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For Sean Hogan, owner of Portland’s Cistus Nursery, known for introducing xeric and Mediterranean-climate plants from around the world to the Northwest, said you need to become a weather detective to zone surf.

“In my front yard, I took out some rhododendron and put in Cistus, and they are doing excellently,” he says.

Robbins transformed the empty stoop with potted plants that can endure the heat; they are a variety of shapes and sizes, including quick-growing acacia, bougainvillea, citrus, cistus, jacaranda ‘Bonsai Blue,’ Olea europea, Pittosporum crassifolium ‘Compactum’ and santolina.

He calls himself “a fanboy” of Sean Hogan’s Cistus Nursery in Oregon, “one of my first shopping-junket destinations,” with its depth of Mediterranean-climate, Southern-Hemisphere and hardy tropicals.

Ortigia derives its scents from regional plants and spices, and its Ambra Nera collection — offering hints of spice from labdan, an ancient brown resin from the cistus rockrose shrub — is featured at the Londra Palace.