Portland destination ranks among the country’s most popular urban gardens on TikTok

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Sunshine and warm weather bring visitors for a peaceful stroll through the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park on Monday, April 1, 2024.

Oregonians don’t need any obscure online listicle to tell them all about the splendor of the Portland Japanese Garden, a destination that is beautiful in all seasons, just one of many of the wonders of Washington Park, itself the gem of Portland’s incredible park system.

That said, it’s always nice to get some recognition.

The Portland Japanese Garden was ranked fourth in a ranking of U.S. urban gardens by Germany-based car rental company Sixt, which came to its results by analyzing each destination’s popularity on TikTok.

Far from scientific, the Sixt study actually started with a separate ranking of 20 urban gardens by GardenDesign.com, then ranked those based on “popularity of relevant TikTok videos.” The Portland Japanese Garden came in fourth apparently thanks to a single 2022 video by Idaho influencer travelingspud, which procured over 803,000 views, according to Sixt (the post now appears to have reached over 821,000 views). The video mentions the garden as one of “6 things you must do in Portland, Oregon.”

In other words, it’s less a ranking of urban gardens and more a ranking of individual TikTok videos about those gardens.

Outpacing the TikTok video about the Portland Japanese Garden, were videos from the New York Chinese Scholar Garden on Staten Island, the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. No other Pacific Northwest locations made the top 15.

The Portland Japanese Garden is no stranger to these rankings. In April, it was considered one of the quietest spots in Portland by Earth.fm. Last year, the garden was ranked one of the top four nature experiences in the West by Sunset Magazine. And back in 2018, we named it the most beautiful place in Portland.