I use my greenhouse primarily as a warehouse for tropical hibiscuses, palms, oleanders, citrus, alocasias, colcasias and xans. I am growing about 120 malviviscus arboreus and 40 or 50 hibiscus mutabilis Rubra (or Rubrum). I also take "insurance" cuttings of brugmansias every winter.

I use mine to sleep in when my utility bills reach too high.

No just kidding.

I just within the last few days got my grafting rootstocks in.

Dax

Seedlings are prepared for grafting:
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Now they warm up for the next several weeks - then I Graft:
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To see how I use my greenhouse during the winter, take a look at the link below.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/strucs/msg121450426324.html?33

Or you can scroll down to My Greenhouse at the bottom of the main page.

I will be adding some new pictures to that soon.

Rob

All kinds of tropicals...the following is just what is blooming right now: Mango 'Carrie', Lemon guava, Strawberry guava, Hibiscus, Plumbago, Plumeria, Barleria repens 'Rosea', Bulbine frutescens, 5 different kinds of Citrus, Duranta, Gardenia, Globba 'Mauve Dancing Girl', Angelwing jasmine, and my new favorite fragrant plant, Aglaia odorata.

Nice topic, Oldscmedic. I got my greenhouse last November and was delighted to find that this year, as autumn approached, I didn't dread winter so much but, rather, was looking forward to another "season" in the greenhouse. Big change in attitude!

Small as it is, one of my teen sons did mention how cool (neat) it would be to sleep out there.

Orchiddude, your photos are always refreshing ... wish I could get my few orchids to look as good!

Uses change somewhat as the season progresses. I overwinter tender perennials and annuals in my greenhouse and keep fresh herbs and cherry tomatoes and lemons growing all winter, and one miniature rose; houseplants also take turns getting a little R&R out there. Most houseplants were moved out there to make way for Christmas decorations and will come back inside after the new year, making room for salad greens and Swiss chard in the greenhouse. Rose canes from the winter pruning are set to root. Soon I'll pot up some bulbs for forcing, to be brought inside at their peak. Sugar snap peas worked well in the greenhouse last year, and when the weather warmed, I just moved the whole pot outside to continue harvesting until the heat got to them. Seeds will be started for the vegetable and flower gardens, as well as some tender bulbs and corms.

There is a garden chair in the greenhouse for relaxing (wish I had room for one more), and a shower radio/cd player (the sound could be better, but it is waterproof) and even non-gardening members of the family often enjoy relaxing out there.

I don't think I'd ever again want to be without such a delightful retreat!

I grow bedding plant annuals in mine and store tropical plants. I wish I knew how to post pictures here and I would show you. There is nothing so great as seeing a grhouse filled with plants in winter!! Anyone else have pictures?

Conifers-there have been many times when the heat has gone out in the house due to ice storms and I thought about sleeping in one of the grhouses. The heaters are great for drying clothes during a snow storm and the kids come in from sledding when the power is out!

Here's my new Harbor Freight Door (thank you - I know):
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100 conifers
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The other side which is set up just like the right but with benches and for grafting deciduous plants (non tented versus tented at night for the conifers):
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My dog:
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Me:
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Dax

Love -a -puppy! Just LOVE the labs!
Mine is 1/2 Rot, !/4 lab and 1/4 Belgian shepard.
Such a sweetie!

bugs--mostly the bad kind

For this winter I am overwintering some left over perennials and hibiscus and bouganvilla and ferns. Bought in some more 4 inch and quart sizes that I couldn't find earlier in the selling season that I will pot up to gallon and hanging baskets for early to mid spring sales. I am just now starting to seed some veggies and herbs for sales in late Feb to early April. I am wanting to offer some heirloom veggies that you don't find in the average garden center. I focus on adapted and native Texas plants but also know there are several beauties like hibiscus and bogies that people love to have for the shear show they put on.
I manage a garden center for a hardware store in a rural area that is growing very fast and is within an hour of Austin and San Antonio and by a lake. The space I have is a 25x30 foot greenhouse and about a 100x75 foot space for all my plants including the greenhouse. I am not use to working in such a small space the last nursery I worked for had 3 acres with half under roof. The one before that had 2 acres with about 3/4 under roof. I am used to having thousands of plants and several people to work with. For this last year it has just been me, myself and I. Only help I got was for watering on my days off (sometimes). I hope that the help I am soon getting will allow me to show why they need to put a REAL greenhouse (not the seasonal one they put up before they hired me and I made winter capable) Heh, you guys helped offer several useful, time and energy responsible ideas that have been working great so far. I thank you all and here is to this forum and it great members one and all.

HHHappy GGGrowing and Blooming to all and a Happy New Year
David

Conifers:
What do you do with all your trees? I would love to start growing any type of evergreens for my house and my property (that I want to rent to campers). I think it might be cheaper to purchase through water conservation sale, though. Your GH looks great!

My greenhouse was originally for my citrus trees, but now houses a lot of fun things. In particular, it houses my bougainvilleas. I've also got my plumerias there, though they go dormant and don't really need a greenhouse. I've also got a couple of poinsettias, just to see what they look like if you grow them yourself.

This year, I'm making an effort to grow winter flowers. I've purchased begonia, tulip, amaryllis, crocus, and other plants. The idea is to have a happy home for aphid eating insects. In late Feb, the aphids start becoming a problem. I've heard the flowers help keep the good insects around. If it doesn't, I'll just enjoy the flowers.

I grow daylilies so my greenhouse is full of babies and seeds sprouting. All of these get moved into the ground come spring when night temps stay above 40 degrees. This gives me a head start on getting them to blooming.

For the uninitiated here's a link to photos of some of my daylilys in bloom.

MollyD

Here is a link that might be useful: RainDog Gardens

My Heliconia plants flower in the winter inside my greenhouse.

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(The other leaves in the photo are from a Colvilla racemosa.)

Those are really nice Gary!

welllllllll,
In my greenhouse in winter, I grow everything that grows in there in the summer, because its all planted in the ground! I have the "Botanical Garden" style greenhouse as opposed to the "Bench growing" greenhouse. Its all tropical, if it can live outdoors here, it doesn't deserve greenhouse space.
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Beautiful Pictures. When I had a greenhouse I grew Orchids, bird of paradise, roses, citrus, a huge stag horn fern. If it was tropical I grew it..>!

tom: Bird of paradise, roses, citrus, and staghorn fern aren't really tropical, rather, warm temperate. (We grow those outside here in Melbourne, which is cool temperate)

bihai...when you pass on to the next world (die), what are you going to do with all those plants?

I have actually thought about that, Orchiddude. My husband and I were talking about such things the other night, like, should we buy a place now to "retire to" at the beach? Or somewhere else? That gave me pause. I thought, how could I move all my plants? Of course, I WOULD. I told him I wouldn't ever move unless the plants could go too. Either to a frost free zone, or another large greenhouse/conservatory. Many of my orchids are mounted and all it would be would be a snip snip and away it goes. Broms can be dug up and stuck in boxes and whisked away. ANthuriums and philos...ditto, just dig and pot. ANy large palm trees might be a problem....I would most likely try to dig them up and take them if possible.
But everything that can go, WILL go. When we moved out here to this house from ourhouse in town, it took 5 full loads with a UHAUL truck to get all my plants out here. And that was JUST PLANTS, nothing else, and it was the middle sized truck, not the small one. A friend of mine and I spent all day doing it, over 12 hours.

If I die, I plan to will my plants to some Botanical Gardens. If Kanapaha gardens here actually builds the almost $1 million concervatory they have planned, they would be a logical choice. If not, I am not certain. I only know that my husband and daughter have no interest in my plants. Of course, I could always will to FRIENDS (wink wink)

bihai... I wondered the same thing for me, reason I ask the question to you. Like your husband, my wife and kids dont care about the orchids or palms. I figured they would put them in the trash and move on. Thats a good idea about giving them to a Botanical Gardens, at least they could get a tax write off, and maybe a plaque with your name on it.

Thanks to all who posted a little something-somethin!

It is funny actually that everyone said to me that I should get one a bit bigger than I originally wanted....which I did. From the looks of things the past few weeks.....I just might should have thought about a multiplier of some sorts.....it sure is getting tight.

It almost seems like some sort of surreal challenge to see just what I can get to grow in there.....lol!!

Hopefully soon I can get off my lazy glutes and get a few pics....would be nice to get some constructive criticism on my set up....ya'll reckon there might some on here eh>??

I did add another heater today since we may be getting some nasty icy weather but I still am not convinced it will be THAT cold here....

G'day all

Yeah, show us some pictures. We love pictures....lol

This is my first winter with a greenhouse. It is very cold out but the orchids r happy. That is the reason my son and I built a greenhouse so they would have a happy home. I have mostly orchids. One cactus type plant(dont know what it is)that bloomed around Christmas but it has tiny thorns so dont really know what it is. I have to plant them all in pots as the ground is way to cold to put any plants in. I dont have a concrete foundation and am glad of it. My heat bill would double if I did.

Bihai. Lucky u that u can plant in the ground and u have some beautiful plants. A wonderful layout. I used to live in Fl and just hung my orchids under a tree and all was good. Now I wish I had gotten a greenhouse after seeing all the ones from the warmer zones and how great they do.

Okay, I am going to open myself up to some REAL criticism here when I ask this question, I am certain, but hey I am tough and I can take it.

I actually don't understand the statement:
"I have to plant them all in pots as the ground is way too cold to put any plants in."

While the ground OUTSIDE the limits of the greenhouse (and maybe 6" to a foot or so inside) might be cold, wouldn't the ground in the core of what is covered by a heated greenhouse be warm? I know mine is...of course, the ground OUTSIDE the greenhouse doesn't freeze here.

WHat's the theory on this?