Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Or, in this case, many, many crowns, as John Kish has now won six consecutive Best Indoor Plant Store awards for Somewhere That’s Green. (The shop is also the venue space for The Greenhouse Cabaret, which hosts theatric performances.) Additionally, this year, Kish has earned another accolade — Best Local Influencer.
Better put: Fertile Liza, Kish’s drag queen persona, is Central Oregon’s pick for influencer. If only the headwear would fit her outsize wig, which Fertile Liza wore during a recent photo shoot at Somewhere That’s Green.
“How about I bite it?” she said with a grin.
To many out-and-about Central Oregonians, Fertile Liza, Kish’s punny alter ego, is a household name. You’ve seen her crooning at brunch spots and taprooms. She may have taught you how to care for plants during workshops. Fertile Liza has also done trail work with Vámanos Outside and Central Oregon LandWatch and, memorably, gave a sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon.
But which of her two names does Fertile Liza go by?
“I like to say someone calls her Liza if they’re nice and Fertile if they’re nasty,” Kish said.
The significance of Fertile being tapped as Best Local Influencer isn’t lost on Kish.
“Oh, it’s amazing; who doesn’t want a drag queen influencing Bend?” he said with a laugh. “It’s proof that drag can be more than one facet, something that’s not just born in a nightclub.”
Kish developed Fertile during Covid lockdown, sometimes appearing in persona while conducting his plant workshops via Zoom. With a degree in horticulture from Oregon State University, a year spent as a member of the American Mime Theater Troupe and plenty of stage time in theatric productions, Kish deepened his hybrid devotion to science, business and performance with drag. Kish is quick to credit his drag awakening to his late friend and roommate Deb Auchery, who founded The Cult of Tuck, Central Oregon’s original drag troupe, in 2018.
“Deb was definitely instrumental in getting Fertile’s heels clackin’ down the streets of Bend,” Kish said.
Kish’s first performance in drag — technically Fertile’s first night out — was in a production of “Cage aux Folles,” the source material for the movie “The Birdcage,” produced by Lay it Out Events (sister company of the Source) and performed in Drake Park.
What does Kish like most about Fertile?
“I mean, what’s not to love about her?” he jokes. “I just love that she is truly everything that I’m not but then it reminds me that I can do that, too. She gives me permission to live a fuller life. She also gives permission to other people to live more confidently and more powerfully in themselves.”
Runner up Best Influencer: The Bend Foodie
Runner up Best Indoor Plant Store: Desert Rose Cactus Lounge
Somewhere That’s Green
Wed-Mon 10am-6pm
1017 NE 2nd St, Bend
somewheregreen.com
This article appears in Best of Central Oregon 2025 and the Source August 21, 2025.
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