Saw the strangest plant setup at a garden in Portland last weekend

Holly White · 2026-05-05T07:05:04.255043+00:00

I was walking through the Hoyt Arboretum last Saturday and one of the volunteer guides showed me this little greenhouse they built just for ferns. Honestly, it was tiny, like maybe 10 feet by 10 feet, but they had misters going every 30 minutes and the humidity felt like a cloud. The cool part was they used recycled plastic bottles as mini cloches for the baby ferns. Has anyone else seen something like that at a public garden?

jamie_adams4mo ago

My buddy Rick swore that mist caught him three times in one loop.

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blakestone4mo ago

Honestly, "the humidity felt like a cloud" sounds less like a greenhouse and more like a trap for anyone who just got their hair did. I bet those misters are just timed to go off right when you stop to look at a fern tag. Ngl though, recycling plastic bottles as mini cloches is kind of genius if you don't mind your garden looking like a weird plastic terrarium crime scene.

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dixon.james4mo ago

You mentioned the plastic bottle cloches looking like a "plastic terrarium crime scene" and I gotta say, that is a perfect way to put it. Though I think @jamie_adams might have a point about the mist timing, because I definitely got caught twice when I stopped to read the sign about the maidenhair ferns. That being said, calling it a trap is a little harsh since most public gardens actually time their misters for early morning and late afternoon to avoid hitting peak walking times. The bottle trick is actually pretty clever for keeping humidity high for the fiddleheads without needing a whole fog system, even if it does look like a mini landfill in there. Have you ever tried something like that for starting your own ferns at home?

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