I think that it is very difficult for many people who participate in this forum to understand that most of the people who hire landscape designers do it because they want someone else to do it. Once they know what the prospective designer is all about, they either feel comfortable turning the job over to them or they don't. It is not a design charette that the homeowner is involved in at every minute of the process. The client is very important in the predesign phase and brought in for review and revision meetings, but it is not landscape design school. I have not worked with many hands on people. I believe that they want the role of designer more than they want to build things. Look at some of the posts in this thread alone. Most take the position of being in control of the design and needing only people to help with construction or planting. You are not the people who hire designers to take control of your project. You have a totally different mind set. Believe it or not, I have designed many not so small landscapes that cost quite a bit to have built and never met the client or even spoke with them. The contractor was the go between and did not spend much time with them either. The company was well known, the portfolio was very indicative of the type of landscape it would be, and they had complete confidence in the process. They don't want to romp around the nursery looking at plants. They want something that "looks like that", but that fits their house and their agenda of what they want to do. They hire maintenance people. They want to show up on weekends to a lawn that does not need mowing and everything just right. They are not the DIY types. Many of you are the hands on type which is great. But, you are the last people who will want to turn your project over to a designer and pay him a grand or two to tell you what to do. The exception is that if you get stuck on a problem, you might seek help for that part that you need help with or you may want someone to draft up a long term plan of your ideas. Most of us don't want to be given a minimal amount of work that holds the highest liability, so we are not enthusiastically responsive to these requests. Then the DIYers think that designers are snobs or only want to work for the rich. It is kind of like an insurance company. They spread the liabilty over a greater portion of the population than just the high risk people. We tend to take on higher responsibilities when the overall compensation is worth the risk. But, we won't come out in the middle of someone else's project to assume the responsibility of the drainage for a couple of hours of pay. Gardeners tend to take the perspective that a designer is there to help you with your design. There are plenty of others out there who believe that a designer is someone to turn the project over to. There is a huge difference. Some of you are going to think that means the designer does what he wants and ignores the client - not at all. Not all of you have that perspective, but I think some do and that is understandable. How many of you are interested in hiring a designer? How many are interested in being hired as a designer? My guess is that most of us on this forum will go with the latter.

It seems like I'm in the minority here with a really bad dial-up connection. Even when the Standout Plant thread was only 5 replies long, after 20 minutes it still hadn't finished loading. I appreciate all the thoughtful replies and have noticed the increased use of thumbnails which helps a lot. They may not show the full glory, but give a hint and allow me to choose what to view full-size. I think the trick to using a Gallery is twofold: if you know you're about to start a photo-heavy thread, post the photo(s) first in gallery using the same subject you'll use in the discussion side (or something close, e.g., "My Standout Plant"), then cut & paste a link to that gallery thread on the discussion thread using the Optional Link URL. I also hang out on the Cottage forum which does have a gallery, and what seems to work well is to post one pic in a conversation or discussion thread, but for something like "my vacation" or "our renovation" use the gallery. Just for kicks, I opened Standout Plant, now at 40 replies, with nothing else accessing the internet, as I wrote this offline at a low-use time of day on my ISP server. Took 45 minutes to see all that inspiration. Yes terrene, that Mozilla tip is great. On old computer I had Opera which had a convenient 'Show Images' toggle on the toolbar. On new laptop, I use Mozilla's Firefox, hadn't yet found that option (Tools-Options-Content-Load Images) Thanks! It'll take a few more clicks to turn off and on, but will allow me to keep up with what's going on. Meanwhile, it really helps when posters include a brief description of their photo in the text portion. Thanks to everyone for keeping the overhead size of pix in mind, Ana

I've lived in "Zone 8" all of my life -- from Zone 8 in Everett, WA, about 27 miles north of Seattle, to Zone 8 in Seattle, to Zone 8 here in Portland, Oregon, and as far south as Zone 8 in Austin, Texas! And believe me, they are all very, very different "Zone 8"s. Meconopsis does great in Everett. It dies quickly in Austin. Ruellia is right at home in Austin -- but it won't make it through an Everett or Seattle winter, and it's iffy in Portland. And to complicate matters, I know that there can be two different growing zones within mere miles of each other. My yard is in one of the mildest areas of Portland, sandwiched between the two large rivers in the SE part of the city. If I lived even 6 miles further south or east, our winter lows could be as much as ten degrees lower -- true "Zone 8" lows rather than the "Zone 9" lows we actually experience here. Because of the wide variations in temperature and conditions within any zone, I always ask a lot of questions before giving advice to anyone about what to plant where. Even if we live in the same city, your microclimate could be very different from mine -- but by the same token, we could live thousands of miles apart, but experience very similar growing years. So give advice freely -- but first find out exactly what the conditions are for the person whom you're advising, and know your plants well enough not to even suggest a plant that will give them "zonal envy". Love, Claudia

Thank you for the kind words! I agree - light coming in from multiple directions is an essential component of a successful room, to me. Have any of you ever read 'A Pattern Language'? It is an architectural book that discusses the things that make a building successful - they have a section related more to commercial building design, as well as a section devoted more to residential building. One of the principles is 'light on two sides' - if at all possible, design rooms so there is light from at least two sides of the room. Rooms where there is only light on one side (or no natural light at all) are not welcoming, and people don't want to spend time there. My architect came up with an initial sketch of a potential home, when we were doing due diligence on the land. I told him that I wanted light on two sides and axial views if at all possible, in as many rooms as possible. Oh, you should see the sketch he came up with! A one room deep French pavilion style home. So beautiful - not sure how practical, though. It will evolve, I am sure, but it is fun to dream! Here is a link that might be useful: Light on Two Sides