My garden is on Willapa Bay in southwest Washington on the Pacific Northwest Coast; this is in hardiness zone 8, though milder zone 9 winters are common, and every so often a zone 7 winter comes along; fifty years ago this was considered a zone 7 area. My garden elevation is 10 to 40 feet. Winters are wet and windy—the term ‘strafing rain’ applies. Summers are dry, though usually foggy, with a few days each year above 100 °F. With well-drained silty sand, ‘rock garden-like’ conditions are the best way to describe the soil.
My first botanical interest is in wildflowers and site listing, followed by growing native species and geophytes. I also study geology, oceanography, forestry, soils, hydrology, bryophytes, lichens and algae.
My evolution as a gardener began with a first attraction to iris and lilies as a small child, followed by rhododendrons and native species; later I shifted to perennials, and then in an act of acquiescence I gave in to the dark side, AKA geophytes. I freely admit that I have no ability to resist bulbs, no matter how unsuitable for my garden. Winter cold and damp often kill the Central Asian and South African bulbs I find so attractive. In the pursuit of efficiency and a policy of no coddling, I no longer irrigate in the summer, except when droughts last more than 30 days, or temperatures go over 100 °F. I ran a commercial greenhouse for several years, primarily propagating annuals, so now I garden without a greenhouse, and germinate seeds either on windowsills or in the garden. My one concession to coddling is slug bait, which is critical to lily survival in a region with more than five introduced slugs and a snail. A cold frame may follow soon.
My main geophyte interests are lilies, fawn lilies, mariposa lilies, Pacifica iris, species tulips, and any bulb I can grow out of doors and naturalize in my garden. The latter has resulted in some regrets, several of which I actively weed out to this day, and many happy hours spent with the hundreds of bulbs that do grow well for me.
![Kathleen Sayce Kathleen Sayce](https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/00_others/Kathleen_Sayce.jpg)
Kathleen Sayce walking in one of her favorite meadows on Saddle Mountain, NW Oregon, photo taken by Mike Patterson, June 2, 2009.
Columbia Coast Plants https://web.archive.org/web/20171224034501/http://users.reachone.com/columbiacoastplants/
Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris http://www.pacificcoastiris.org/.
We call the peaks that surround the Columbia River Estuary the Swalalahos Floristic Province https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/swalalahos-peaks