Do you have a photo? I'd love to see the house. I grew up in a house that was built in 1876 (Central California). Ours was built by the richest guy in the neighborhood, so even though it was in farming country, he tried to incorporate the trendiest Victorian finery--you know those crazy Victorians--they would have loved, loved, loved to get their hands on today's colorful foliage plants, euphorbias, cannas, phormium etc. They were keenly interested in travel and the allure of the orient and the near east so unusual or imported plants would have been prized and too many would never have been enough! Carpet gardens and knot gardens surrounding urns were of-the-time and we had remenants of both. Surviving from the original or ancient plantings on our property were palms, agave, kniphofia, pelargoniums and a fig tree. It's weird how all this abundance and flaming bad taste ran parallel with violets, pansies and cabbage roses--go figure! Maybe the ones who installed the cannas, bananas, caladiums etc. in the 1870's were the same ones putting up the mod foil wallpaper in the 1970's.

On another topic--if you aren't familiar with The Old House Journal from the old days--way back in the 70's when it was printed on a couple of folded pieces of manilla paper--you should try to look at these back issues. They are way better and more relevant than the currently available magazines. They featured real homeowners really doing things themselves. Todays magazines seem to feature complete renovations rather than restoration or maintenance. And, too often IMO, they focus on what can be accomplished by teams of experts with huge budgets rather than on what can be done by savvy homeowners with time, hard work, and attention to detail.

Hi Sammie, here's a link to my webshots where there are a few pictures of the house. I'm envious of your childhood Victorian! The Porter house is very simple inside. Although it was considered one of the finest houses in the county in the 19th century, ornamentation is minimal--no fancy gingerbread outside or fancy woodwork inside, only a tiny bit of stained glass in the front door surround, etc.

Thanks for the tip on the early Old House Journals--I'll see if I can track them down. On another forum I was directed to digitized "Garden and Forest" considered the most influential magazine on gardening and landscaping that shaped America for generations. The 1888 - 1897 versions are available online. Hours of interesting reading:

http://www.loc.gov/preserv/prd/gardfor/gfhome.html

Here is a link that might be useful: David P. Porter House

Wow, that is one amazing magazine. I didn't know anything about it--and the fact that it's searchable on-line... thank you Library of Congress! Pretty erudite fare compared to the typical magazine today. I'll tell my Mom about it--she's interested in the historical approach and the closer to pioneer/homesteader, the better.

Andrew Jackson Downing is probably your man also FL Olmsted as these were active in the change from horticulture as a branch of agriculture to something akin to architecture.

Don't you just hate it when a thread drops off like that with you the last poster, my analyst says its paranoia but what do you think?

I sometimes feel like I am poison to the threads I join--I write something...then the eerie sound of crickets. For what it's worth, I thought your Andrew Jackson Downing reference was bang-on accurate. Especially with what HL posted about the apples and pears of the early residents.

My analyst told me "Just 'cause you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." Seriously, my apologies...no slight intended to you inkognito or you sammie. I wrote a reply a couple nights ago while in the middle of moving and with family visiting--got interrupted before I hit send and one of the GKs closed my windows.

I doubt I can totally recapture what I wrote but the A.J. Downing reference is excellent. I saw a list of books owned by Porter now in the possession of a previous owner. He had books on a wide variety of subjects including math,chemistry, history, politics, government, religion, psychology, philosophy and psychology. Porter was a schoolteacher before he became a successful farmer, but he had books on agriculture as well. The very first one on the list is Fruit and Fruit Trees of America, A.J. Downing, 1857--so there you have your apples and pears. He also had Elliott's Fruit Book, F.R. Elliott, 1858; American Dairying, H.B. Gurler, 1894; The Beekeepers Dictionary, J.S. Harbison, 1861; Hooper's Western Fruit Book, E.J. Hooper, 1857.

I love gardening but am not knowledgeable about design and designers so read a bit on Downing after your post. His view that architecture should be functional is very much in keeping with the Porter house and what I've learned about Mr. Porter's values and the kind of man he was. The house's design is extremely practical. Even if he never saw a copy of "Cottage Residences" or "Architecture of Country Houses", I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Porter was influenced by Downing in more than choice of fruit trees. The house is designed for good air flow, protection from the wind and other considerations that Downing also valued. It even has rural gothic characteristics. I think they thought enough alike that I could safely use some of Downing's plans from the above books for some direction in capturing the time and making the garden something that David Porter would approve, even as it grew and changed over a century or more. I'm going to look for some of the Downing books that have been reprinted. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

HL--have you come to any conclusions about how to incorporate your collector's plants into your plans?

Sammie, sorry for the slow reply. We closed escrow on our old house on the 1st and we can't get into the new old house until ~ July 5. We're staying with friends on their rural farm and I've only been able to get to town/internet access briefly to handle critical email and banking, etc.

No conclusions yet. I've been out to the property a few times to water all the container plants that I moved and each time I'm there I wander about, see it in new light, get new perspectives and ideas. I think I'm going to have to spend considerable time on the property and really get to know it before I begin to formulate a long-term plan. In the past, I've found that properties begin to "speak" to me after a while and in this case, I haven't heard her voice yet. I've considered the idea of just having one garden area with the collector plants but then I would have difficulty accommodating each of their specific needs for light, moisture, etc. and I really don't want a plant museum. If I work them into the existing plantings as well as new areas I'll develop, I'll have a wide variety of sun and shade areas, moist and dry soil, etc. And I think Mr. Porter would appreciate my "oddities" around the garden.

Just wanted to say hi to Harley Lady! Been to any plant swaps lately! :)

Hi Cat, finally got into our new house and then it took us several weeks to get our PC satellite dish installed. Haven't been to any swaps lately although I have lots of pass-along plants to give away in order to make room for the hundreds of plants I brought from the last house. If you or anyone wants free plants and can travel to the central Willamette Valley to pick them up, just let me know.

Take a look at http://www.artoftheeast.com . That site has some interesting information on the history Chinese Scrolls and Ceramics. They also sell some amazing Chinese Scrolls and Ceramics.

HL, just saw this post and fell in love with the house. What a lovely place. I don't know much about historic homes or garden styles of other periods because I have never studied anything like that. All I can say is, what a sweet dilemma you have! I wish you the best of luck with it and many long and blissful hours in your beautiful garden. Cheryl