Here is a picture of part of a glasshouse. The orchids in bloom are mostly Tolumnia...

{{gwi:159512}}

Here is part of a shadehouse

{{gwi:144393}}

Here is latitude 33 something south.

My little collection of three Phals (one a baby) and one Paph
are on a 3-step open "wire" rack at a pair of glass doors with a SSE exposure. They grow indoors only, without lights (except incandescents used in the course of household operation).

Sweetcicely

I'm in the dry Northern CA Sierra foothills at about 1500 feet.

Wow, Arthur! It's a Jungle in there! Beautiful!

Sweetcicely

A closet under the stairs with two clamp lights and a standard socket holding CFL's. A little bit of everything grows in there -- miniatures are preferred, obviously, becuase of the space constraints.

{{gwi:208505}}

Stacy

hello, from april to end of nov. I had most of my orchids in the sunroom. From may to end of oct., all the cymbidiums were outside then in nov. in the sunroom. My only lycaste was in the sunroom until sept. then it went outside. At the end of nov. i brought everything inside the house. now i have some under lights in the basement, some in every window in every bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. so, they are everywhere!! this year i have alot more plants including non-orchids.
last winter i had less that half the lights in the basement. so this winter, I have high hopes.
sue

Some of mine are here in a west picture window. An Onc., a Catt., a phal, a Brass., a Sharry baby sweet fragrance. On the left is a tray of sundews, D. Adelae.

{{gwi:208506}}

Mine grow outside, where they belong. A few reside year round on the sunporch, mostly because they prefer low light. Since we are just renting this house, I don't have a lathe house for them and chase the sun around the yard in winter and shade them in the summer. Even when I lived in NC, I didn't have trouble blooming most of them. Orchids are just plants, I don't baby them, they thrive on abuse and bloom despite/because of it. I let mother nature take care of them, for the most part, cause, let's be serious, she does a much better job than you or I ever could.

I keep a variety of dirt plants, that should bloom year round, to use as a gauge in determining my orchids are getting the light they need. If the dirt plants aren't responding to the light they are given, the orchids aren't going to either. Since most of my orchids are species that only bloom once a year, I'd rather not wait on them.

Impressive arthur!

sweetcicley - you need more orchids!

Stacy - love the closet grow area. Get a taller grow stand and you can have lots more orchids.

sue - eventually the non-orchid plants will find new homes to make room for more orchids.

tommyr - n - i - c - e

tuesday - when you lived in NC, were you an indoor/outdoor grower? Are you enjoying living in orchid easy FL? Never mind, that's a really stupid question - of course you are.

Brooke

Yes, Brooke, I need more :)

Places in the sun are limited, here, so there's homework to do before the spring orchid society show. It's always way too tempting and unlikely that I'll come home empty handed.

It's so interesting to see stacy's neat closet and tommyr's happy window. Nice thread!

Sweetcicely

Hey, Tuez, I'm an outdoor grower, too. Unfortunately I have to bring my outdoor orchids inside for about 7 months of the year. LOL

I enjoy hearing about and seeing everyone's setups. Pragmatic lot, orchid growers.

Wish I had pics, but no camera. But you'll be glad to hear I'm going to spare you all another time around the descriptions of my deck, the foraging army of rabbits that eats everything, basement light room and the south windows where the blooming orchids sit.

I grow most in the GH in the winter, with some that sit outside until the temps drop into the upper-30s or so. Some are growing on light shelves under shop lights. Some grow on windowsills in the house for the winter so they are kept warmer.

cj I would really be interested in your use of lights in the g/h. Do you have specific plants for under lights or young plants needing a boost? Do you run them to coincide with your daylight hours or do you extend the daylight and have the lights on either pre-dawn or after dusk? I certainly have a plethora of shop lights sitting around gathering dust and could light some stands.

mehitabel there may be new members reading the forum interested in your set up, inside and out. You never know when someone can get an AHA moment that could help them - please share.

I hope others share their growing areas. Regardless of what it is, if you can grow and bloom an orchid, then it might benefit someone.

Brooke

There are two more shelves further into the closet -- that's just the entrance to my 'sun room'!

Wish I could throw them outside, but the water nazis would get called on me if anyone caught me watering them.

Stacy

Hey, Stacy. I keep hearing about the drought you guys are having. Must be dreadful.

Put them on a cart and roll them inside for watering, then shove them back outside? :)

I grow in a greenhouse. I use to grow under trees strung all over my yard, but squirrels and bugs convinced me to gather everybody together under one roof. It's a lot easier really, having it all in one place. The arbor in front of the GH also serves as the shade house, and a good south facing window in my kitchen is where I keep some of my plants in bloom.

{{gwi:208507}}

{{gwi:208508}}

{{gwi:208509}}

Last May I moved everything from indoors to a HFGH I built. Some got too much sun (or the transition was too abrupt), but otherwise I am seeing more growth and inflr. on most plants. Since mid-November, I have been using a small electric heater with a thermostat, which prevents it from going below 50F. Even so, I have some yellowing leaves and felt obliged to bring the 10 Phals indoors for a few months. (By the way Pcan, your treatment of Phals in the baskets looks good; I am growing some Staghorn ferns that way outdoors.) Still have quite a bit to go in the Aquisitions Dept. before it would look like Arthur's place! Besides the Phals, the Vanilla planifolia and a few others are demonstrating their displeasure with the cold. Now I am trying to figure out whether the Aluminet shade cloth should be kept on at night, to keep heat in, while rolling up the sides during the day, to let light in...

{{gwi:208510}}


{{gwi:208512}}


{{gwi:208514}}



Brooke, I also have a small bonsai collection outside. I still have room for more things in the gh, and would be happy to give yours a home if you really don't want them. Would you want to trade, or??
Ann

Ann I guess I could bare root them next spring and send a couple to you. One of the first things I put in the g/h when it was finished were the tropicals. I really haven't paid much attention to them besides water and try to remember to fertilize on occasion.

I moved them this fall to a different location so some high light orchids would get more sun. As I was moving them, I discovered I have true aerial roots on some of them! Some are long enough to almost be touching the soil already. I have sphagged and wrapped some of the trunks and produced aerials but never had enough humidity in the air to have them make them on their own.

Let's talk this spring if you still want some. By the way, nice g/h.

Brooke

I grow orchids everywhere!! I have them at work (office lobby in the winter), at my parents' house (during the summer in the trees), at my girlfriend's apartment (as quarantine for recent arrivals), at my aprtment (winter phals and paphs with lights), at my desk (favorite hybrids). In my parent's sunroom and unheated outdoor spahouse. What is hysterical is I remembber what needs water when, so I call up my mom during the day to tell her to water plant X in that pot you like, I remind my girlfriend to water her plant before we leave for work (or I usually water it for her). I am contemplating teaching some co-workers to water plants if I take a long vacation (not likely, but just in case). Some co-workers also raise orchids, so it shouldn't be too hard. In any case,I work at a hospital medical research lab an in between experiments and meetings I usually sneak to the lobby with my trusty mister and thoroughly spray all the plants in the morning as part of my routine. It is so funny to see me walk around the laboratories in a lab coat and a spray bottle. In any case, I amknown for all the orchids that decorate the lobby and now it has turned into a frieindly competetion among amatuer growers as to who has teh best lobby. Guess who is winning?

Brooke, the back of my greenhouse is against the brick wall of the house and gets very little light at any time of the day because of the wide eaves. So little light that it is a challenge to even grow ferns. Also, my potting bench is against this far wall since I don't do any watering back there. There are a couple tiers of wire closet shelving over the bench where I was keeping my supplies.

One day, I looked at that space and said to myself: "Self, you could put some of those supplies in the garage and then put orchids up there if you only had some light."

So, I was in Lowes and saw their shoplites on sale for $9.49 plus tubes. Figured I'd try it out on one 4' length of shelf. Worked like a charm, once I switched to the shoplites with magnetic ballasts; the 'electronic' ones wouldn't work in the humidity for more than a week or two before they quit. Home Depot carries the magnetic type. Then I put in two more shoplites to increase my growing space.

I grow large to NBS seedlings, many mature plants like Sophronitis and mini-Catts, dormant Catasetums, some Phals, Paphs, mini-monopodials like Dyakia and Tuberolabium, and even some Pleuros. The light is adjusted by raising the plants up or down, or moving them sideways away from the light. I keep the plants in plastic/wire trays so they are easier to manage rather than just individually placed on the shelves, and can be taken down for watering.

I do have an old door mirror sideways at the back of one shelf. As for whether or not it does much good at reflecting back the light, I don't know. But it was either that or the garbage can. I'll pretend it is helping.

I growth my orchids in every window expect one and my fiance's poarch.

I've told him that when we get setted I would like a small greenhouse.

Love looking at everyone's pictures :)

Thanks cj - I would bet my shoplights are the electronic type unless the last batch I purchased were magnectic type. They did come from HD but the boxes were pitched. I may swing by and see if I can determine which type I got on the last purchase.

We are still toying with the idea of moving the two HID on travelers to the g/h. The g/h was wired to accept them and it would be a great place to put some of the high light plants and not worry about cloudy days. When we got them it was $1 a day to run each of them but in the g/h, the run time would be significantly shorter. Too much to think about :>)

Brooke

It is nice to see some unmessy, empty, glasshouses/growing enclosures with all those "foreign" plants.

Have often wondered about using a mirror. Wonder what the light experts think about that?

Here is another quarter of the shadehouse.

{{gwi:144441}}

Here is the set up of a specialist Softcane/Nobile grower. A Shadehouse with a plastic cover on the roof so that watered can be controlled.

{{gwi:149024}}

Oh Arthur!! How very beautiful. I can't believe all those flowering nobiles. Too much for words......

Jane

I grow outside in summer, and display blooming orchids under Wonderlites in two south windows, and a third area in an interior room all year.

I used to grow catts, encyclias and oncids, but have been giving them up this year. It's just too hard to give the high light lovers the right mix of sun and shade at midday in summer in my situation. I got blooms from them, but the cost in effort was too high.

Winter growing is done in a basement light room, which this winter contains only phals. The few remaining catts and oncids are blooming now in my south windows.

The light room is app 12' x 16'. It's a room, complete with door, etc, but is not air tight, because I wanted air exchange in the room.

The room has a sink, which is a boon. Every light room needs a sink. It also has a concrete floor, which means it can be splashed, cloroxed, and wetted down to raise the humidity for about a half day at a time.

The lights are six 400-Watt HID. Four are on movers, and two are stationary. Spikes are grown on under one of the stationary lamps til they get too tall. The other stationary houses violaceas and violacea hybrids. By my light meter, fc under the stationary lights is app 1400 fc at about 15-18" from the light. Leaves do not get got or even warm there.

Non-spiking phals are kept about 8-10" below the moving lights.

I am getting pretty good growth down there. It's not what you can get here outside in hot summer, where phals put out 1" per week and start a new leaf every 6 weeks, but very respectable growth, with new leaves starting regularly, and spikes continuing to form.

I use the bulbs formulated for the cash-croppers who have to grow without sunlight.

Two fans and two warm mist vaporizers run 24/7. The lights keep the room pretty toasty. This time of year, the temp at leaf level varies from 69-81. That's with outdoor lows app 24F. As it gets colder, I need to supply some additional heat, but only for a few hours during the night when the lights are off.

I chose HID lamps after reading up as well as I could about lights for growing indoors. 400W were chosen because they are more eye-sparing than the higher watt HID.

The light room is definitely a "happy room", pleasant place to visit. Having it indoors means I can visit it at night.

Sorry, no pics. I don't have a camera-- shot my $$$ on the lights :D

this is a great thread. I am enjoying seeing/hearing about everyone's grow places. also, getting ideas for myself too. thanks.
sue

IÂm drooling over all the greenhouse pictures, and yours, pcan, is almost what I have in my mind for what I want when I have my own. My DH, who is also a hard-core gardener, has promised me two greenhouses when we get around to building our house.

We currently live in a fairly large apartment over an art gallery in a small Victorian town. We rented it specifically because, along with the apartment, we were told that we could do whatever we wanted with the sizable backyard that was seriously overgrown. WeÂve spent the last two years cleaning it up, designing it, and planting it. ItÂs beautiful now  so much so that the gallery downstairs during warm weather will leave their backdoor open so they can enjoy it during the day. If my DH has his way, weÂll be part of the garden tour next spring.

I grow my orchids outside in the summer, inside in the winter. Outside, I have a series of terraced benches under small trees that receive SE sun until 11am or so, dappled light until late afternoon, then western light for the rest of the day. The further out from the trees, the more light they receive, which makes it easy to control how much sun each plant gets. They really seem to enjoy this arrangement because they grow like weeds during the summer. I love it because itÂs so much easier to take care of them.

Inside during the winter, the majority of my plants are on tall shelving in very large floor to ceiling ESE facing bay windows in both the living room and the front bedroom upstairs, and the rest are in every other western or southern window in the apartment. I also have an interior area that has fluorescent grow lights where I grow clippings of my coleus and impatiens from the summer to plant in the garden in the spring. Everyone who comes in invariably remark how itÂs like living in a greenhouse. Even though we have hot water radiators throughout our home, as opposed to forced hot air, my only issue is trying to keep the humidity up during the winter. Most of the plants are on humidity trays, which seems to help somewhat, but itÂs not really enough. Aside from the normal watering schedule, I give most of them (except for the ones who need a true dry winter rest) a good soaking about once a month in a communal (I know, I know) tub. It seems to help, though they do tend to lose a little of their luster by the end of the winter. IÂve thought about draping clear plastic sheets over the shelving to trap whatever moisture that the humidity trays emit, but donÂt want to cut down on the amount of light available to them. Any ideas from other home growers?

Your growing areas sound lovely as does your apartment. You are lucky to have a partner to share in your love of gardening. I wouldn't worry about the humidity, most orchards manage to make it through the long, dry winter without any problems.

Enclosing in plastic would cut down on air circulation and create bigger problems. If you are getting good growth and flowers, don't worry about it. You might consider a few CFL's to boost the light, but again if you are happy with how your plants are doing, just stay the course.

Welcome to the forum,

Jane

Thanks for the comment about the phals Ann. I mount phals on their sides, first, because this is the way they grow in situ, and I like the look of the natural growth habit. And, in the summer they are soaked daily from overhead sprinklers/misters and the side mount keeps water from standing in the crowns. They are mounted with the roots in very fast draining medium and/or roots exposed.

Maloria welcome, and I'm glad you like my GH. I love it!! Before you build yours, be sure and visit the GW greenhouse forum, and read around. Lots of good info there and helpful people. There are a lot of basic's you need to know before building one of these things. Good Luck!! - I've got greenhouse number two - in the works.....;0)....

Pat.............

A second greenhouse? Do tell!

Brooke

Well Brooke my second love of the plant world (orchids first of course) is cactus and succulents. I can give them all the sun and heat they can manage, but in the summer I find myself out there moving them in and out of the rain. Sometimes it can rain everyday for weeks and even rain solid for days. So I'm out there shuffling plants around all over the place. The orchid GH is way to wet and humid for them. So, I NEED (lol) a cactus GH where I can keep them much dryer and still provide the sun and heat. My husband is all for it, but can't get started on it until spring do to his work load this time of the year. BUT, he warns not to come up with any other "addiction/obsessions" any time soon.....LOL.......
Pat................

Mine grow nicely in my bay window which faces southeast and gets sun from sunrise to about 1 p.m. I close the white curtains when it is too bright and the sun is shining directly on the large window. Fortunately I am retired and have the advantage of controling the light when I am home.
{{gwi:208517}}

Ah! Wonderful windows; Beautiful orchids, Chazy!

And you are in zone 4? Wow! Don't you love having that southeast exposure?!

Please tell me the name of that pale pink w/ wine center, on the far left.

Sweetcicely

Beautiful display chazy and a smidge of everything blooming - good growing.

maloria your gardens, inside and outside, must be gorgeous.

Obviously we have many talented people on this forum.

Brooke

That is just beautiful Chazy. There is nothing like a beautiful display like that to brighten up a cold day!!
You've done a great job there!!
Pat..........

Thankyou all. The southeast exposure is just about perfect.
When we had the bay window put in to replace a picture window my husband told me he would even let me fill it with plants. Little did he know what an avalanche of plants there would be. Unfortunately he died before I got the orchid itch. Yes,zone 4 is cool,literally.

Nancy

Wow... fabulous thread, and the greenhouse and shade house photos are just stunning! Thank you all for sharing!

I just recently acquired my first orchids, although I'm an accomplished outdoor perennial gardener... and have had many, many type of tropical houseplants over the years... my main love is the hippeastrum, of which I have a good collection... my orchids number two; a Phal and an Epi Radicans!

I grow them very near an east facing window, and supplement with a small grow light for a couple of extra hours in the evening... I don't believe I have a current photo showing the orchids... I'll have to get to work with my digital camera...

I just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed peeking into your wonderful greenhouses and shade houses! I hope to have a greenhouse someday, so I can expand my collections and give them the environment they deserve! Thanks for sharing, everyone!

This is a corner of my kitchen. Modest, but it keeps my passion alive for now. I used to have close to 70 plants stuffed into that space and the outbreak countertops, and a three-tier fluorescent light setup, but it got to be too much with my job and my other passion. Plus I eventually realized that my light meter was overcalibrated about 1000 fc, so really good growing space wasn't as expansive as I first thought.

Before:

{{gwi:208519}}

After

{{gwi:208522}}

John :>)

sweetcicely,the orchid you asked about is a Den.NOID,as is the one next to it. I love 'em both,but wish they had been labelled.

I'm really enjoying the trip through various greenhouses and other growing places. Eveybody seems to have nice healthy plants!

Thank you, chazy, for the ID. I love the color and contrast.
Your bay window is a delight.

Sweetcicely

Hey, Tuezday, in case it would be helpful, I constructed a lathe house that folds flat for winter storage in the garage.

{{gwi:172485}}

It's about 75"L x 26"W x 75"H and cuts light by 50%. I built a "double wide," but it would be easy - and less expensive - to make it half the length. You could also make it 36" longer easily.

W/ the plexiglass weighted by bricks on the top, you can have overhead rain or not. Whole thing cost about $250 w/ everything from HD. Mine faced E/SE, and the orchids loved it. Caveat: Plants needed intermediate light or low light, not high light.

So, that's the summer setting.

Inside for winter - Orchid room, intermediate conditions:

{{gwi:208525}}

Living room, cooler temps:

{{gwi:140833}}

Dormant Cycs and Ctsae in cooler living room:

{{gwi:208527}}

Unknown is if the plants in the cooler LR will like the setting. For most of them, this is their first winter there. Last winter, the Ctsae and Cycs made it fine, but the others may turn up their noses. As always, "it will become known."

Whitecat8

aerides,

I guess you don't cook much at home? ;)

Haha, watergal. Yep, not much cooking. The charms of a small apartment. Forces you to define your priorities! When I had my larger collection I even covered my stovetop with plants. Easy for a bachelor to make do with a microwave, a coffee pot and a hotplate - especially in the city!

Some beautiful greenhouse pics in this thread. My lack of know-how in designing the interior of a greenhouse to make it functional and beautiful makes for a truly daunting aspect to my plans for having one.

John

Aerides, that took a lot of ruthless culling. I actually love the exuberant look til I start to feel they're coming to get me. That's usually around February.

Whitecat, I like your folding lathehouse. Looks very nice. The white is very appealing. I believe I remember when you were mulling over ideas to build something that didn't look too ugly, trying to figure out how to hide chickenwire. Am I right? What you did is really very attractive.

Would you mind sharing what keeps it from blowing over in a windstorm-- any hidden guy-wires or supports?

Mehitabel, summer before last was the plug-ugly chicken wire. This last summer was the lathe house.

The chicken wire structure was secured to one of the 4"x4" deck supports, in addition to shelves having bricks in some corners. It was better than nothing, but not secured compulsively. :)

This last summer, there were bricks on shelves and on top, and that was it. Living on the edge. Maybe next summer, guy wires to deck supports on both sides.

Aerides, how did you ever decide what to keep?

Gosh, everyone's growing areas look yummy. Thanks for the pix.

Whitecat8

Whitecat, we have a really terrible blow at least a couple of times each summer. The kind where you grit you teeth and hope it won't bring everything crashing down.

One night I could see the tops of the trees were bending over way too far, and finally couldn't stand it any more. Went out on the deck at 1:30 AM to wheel the carts inside. Thanked heavens that night for those carts, since it took only a few minutes, and the wind was already terrible..

Bits of bark sucked off the trees in the woods were already in the crowns of the phals when I brought them in. It actually got a lot worse that night, tho for just a short time.

I've had two collapses of tables and shade structures out on the deck before coming up with the idea of using carts.

This year be sure to tie those suckers down!

Mehitabel, From living in central and NW Arkansas, I'm familiar w/ those winds. Tornadoes, too. For whatever reason, there haven't been bad winds where I've lived up here. However, the carts sound like a great idea. Now, wonder if they could be double decker with lathe panels around them and still be mobile... WC8