58 | Oregon Home The founder of Bloke Botanical — a plant shop, florist, and landscaping company tucked in a gated lot between print shop Studio Olivine and Bernstein’s Bagels in North Portland — Waddell spends his days shuttling between garden projects and a shop-in-shop he just opened at Maison, Inc. on Northwest Roosevelt Street. Bloke wasn’t always as garden-heavy as it is today. When Waddell launched Bloke in 2010, his goal was simple: Sell wreaths, floral boxes and bird feeders made from found objects around the city to raise money for a down payment on his first house. But times changed, and soon he was riding the national houseplant boom, designing residential gardens and serving the city’s pandemic-era gardenobsessed crowd. “It’s been a wild ride,” Waddell says. “I did one garden and got a dozen calls.” In 2020, when wildfires devastated the West, he launched the seasonal pop-up event that turned him into the city’s top salesman of temporal enchantment: Flower Church. Every Sunday during the late spring and summer months, Waddell stages a cut-flower sale in Bloke’s 17-by-100-foot outdoor retail space with floral artist Umbelflora and vintage shop Fabius Grange, filling the yard with silver buckets of seasonal blooms. He started it as an antidote to the toxic religious upbringing he experienced as a gay man. “The lift is for the community — it’s a sweet energy,” Waddell says. “You go through these big, beautiful gates and this place becomes your serenity room.” More events followed. Now Bloke does a regular Pumpkin Palace in the fall (think dozens of varieties serving people who buy enough gourds to fill entire porches), Christmas trees and vintage blow-mold Santas in winter. But his latest foray involves sourcing a wide range of ceramic containers for plantings that can be moved around the yard for maximum impact. “My garden designs have always been pottery-heavy,” he says. “It really elevates the whole look.” Justin Waddell works from sunup through sundown to bring people moments of happiness. boil glaze black clay Gartenmeister Fuchsia, Sweet Potato Vine, Helichrysum White Licorice, Variegated Fancy Leaf Geranium, Fine Line Buckthorn Rhamnus, White Fuchsia, Japanese Cryptomeria, Fairytale Bride Hydrangea Papyrus Nile Queen, Asparagus Fern, Tree Philodendron, Boxwood Conical Topiary
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