guests walking to the swimming pool go past the Asian Garden and its popular gong.

“I hear that going off all day,” Eichengreen noted.

The new pool, like many of the gardens, has an asymmetrical design. Just beyond the pool deck are grasses and a banana tree.

The Autumn Garden, with asters, mums, zinnias and other plants with fall foliage color, will peak from now through November.

The Mahogany Garden features chocolate, bronze and burgundy foliage.

The Tropicana is loaded with bamboo, banana trees and “a lot of stuff that looks tropical but is hardy,” Eichengreen said.

During a Gathering of Gardeners a few years ago, the gardening crew mowed a turf labyrinth. People liked it so much that it has been preserved with continued mowing.

The Golden Garden has a golden full moon maple, a rose called “Flutterby” and other golden-toned foliage. It leads to a small covered bridge that was built in Cottage Grove.

Two years ago, a frantic-sounding Village Green gardener called Eichengreen to say that there were a number of broken sprinkler heads near the covered bridge. Eichengreen had been deceived. She arrived to find a civic ceremony, with her family and community dignitaries in attendance, honoring her for her work creating the gardens. The covered bridge now bears a plaque with her name.

Beyond the bridge is Eichengreen’s favorite garden, The Woodland, which reminds her of Belknap Hot Springs. It has pine, fir, maples, English chestnut and apple trees. Of all the gardens, it offers the most shade.

Visitors also can see the Fragance Garden, Rock Garden and Widows Walk, featuring dark foliage underplanted with acid green plants.

A large section of the original namesake Village Green lawn, which used to be a mini golf course, is still used for events, reunions and other gatherings.

Eichengreen, a Eugene resident who grew up in a family of horticulturists, is now director of horticulture at both the Village Green and the Oregon Garden. She currently spends three days a week at each site.

She has a staff of six full-time gardeners at both places, led by head gardener Monica Cox at the Village Green and horticultural manager Jill Martini at the Oregon Garden. There’s also a large corps of volunteers at the Oregon Garden.

“It’s beautiful,” Eichengreen said of the Oregon Garden, now in its first year under Moonstone’s management. “We’re taking care of what’s there, tweaking a few areas and making it look really good.”

There have been small upgrades to the Oregon Garden’s Children’s Garden this year, including a flying dragon weather vane and a small gingerbread house with plants that are to scale with the house. Eichengreen also brought in little shovels and buckets for kids to play with in the Dinosaur Pit.

Moonstone is expected to break ground next spring on a 100-room hotel on a picturesque 7-acre hillside site on the Oregon Garden property. Completion is targeted for the spring of 2008.

“When the hotel is built, we expect things to take off and do really well,” Eichengreen said. “At that point it will become a destination.”

Graham Kislingbury is the online editor for the Albany Democrat-Herald and Corvallis Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 812-6111 or graham.kislingbury@lee.net.

THE GATHERING OF GARDENERS

WHAT: The fourth annual Gathering of Gardeners, featuring displays, workshops, live entertainment and tours of the Village Green Resort’s gardens. Speakers include Steve Lorton, formerly with Sunset magazine; Jeff Lowenfels, former president of the Garden Writers Association; and Cynthia Eichengreen, director of horticulture for the Oregon Garden and the Village Green Resort.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17.

WHERE: Village Green Resort, 725 Row River Road, Cottage Grove. Going southbound on Interstate 5, take the first Cottage Grove exit. Turn left at the light; the Village Green entrance is just a short distance on the right.

ADMISSION: $2 for adults; 16-under free.

INFORMATION: 1-800-343-7666 or www.thegatheringofgardeners.com.

VOLUNTEERING AT THE OREGON GARDEN

The Oregon Garden’s corps of volunteers is vital to the Garden’s operations, says Cynthia Eichengreen, the director of horticulture. She would welcome many more volunteers to complement her staff of six full-time gardeners.

Volunteers don’t have to be gardeners, however. There are also volunteer opportunities as greeters, event staff, administration assistants.

Volunteers are eligible for varying levels of membership benefits, including discounts and up to four-night stays at Moonstone Hotel properties, depending on the number of volunteer hours accrued.

To volunteer, call 1 (877) 674-2733 or go to http://www.

oregongarden.org and click on “Members and Supporters.”