| Suggest you also use the Pacific Northwest forum on Garden Web - and, if you get contacts from gardengal48 - treasure them. She's a professional gardener in your area. Knows her stuff greatly. Are you inland or coastal where you are? Cool-ish with reasonable rainfall? Think about ferns such as Blechnum and, if you can get them, orchids such as Earina and Dendrobium. Maybe Microtis and Thelymitra. If it's drier in your haven - how about Libertia and Mazus radicans, Raoulia (the coastal one from round Wellington tolerates more damp than the 'vegetable sheep' variety), Clematis paniculata and other native Clematis, even Muehlenbeckia(!). Some of the pittosporums and Coprosmas should be fine. They grow in Tongariro National Park within the snow range and are hardy. You'd have to be careful with drainage, though. If you have any time to go up to Canada, into BC, take a trip to the Butchart gardens to see what will grow - even outdoors - in your area (give or take a few hundred miles!!) You might also look at Cordyline indivisa rather than australis. It gows fairly high in the hills and appreciates plenty of mist and rain. Bigger leaves than the lowlands cabbage tree. I have a vague memory that someone has introduced a dwarf version of toe toe. If you can't get it then have a look for some of the South Island tussock grasses - Chionochloa, along with Uncinia and the various carexes. They often blend well with driftwood, pebbles, and low Coprosma with tangly branches. Hope that gives you a few notions. Squirrels and bulbs - and mice and raccoons... Makes the possums seem like an asset! Big pots should work - with windbreak mesh tied over the top. Check out the bulbs forum, which is used to dealing with this 'critter problem'. There are lots of suggestions, and most are polite/practical. | 
