My Instagram Top 9, and a post with a lot of comments

The overlap between my Instagram audience and those who regularly read my blog posts is smaller than I'd have thought. Then again, maybe it makes sense, after all I've refused to dip my toes into the TikTok universe. Once you find your digital happy place why venture into another realm?

I still enjoy running the stats on my Instagram Top 9, the nine most "liked" posts of the year. For awhile everyone was doing it, not so much these days. Whatever. Here's what folks liked on my danger garden Instagram page...

#1 a series of 15 images posted on 10/22: "Spikes and spines from my visit to the Deserts of the Americas section of the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley." 

#2  a series of 19 images posted on 8/8: "Summer 2025 marks 20 years I’ve been gardening here on this 47’ x 111’ piece of land in NE Portland. It seems like a good time to look back at what I started with. The before photos date to May of 2005, home inspection day. Special thanks to my husband @boominghoots for the hardscape vision, shade pavilion design-build and tons of support (financial and labor)."

#3 a series of 10 images posted on 1/11: "A sampling of photos from the second blog post on my August visit to the always stunning Kuzma/Halme garden in SW Portland."

#4 a series of 3 images posted on 12/7: "I went to visit the Santa Clones the other night—it’s a Christmas tradition. They weren’t *exactly* where I thought they’d be, but all I had to do was look up and follow the red glow. Thanks @thesantaclones!"

#5 a standalone image posted on 12/10: "No! This is a bad idea. What happened to giving people real information they could use? Granted this is from a wholesale nursery, but still… knowledge is power people!" (we'll revisit this image below)

#6 a series of 4 images posted on 11/14: "Such a great example of how gorgeous a well-grown cholla can be. I think this is Cylindropuntia whipplei ‘Snow Leopard’ but I don’t know for sure. Isn’t it a great foliage match for the conifer?"

#7 a series of 2 images posted on 11/25: "Another nearby garden I like to keep an eye on. Photos from late October."

#8 a video posted on 8/18: "I love this mossy drippy stacked stone orb in Renee Moog‘s garden, there’s even a carnivorous plant bog surrounding it. The floating hexagonal “web” shapes help deter the raccoons."

#9 a series of 2 images posted on 7/19: "I watched two little girls fiddling with something at the Little Free Greenhouse, this is what they left…"

It's always interesting to see what images people respond to. This year 5 of the 9 posts came from the last 3 months of the year and 2 of them were of images taken here at my home garden. 

The most surprising post was #5, which got 155 comments (wow). I was quite shocked by the immediate and ongoing reaction to the photograph of a plant tag...

I intentionally cropped out the nursery name, as I wanted the discussion to be about the idea, not the nursery. I will add that I took the photo in a vendor's booth at our local wholesale flower market, this was not a retail situation. That Instagram post was shared 53 times and has reached 25,205 accounts. Total views are 40,386 with danger garden followers accounting for only 19.5% percent of those views and non-followers 80.5%. Many of the folks who commented were incensed at the idea a nursery wouldn't provide the most basic information, such as a plant name. Naturally there were a few people who embraced what they saw as the future and didn't see a problem with it, one even adding a condescending "change is scary." 

Another wrote: "There’s nothing wrong with information if you know how to sort fact from internet falsehood. Many do not. Label the plants already. This is just lazy disguised as techno trendy. Don’t get sucked in. Knowledge is power and learning takes time. The knowledge needs to be kept by humans - or we will lose valuable skills fundamental to our survival." What do you think?

(no Bit at the End today, as I don't want to distract from the above image/question) 

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My final walks and plant moments of last year

If I were a better blogger (one who hadn't scheduled posts in advance and then paid no attention to the calendar) I would have published this post before the page turned and it was suddenly 2026. Instead we're looking back at a couple of walks and plant focused moments I had in the final days of last year.

First up a photo of my Helleborus foetidus in bloom and a few weather facts, cause I love talking about the weather. This was the warmest December ever at PDX, and 2025 was the 2nd warmest year on record, just behind 2015 (9 of the last 12 months were warmer than normal). We ended the month of December with 8.51″ of rain, which is about 3" above average for us. Half of 2025 was drier than average, and the other half was wetter. 

A few more tidbits: we ended 2025 with a total of 3" of snow (back in February), 35.72" of rain for the year, and an average temperature of ~57F (that includes day and night temps). We also saw 19 days at or above 90F. I wonder what 2026 will bring?

These opuntia fruit, just around the corner from me, are still ripening.

Yes hellebore bloom in the cold months but wowsa, they're ahead of themselves this year. This one (in a neighbor's front garden) is crazy happy.

Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae at McMenamins Kennedy School (where the next 17 photos were taken).

Euphorbia rigida

The "parking lot desert garden," where the agaves are getting large!

Hydrangea quercifolia

With flowers.

I stop to photograph these Mahonia gracilipes every single time I walk by them. Every time!

Ditto for the Garrya elliptica, but only when it's tassels are this fetching. The rest of the year I don't even notice it.

Grevillea somesomebody...

And bam! The Edgeworthia chrysantha florets are opening. At home the hummingbirds have been working the not quite open flowers for awhile now. I wonder if they're getting anything?

I had to do a double take with those white blooms. When I first saw them from several feet away I thought Romneya coulteri, but I believe it's actually a Camellia of some sort.

With the warm temperatures in December our Tetrapanax papyrifer have gotten so close to blooming, a few around town are actually starting to open. I think a couple of these count as open blooms, although they were to high in the sky for me to get a good shot.

This was a fun find, a Podocarpus fruit, there were a few on the small tree.

Pulled back shot.

Eucalyptus and berries.

Hesperantha coccinea, blooming away at the end of December.

The second to last photo from Kennedy School, I think this might be an Agave americana? Maybe a hardier than average variety though, as this plant isn't widely thought to be hardy here.

I wanted to get a photo of this large Camellia in full flower but there was a guy standing in front of it smoking a cigarette and he had no interest in moving. He also didn't look like the sort that would take kindly to having his photo taken, so you get only a slice of the action.

This home landscape always has something interesting going on, the Echium wildpretii / Arctostaphylos combo was a good one. 

Another home with a super-spiky opuntia and (I think) a Choisya in bloom.

I tried and tried to get the catkins closest to me to be in focus but no.

Okay fine. But I wanted more of them in the background.

Back home now, my Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' is in full flower...

Close up...

The coldest overnight of the season was Tuesday night's 29F. The forecast said 34 so I was surprised and hadn't done a thing to prep for a freeze, thankfully nothing seemed to be bothered by the brief cold.

Can you spot the bird on the palm frond? (upper middle of the photo) Birds have been all over the front and back gardens the last couple of days this one seemed to know I was trying to photograph it and posed for me.

I also stopped for some big-leaf Rhododendron appreciation (R. sinogrande).

Back out in the world, this shot wasn't from a walk but when I finally pulled over to photograph an agave I'd had my eye on. I think it's an Agave montana?

Great imprints...

This Agave parrasana started to throw up its bloom last summer but has paused for the winter months.

This sweet agave (NoID) was growing in front of a Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph' I stopped to photograph. The lines on the leaves are an interesting feature.

New plants! I picked up a couple of new ferns in late December. This one a Dryopteris wallichiana...

And this which I purchased as Cyathea tomentosissima, aka Dwarf Wooly Tree Fern, but is probably actually Cyathea cooperi 'Highland Lace'.

Either way I love it.

I couple of blooming bromeliads in the basement garden wrap up this long and winding post.

The Bit at the End

We were here and there and everywhere in this post, so now I'm whisking you off to North Carolina and the secret tortured agave bench at Plant Delights Nursery. I'm drooling over their Agave x nigra ‘Sun Shark’.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Happy New Year's Eve

Driving home from Christmas

We spent the Christmas holiday up in Spokane, Washington, celebrating with my family and staying with a dear friend. Our departure was timed perfectly, just as the temperature changed to chilly (very chilly, 16F!). Driving home the sky was blue and I was enjoying the view so much I started snapping photos just out of Spokane, as we headed southwest on Interstate 90.

This one further west, as we neared Ritzville, Washington. 

This is wide open farm country.

Now we've left I-90 and are on 395 headed towards the Tri-Cities area; Kennewick, Pasco, Richland.

We've just crossed the Columbia River and are back on the Oregon side, about to turn and head west, still another 178 miles to Portland.

The first few miles in Oregon are a bit inland from the river.

But then it reappears and Interstate 84 follows along the Columbia River Gorge all the way back home to Portland. Oregon on the left, Washington on the right...

Looking towards Washington.  

Wind turbines along the ridge.

This view never gets old.

There's snow on them there hills! (Washington)

Andrew wanted to get a closer look at Multnomah Falls (the tallest waterfall in Oregon at 620ft), figuring with all the rain that's fallen recently the show would be a good one. We pulled off I-84 and realized most everyone else passing that way had the same idea, as the line of cars hoping to park was backed up almost onto the Interstate. Since it didn't look like we'd score a parking spot I took this shot out of the open sunroof, yes it was cold.

But we got lucky and were able to park and walk up to the falls.

This is Multnomah Creek as it heads away from the falls. The two silver spots in the water, towards the bottom half of the photo, are large salmon (dead). 

I also snapped a few photos in my mom's garden...

This was fun to see, a gardening friend who lives in Spokane gave me a bunch of tiny seedlings from her Helleborus foetidus back in 2023 and I planted a few in mom's garden. The ones that lived are about to bloom.

This dignified fellow has acquired a nice smattering of lichen.

Lots of things in the garden were colored up nicely, cold weather will do that. Sempervivum...

Mahonia

Bergenia

Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'

And Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard'... it was a good visit.

The Bit at the End

Today I'm giving a shout-out to Kris at Late to the Garden Party, a faithful commenter here on my blog and consistent voice in the garden blogging community. Kris published her first blog post on this day back in 2012, which means today is her 13th anniversary—or blogoversary. If my math is correct, she's written over 2,095 posts in those years! If you attended the 2017 Capitol Area Fling, the 2018 Austin Fling, or the 2024 Puget Sound Fling then you might have met Kris. I visited her garden in Rancho Palos Verdes (southern Los Angeles County) about this time of year back in 2019. It was just as fabulous as I thought it would be. So those are the details, but what I want you to know about Kris is that she's an extremely supportive, kind, and humble human. The dialog we have back and forth on each other's blogs is a meaningful part of my garden blogging experience, Kris always has something positive to say. The humble bit is how low-key she is about her garden and all that she's built there, she's got vision, creativity and isn't afraid to work hard! Thanks for blogging, commenting on my blog, and being a friend Kris!

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