By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

From country casual to clipped English, from Northwest woodland to Japanesque, next Saturday’s Association of Northwest Landscape Designers garden tour is one of the best ever. On the press pretour I found a surprising number of unusual plants—everything from the beautiful clumping Chusquea culeou bamboo to South African Arctotis daisies—plus an inspiring assortment of plant combinations and design ideas. My garden will certainly be the better for it.

All gardens are just south of

Portland, and many are hidden: you’d never find them apart from the tour. Most are perfectly maintained, and have excellent garden art pieces.

The tour is Saturday, June 28, from 10 to 4. You can purchase tickets at three of the tour gardens, and from several Portland-area nurseries: all are listed on the ANLD web site.