Chrysler Imperial has a wonderful fragrance (at least to me). I have bought many Queen Elizabeths through the years, and also do not care for the color. I also do not care for the growing style. It grows so high, then I am told by those who love it, that you must cut it way back for it to rebloom well. I just saw Granada this past year, and thought it was beautiful. I could not find it, but bought two Rainbow Sorbet that I thought were similar. My husband just loves Voodoo. We do love Distant Drums, but it is an unusual color. I put Honey Dijon beside Hot Cocoa, and it looked ok, but I do not really care for it. You are fortunate to live near or in Portland where you can visit those gardens. Sammy

LOL, Carol! Yes, the assistants are important, even if they're not so good looking. Do you have photos from your trip? Did you use a tour company, or go it alone? I've been dying to do an English garden tour, but it never seems to happen. On the other hand, when I come home from any trip, I seem to have photos of nothing but gardens! It's so interesting to visit botanic gardens and even small neighborhood parks in different countries - I tell myself that garden style is as important an aspect of a culture as the architecture and other arts, and I'd really (if secretly) rather visit gardens than museums. Back home ... I think you can try to control views, even without the acreage to create gorgeous views. Perimeter planting with 'appropriate' gaps is my goal, and this is also my worst problem - finding plants that will grow to, say 18 feet, to block the view of neighbors' houses, but not too much taller, to prevent claustrophobia. It's a real challenge to get the appropriate plants to grow around the perimeter, where there are problems like maples (serious shade and root competition), solid wood fences (which rob both rain and sun for smaller plants) and lack of my attention (who can remember to water and weed the unseen?). Please tell us more about your trip!

In a spirit of cutting expenses to increase profit, makers of oil dry and kitty litter products could easily, it seems to me, switch to product that breaks down easier but still gets the primary job done more inexpensively. I'm not sure it would ever occur to them to consider the needs of gritty mix gardeners. The same goes for my chicken grit- I worry they might start to cut out some of the granite in favor of another component that is harmful to plants, if it suits the bottom line w/o harming chickens. They very likely don't know bonsai from banzai, crested cactus from crest tooth paste. I am swayed more these days to switch from 'cheap and local' to components specialized to my growing. I don't want a plant I have been caring for for ten years to die in a mud bath or from a toxic component. Good thread. ez

Deanna, one time we did a faux finish on a small room that required a lot of taping off. It didn't turn out like I expected. Right color but bad faux technique. Patient and practical husband agreed to start over. We loved the second result but alone I would have been very discouraged. He did all the taping. I'm a decorative artist so have taken some color theory classes. It's still hard to apply to practice. Right now I love the combination of a dark raspberry daylily next to a dark pink yarrow (apple spice, I think) plus some echinacae all blooming at the same time. But the neighboring shastas are too tall and on the other side of the circular bed is a dead zone. On the north side I am supposed to have a small hosta with very yellow foliage but it has been snacked on by deer. The nicely contrasting pale yellow day lilies want to look south instead of pointing north. Our view of the bed is from the north side. The deer see the prettiest side. I have planted some annuals. The tall phlox seem at least a foot shorter this year. I think it gets hard to figure in height and bloom times as well as color. A narrow border along the walkway to a porch is just a mess. A tall yellow daylily and southernwood are at one end. Lady's mantle, hosta and astilbe fighting for space with each other, at the other end, and a jumble in the middle. I have considered planting the whole bed to zinnias and still might. I think Danielle and her sister have a real gift. Danielle does a lot with hosta and conifers. Her sister just does everything amazingly well and is more flamboyant with colorDeanne's garden. I know one of my first mistakes years ago was refusing to recognize how little sun my garden got. I was reluctant to use hosta because I was used to seeing boring hosta borders. Link to Danielle's sister's garden photos from circa 2008.