It's Christmas Eve, and so I can't resist

Let's face it, not much gardening is happening in the Northern Hemisphere on December 24th, so I'm gonna go ahead and let my Christmas joy take over today. First up, the Santa Clones. For several years now I've shared photos of the 400 blow-mold Santas that gather somewhere around Portland. Their location always a bit of a mystery and to find them you follow the clues. I set out to hunt them down on a night we had an incredible sunset. As I drove I watched people stop and turn west, phones held high, it was great fun. This is the best shot I got.

Once parked I beat feet to where I thought the clones were this year, only to discover I was wrong. Not too far off though, since this is what I saw.

Thankfully I've been at this long enough to know that looking up and scanning for the red glow will usually pull you in the right direction. The large shiny face is Splash by Michael Benisty.

The clones...

The clone gathering began in 2010, this is their 15th anniversary.

Andrew asked me why I needed to go again this year. Hadn't I already seen them?

Yes I have. Many times. But I will continue to go every year. Isn't that the point of having an annual holiday tradition? The repetition marks the season and the celebration. The family or community involvement brings people together. I've had many interesting conversations with strangers while visiting the Santa Clones over the years.

Looking back to the building where I thought the clones were hanging out. It's a 1940's Pepsi Cola bottling plant.

Speaking of tradition, yes of course I did a Grinch drive-by!

I love him so!

New this year, Andrew and I finally took a stroll through the holiday lights at The Grotto, after talking about doing it for (nearly?) 20-years! "The National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, The Grotto, is an internationally-renowned Catholic shrine and botanical garden located minutes from downtown Portland, serving over 300,000 visitors annually" (from their website). Andrew and I had visited once before, back in 2010.

The purple lights illuminate the cliffside that separates the upper and lower parts of the garden. The cave itself (the grotto) is some 30' wide, 30' deep and nearly 50' high. I read somewhere that it was carved out of the face of the cliff in 1923.

We got there just after opening at 5pm but the crowds were already intense, on a random weeknight! I took a lot fewer photos than I normally would have, simply because of the number of people. This was a calm moment in the crush.

Truth be told I was extremely bummed when I learned the event (and thus all visitors) was restricted to the lower part of the garden. No taking that bizarre elevator up to the heavens above.

Their lights were done up nicely though and it was good to finally see what we'd been missing all these years.

Back home I'm thrilled one of my neighbors has put up her own Christmas Grinch, and his dog Max too! However you're spending the holiday (if you celebrate) I hope you have a warm and joyful day.

The Bit at the End

Perhaps you've already seen this short on Instagram, after all it has nearly 1.5 million views. It makes me smile every time I see it, just a group of Scottish school boys ringing someone's doorbell and singing Last Christmas to get them in the Christmas spirit. 

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Artful—a fence and a space

I've lived in Portland long enough to know how to get from where I'm at, to where I want to be. However, the route I come up with in my head isn't always the fastest, especially if there's a road closure, an accident, or any of the other many traffic snarling issues that can arise. Because of this, if I'm going far (or somewhere new), I usually ask Google Maps for a suggested route. Using mapping software has the added benefit of taking me through neighborhoods I've never seen, I love that! That's how I recently ended up driving a new-to-me stretch of Belmont Street, and how I discovered this cool metal fence with botanical cut-outs.

The gate, with a big tree echo...

Each panel of the fence was slightly different. A few shapes were repeated along the way, but no two panels were the same.

I figured it must be fairly new, since there's minimal rust. I looked all around to see if there was any information on the artist behind the design. I wasn't able to find anything.

Once I was at the end I peeked over the fence to see the space between the fence and the building.

Mahonia are blooming all over town, these have been pruned up—maybe an attempt to get the spiny leaves up and out of the way.

Once I was back at the other end I decided maybe a video was the better way to share the botanical artwork? You be the judge—it's probably best to click though and watch it on YouTube rather than here on the blog.

Once home (while editing and uploading my photos), I decided to go looking for information on the building, which I assumed was an apartment building. Nope. It's listed as single family residential, what? Dating to 1921 the building is just shy of 10,200 sq ft and last sold in 2024 for $1,400,000.

Naturally, since I was researching, I took a few screenshots of prior years from Google Maps. Here's May of 2009. The fence borders what was lawn on the left-hand side.

Here's June 2019.

And April 2025, it's all so very curious!

Later that same day (December 13th) I stopped by a space I'd wanted to see for awhile now, slow poet (art space + vintage shop). I took these photos in the fabulous outdoor space behind the gallery.

Pretty cool right?

It was all very inspiring.

Kim (owner of slow poet) inherited the mural, and has plans to update it. I thought it was kind of old Portland fabulous, like '70's t-shirts, vintage Nikes and Rainer beer.

So that's my sunny warm day (in December!) spent exploring...

The Bit at the End

I guess I was in an arty headspace that day because later the same evening I ended up watching several of the NYC loft visits/interviews on Joshua Charow's YouTube channel. They're kind of addicting. 

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Okay I've decided, my tree fern is going in the ground!

It appears that growing Dicksonia antarctica—a tree fern native to Australia and Tasmania, which is hardy to USDA Zones 9-10, 8 with winter protection—has reached a sort of critical mass here in Portland. If you've visited the BigJohn/Hicks garden either during last June's Study Weekend or online then you know there are some pretty substantial tree ferns growing there.

In fact back when I first visited in 2020 they were already way ahead of the pack, with sizeable trunks and several years growth already behind them.

Pretty fabulous, right? 

Summer of 2024 I visited Jeff Fairchild's garden in NW Portland, and was in awe of his tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica) collection, this being the tallest.

To stand under a tree fern is a most magical thing.

Back in 2022 I visited Harry Lander's garden in a suburb of Portland. There were tree ferns...

Also of the Dicksonia antarctica persuasion.

Last summer my friend Heather (who geographically is closer to me than any of these other examples) took the plunge. While you might think the subject of this photo is her dog Bee, it's actually the large Dicksonia antarctica on the left, and a smaller one on the right. They're now planted out in her garden but I haven't been invited over to see them IRL yet (hint).

Thanks to Heather for letting me use her photo

Heather is also where I learned of this method of protecting a tree fern, she picked it up from Jeff Fairchild (whom I mentioned above). You cut up the side of a plastic nursery pot and open it to fit around the trunk of your tree fern, obviously the size of the pot depends on the size of your plant. As your plant's trunk grows taller you'll need to stack the pots. You then fill it will grass clippings, straw, leaves, etc., to act as insulation. Make sure to work in plenty of material at the top of the trunk to keep it from freezing. Simple, right?

Thanks to Heather for letting me use her photo

I bought my first tree fern (also a Dicksonia antarctica) back in 2009, it was our Christmas tree that year. 

The poor thing has been growing on in the same pot ever since. There it is as it currently exists, staged along the fence just behind a stock tank.

It has developed a decent trunk.

I bought a second (much much smaller) Dicksonia antarctica last summer, this one was kind of a rescue as the plant and its roots were falling out of the pot it was in at the nursery. I brought it home and replanted it deeper, then slipped it into a conical metal pot that would hold it upright and let it's roots grow strong. 

I also cut back several misshapen fronds, which was hard to do! It seems to be recovering though. 

So anyway... this has turned into a long and rambling post to simply say that next spring I've decided to put this Dicksonia antarctica, and my older one in the ground. Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?

Roughly something like where those orange ovals are, photo taken at the end of November, not prime garden viewing time.

Here's the same area in the summertime, much better! I *almost* planted both Dicksonia antarctica in the ground last summer, but things were a little unsettled here at the homestead and there was talk of moving. That talk has been shelved for at least a couple years, so now (or well, spring) seems like the right time to act!

The Bit at the End

Protecting things in the garden is the subject here. Each year I relish the deadpan manner in which  Martha (yes, that Martha) shares how she directs her staff to wrap her boxwood alle in burlap. Now she's back with a post about wrapping her empty containers err, ornamental vessels. Enjoy... Covering Planters with Burlap.

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.