When I was in Portland recently at an open garden, I ran into a friend, Marilyn. I had met her and her husband, Stephen, on my trip to New Zealand last fall. She was telling me that they had a lot of Lilies blooming this year and wanted to know if I would like to come over and see them. I told her that I, my brother and his wife would love to see them; so the next day we drove over. We saw a lot more than Lilies in their fantastic garden.

They had a beautiful collection of Lilies skillfully blended into their garden of shade loving plants.

Their new deck and stairways allowed us to view the garden as if we were in a tree house:

The Banana tree and palm tree (Trachecarpus fortunei) gave the garden a tropical feel:

Marilyn and Steve are world travelers and have brought back many remembrances of their trips and placed them in their garden:

There are many comfortable places in this garden to relax and enjoy the beauty:

Many different perennials provide color accents along the pathways:

Coreopsis

Begonia

Hosta

Skillful use of pots provide more color throughout the garden:

Since Stephen is a professor at University of Portland the plant labels have to be accurate:

Hydrangeas are other favorite shade plants for Stephen and Marilyn: