I grew up in Hawai‘i, where sunshine wasn't exactly a rare sighting. Oregon has taught me to appreciate it differently. People here will rearrange an entire afternoon because the clouds part for twelve minutes. And now Tigard has installed an enormous flower that seems to share our attitude.
It's called Solar Bloom. It stands twelve and a half feet tall on SW Main Street and only opens when the sun gives it enough attention. This isn't an ordinary garden decoration. Its metal petals genuinely move.
A flower with a sunshine requirement? In November? I needed to know who had looked at an Oregon weather forecast and decided this was a sensible idea.
Two water tanks, a solar cell and one very stubborn engineering problem
I emailed sculptor Ben Dye. There's no backstage button. A solar cell powers a pump that moves water from a lower reservoir into an upper tank. As that tank fills, its weight helps open the petals. When the water moves back, return springs help close them. It's a surprisingly delicate dance between water and gravity.
Ben told me the hardest part was finding the balance. The upper tank had to be heavy enough when full to open the flower, but light enough when empty to let it close. A beautiful idea still has to obey physics, which I find personally rude but understand.
He isn't trying to beat Oregon's unpredictable weather. He considers it part of the artwork. Give Solar Bloom around fifteen minutes of full sunlight and its petals can open. On gray days, it may stay closed. Which makes this possibly the most honest flower in the Pacific Northwest.
A little patience, growing on Main Street
Ben worked in commercial diving, an experience he says helps with the logistics of installing public art. The design itself took what he calls lateral thinking. It's a working prototype, and the City of Tigard has allowed adjustments as needed. When he wrote to me, he confirmed that it was functioning properly.
He sent original photographs. One shows the closed metal bud outside his workshop in September. The other shows it installed in Tigard on October 28, open against the sky. I love seeing both. We spend so much time admiring finished things that we forget the workshops, mistakes and long afternoons required to make them possible.
You'll find Solar Bloom at 12285 SW Main Street in downtown Tigard, visible from sidewalks on either side of the street. Choose a sunny stretch and allow about fifteen minutes of direct light if you hope to see it open. Please don't step into traffic or expect a bloom on command.
The more I think about this flower, the more I like its refusal to hurry. We schedule everything: appointments, adventures, the exact minute something is supposed to make us happy. Ben built something that waits for the conditions it needs. It doesn't apologize for the clouds.
And when the sun finally shows up, a twelve-and-a-half-foot metal flower opens over downtown Tigard. I can't think of a better excuse to look up.
Original reporting: Ben Dye, Ben Dye Sculpture LLC, in correspondence with PNW Passport November 1, 2026. Installation unveiled October 28, 2026. Original installed (October 28) and workshop (September 22) photographs by Ben Dye, confirmed directly by the artist November 2, 2026. Additional source: Tigard Life, October 29, 2026. Learn about the artist at Ben Dye Sculpture.
Where can you see Solar Bloom in Tigard?
Ben Dye's kinetic flower stands along SW Main Street in downtown Tigard. The metal petals need roughly 15 minutes of full sunshine to open. Both sides of the street have sidewalks; Oregon's clouds, regrettably, don't take appointments.