The Heavens Come to Earth as ... Garden Signs; Prediction of Spectacular Gardens Forecast For Visitors to the 2005 Portland Home & Garden Show.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- MEDIA NOTE: Garden writers/editors are invited to view the world premiere of The Zodiac Gardens at the 2005 Portland Home & Garden Show, February 23 through 27, at the Portland Expo Center.

The Zodiac Gardens -- the centerpiece of this year's 24 gardens at the 2005 Portland Home & Garden Show(R) -- are 12 gardens representing the zodiac. Each has been designed by a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) using, as a starting point, the trees and flowering plants commonly associated with each zodiac sign. Other elements associated with each sign are also woven into each garden theme. Under the creative eye of the APLD designers, these elements come together in a tour d' force of higher powers.

Planting according to the constellations, or seasons, is an age-old practice. For centuries our ancestors studied the earth, the stars, and everything around them, intertwining nature with the human psyche, all aimed at improved physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Today, the top landscape artists have converged to bring the heavens to earth in 12 stunning interpretations of the star signs.

"The therapeutic benefits of peaceful garden environments have been understood since ancient times," explained Michael O'Loughlin, show manager and producer of the 2005 Portland Home & Garden Show. "According to the American Horticulture Therapy Association, 'a special relationship occurs when people nurture plants, which makes gardening a very therapeutic activity. Enjoying the outdoors, getting your fingers dirty, and seeing the rewards of something beautiful you've tended can be very stress-reducing in our hectic lives.' With that in mind, we wanted to give consumers tangible and beautiful examples of how they can use the ancient star signs in their home gardens."

Much like the Western adoption of Chinese "Feng Shui" to create harmony in personal spaces, across the U.S., use of astrology is gaining renewed popularity as a means to capture nature's innate, positive energy. To that end, the question looms: Will Zodiac Gardening be the next trend in the U.S.?

More than just the daily horoscope in the local newspaper, astrology is based on a map of the heavenly bodies depicting the positions of the planets and their relation to one another at the time of birth. Astrology also shows the sign of the zodiac and the stars positioned in the 12 houses of the chart. The APLD landscape artists will interpret these signs into gardens that can be imagined in homes across America.

"The challenge for our designers with these zodiac gardens has been to not only weave the essential elements of each sign into the design, but to also give the garden an overall theme that matches the spirit of the sign itself," notes APLD president Carolyn Gregg, who, with her partner Christine Ellis, has created a double garden for Aries and Taurus titled "On the Cusp." "Arians prefer things to be orderly and precise while Taureans like to collect things," Gregg says.

"So our garden goes from being very clean and neat (the Aries side) to gradually becoming cluttered with interesting stuff (the Taurus side). In the middle we play with a kind of point-counterpoint treatment of our cusp theme: an interesting collection of balls for Taurus the collector is offset by two-foot round grass circles on the Aries side."

Mary McGilvra's Gemini garden, on the other hand, plays off the duality of the sign of the heavenly twins. Using corrugated steel and bamboo, McGilvra creates an interplay of opposing forces: masculine and feminine, soft and hard, air and ground, etc. And, Barbara Hilty's interpretation of Virgo is themed around what she sees as a key feature of Virgo's personality: shyness. The garden is viewed indirectly by looking through a window.

The zodiac gardens are arranged in a chronological circle of the astrological year, beginning with Aries and ending with Pisces. This results in symmetry of color and balance suggestive of the unifying nature of the 12 signs. "When you take all the characteristics of the 12 signs together, you get a pretty complete picture of the human condition," Gregg comments. "We see these 12 gardens as symbolic of the unity of mankind seen through the filter of thousands of years of astrological interpretation. It's a marvelous picture when you express it with plants."

Whether you find astrology a simple amusement or read your birth chart every day, if you're interested in gardens and gardening, at the 2005 Portland Home & Garden Show you will be entertained as well as inspired by the creativity of the designers. The Zodiac Gardens can be found in the Showcase Gardens along with 12 other delightful exhibits that include:

--"Irish Faeries Interrupt Tea Time" by Marcia Peck and Stacy Werner. Fog drifts about a wishing well with a fairy's reflection inside it. Children have abandoned their afternoon tea to look for the faeries who are hidden about the garden. The charm of the Irish comes to life in the whimsical garden.

--"Guiding Light" by Les Bugajski. Renowned for his garden structures (last year's garden featured a windmill), Bugajski takes his structure to new heights with a lighthouse perched on a 6-foot rock cliff above a beach complete with white sand. It promises to be spectacular!

--"Erotetic Environment" by Larry Tamiyasu. The word "erotetic" is archaic English meaning "interrogation" or "to question." Those definitions reflect what Tamiyasu does with this eclectic garden, combining plants with stone sculpture to create a space that invites the viewer to ask, "Does this challenge the way I look at beauty?"

Twenty-four outstanding gardens that truly are a showcase of the designers' art: you simply won't find a more spectacular display of gardens anywhere else. It's why so many gardeners consider it a must-see at the 2005 Portland Home & Garden Show.

The Portland Home & Garden Show(R) is produced by O'Loughlin Trade Shows and sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland. The show runs Wednesday, February 23 through Sunday, February 27, 2005 at the Portland Expo Center. Admission is $10 for adults ($7 in advance) and $2 for children ages 6 to 12. Tickets are available during show hours or may be purchased in advance online. Visit www.oloughlintradeshows.com or call 503-246-8291.