Ciscoe Morris's Seattle garden is as outgoing as he is

CISCOE MORRIS' garden is as gregarious and plant-centric as the man himself. Fragrant, flowery abundance overflows the parking strips and pushes out to the corner property's margins in all directions. Plants have even colonized the garage and driveway. The garage is devoted to overwintering tender treasures, and the driveway has long since disappeared beneath pots of cactus and exotics.

It's a wonder Ciscoe has time to care for all he collects, considering he hosts radio and television shows, leads international garden tours, lectures widely and writes a weekly gardening column for The Seattle Times. Even when he's home, it's no easy task for Ciscoe to actually put shovel to soil. The moment he steps out the door, he's practically hosting a garden party as neighbors and strollers amble by to admire plants and regale him with questions sure to elicit an "ooh la la" or two.

Ciscoe and his wife, Mary, met when she joined his landscape crew at Seattle University. They've been married 28 years, and lived in their View Ridge home nearly as long. "We started out with lots of boring stuff," says Ciscoe. "Only three original plants are left." He points out hefty old rhododendrons he's transplanted into neighbors' gardens.

"I'm after that rare, unusual plant," says Ciscoe. "I love the challenge of fitting in such a variety of things." He reluctantly shares space in the parking strips with Mary. "It's not fair," Ciscoe laments. "Quit whining," Mary retorts fondly but firmly.

The sunny strips are stuffed with delphinium, native orchids, a red pygmy Japanese maple, ornamental grasses, bulbs, roses and peonies. Hummingbirds flock to all the salvias, lobelias, Cape fuchsias and bee balm. Out in the bright sun, alongside the street, hostas thrive in shade cast by nearby tall plants; Ciscoe has planted so thickly that he's created his own microclimates.

While the front garden is wildly floriferous, interspersed with conifers, cactuses and banana trees, the back garden is a little quieter. Mary and Ciscoe eat dinner outdoors beneath an arbor laced with a venerable wisteria. A shady corner holds pond and waterfall, there's lawn for the dogs, and a vegetable garden (yes, with Brussels sprouts) takes up the sunniest corner.

Why, besides the fact all these plants star in Ciscoe's television show, do they look so healthy? "I fertilize the living tweedle out them," says Ciscoe. "I try to make it all grow taller than me." Mission accomplished.

As crazy as Ciscoe is for every bit of rare, unusual, fragrant or edible scrap of flora, his garden is anything but a hodgepodge. After many years heading Seattle U's gardening crew, Ciscoe knows his stuff. "I think about proportion, contrast, repetition and combinations," he explains. "I just have a feel for what's right, and I have fun with it."

You know all that plant gusto Ciscoe radiates on television and radio? It's genuine. Each of his plants has a story, and Ciscoe revels in memories of who gave him which plant, or telling tales of plants dug up or squashed by one dog or another.

The constant tending, watering and moving things about only spurs this tireless gardener on to greater zeal. "This isn't a low-maintenance garden," he says. "But I really don't mind."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "The New Low-Maintenance Garden." Check out her blog at www.valeaston.com. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.