peasinapod

While visiting Portland, I noticed a lot of a certain kind of hedge, especially in the Council Crest neighborhood. It was the most common hedge that I saw in Portland.

It is very dense, with pretty green leaves almost like a boxwood, but not. The leaves seemed a little bigger. It was always neatly trimmed into a rectangle shaped wall and offered great privacy.

Does anybody know what this is?

I want to plant some Russian Sage, but want to pair it with something different than Coneflowers & Lilies. I would love any and all ideas, pictures would be even better.

The area is small - 6' x 8' and is on the west side of the house so only gets sun from about noon and on. During the morning it will get no sun. Is this okay to only get afternoon sun?

A friend asked me this question. She has a new construction home that has stock wood baseboard, trim & flat (no panel) doors. All of that is a medium brown tone, kind of boring.

Currently the house is all carpet.

She wanted to do a dark hand-scraped wood floors like ours, but is afraid that the dark brown floor would not look right with the baseboard, trim & doors. Putting in new trim & doors is not an option.

I am stuck on how to help her (our trim is white, so never had to worry about this). Any ideas on what wood to look best? Should she try to match it to her trim? Or is contrasting wood okay?