Epiphany on Rhone Street

 I've done a fair amount of garden touring this summer, in public and private gardens on both coasts. New England gardens can be both exciting and frustrating -lavish, verdant and impossible to duplicate here in Northern California. The environmental trio of humidity, summer rain and warm nights seems to facilitate explosive growth, the trade off for a bitter winter. I'll keep my winter thanks, but would welcome a modest amount of summer rain. Only when I'm at the office or sleeping of course, and nothing that would turn flowers into blobs or instigate flopping.I hate flopping.
  Portland on the other hand, has many similarities to my own zone 9/8  (like a late April Aries, I'm on the cusp) climate. In spite of it's reputation for constant rain , summers are relatively dry (find some data here )  and winters wet and mild. Intellectually, I knew all this when I stepped on the Fling bus. I've visited Portland frequently in all seasons and previous to this trip had only focused on the differences --the sensational conifers, the Delphinums with baseball bat trunks, blue Hydrangeas . When our bus dispensed us at Scott Webers Rhone Street Gardens I heard the choir . For here were many plants , in fact very many plants that I either grow now or can grow in Norcal. My preoccupation with the architectural genre of my house vs. the carefully manipulated meadow style of planting that I love blew up at Scotts..he has made it work. Gray house, clapboard, white trim. And damn, I even have cats !

  Ironically, in my excitement at just being there , I took a series of spectacularly awful photos and have weaned these out of the few that were actually somewhat in focus. Lesson learned..slow down !

 Oh , hell strips ! This corner lot makes the most of that extra real estate..I like the way Scott edged and bermed up the soil..

 Answering questions.

 Damn, my only kitty shot, the lovely feline face hidden behind the Veronicastrum.

I believe this is Rudbeckia triloba. Want.

Many plants I already grow ...not sited as well as those here !

 

 When I returned from Fling, I dug out half my hell strip, and a segment of my back garden.  Rhone Street made me see things I had not seen, had given me permission to ignore what I could not previously ignore and enriched me with ideas suitable to my garden...Thank you Scott !