I thought I responded a couple days ago -I guess it's gone to cyber space. Hurricane CHarley knocked down 5 huge trees on my property, there was no damage to our house or the houses next door so I considered that a warning and now have no tall trees at all. We are 11 ft above sea level and a block from a tidal canal so I am somewhat concerned about flooding although we've never had any flooding the 29 years we've been in this house. If we have a hurricane warning I can drop the shade and put the orchids on the pea gravel that's there and maybe just cover them with the shade fabric. If we have flooding,I'll have bigger concerns than my orchids. I'm going to contact the sprinkler guy and find out how realistic it would be to run a pipe to the area and put in a sprinkler head. We are allowed to use sprinkler water twice a week for four hours so it would be a nice back up water plan.

I like light without rain to control the amount of water. 50% sun lexan roofing. It comes 4' wide and 8' to 24' long. It has creases to overlap the seams. Hurricanes breaks most orchid structures including the lexan roofing. Will your structure be in the shade or sun? Lexan needs to be in the sun. Also with the Lexan, there is possibilities for heating in the winter. I have roll down curtains of Eisenglass that go down and stay down all winter. Most of the year they are rolled up and out of the way. I can maintain 50 deg. with an outside temp of 38. If it gets lower I add duct tape. Fill the cracks. It is nice to have a electric for a fan, lighting and heating. And water and a bench. A big utility sink not hooked to the main drain. Some shelves for supplies. The best wood to use is cypress. It is rot resistant and stands up to the weather. It is a Florida wood. It is replenished as fast as it is cut. Reasonable price. There are a few very expensive and exotic woods that are better but due to price and very good longevity along with local greenness, the pick is cypress.

Tuliptree, Liriodendron tulipifera is a great fast-growing shade tree. It does shed a few small limbs, but nothing to big enough to damage anything. Another choice might be one of the faster growing oaks: Scarlet oak is Quercus coccinea and pin oak is Quercus palustris. Red maple (Acer rubrum 'October Glory') is fast, but it has a lot of surface roots so it is harder to garden under. This a good time to research - Trees Atlanta is having a sale this Saturday. See link below. They will have some trees that you can't usually find in nurseries. They will have mostly natives and some non-natives. Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Sale this saturday, Oct 8th

Hi I converted the screenroom into a shadehouse around 25 years ago and also built two smaller ones from wood which Wilma removed lol. One almost insoluable problem has been heat build up even in winter.. The longest lasting materials has been aluminum framework with vinyl lattice. Has proven to be the strongest,most decay resistant. Have tried all kinds of materials as a covering. The most adaptable has been frost cloth as a partial covering and then only when temps fall below freezing. You will be amazed at the heat gain the next day after a cold front passes. Putting it on and off is a real pain and storing the stuff the 95 percent of the year when not needed is tough also. Everything I've tried degraded over time even fiberglass panels. During the last remodel I went back to vinyl lattioe with hardware cloth no shadecloth or screen, using vines which can be cut back during winter I keep a heated 150 gallon aquarium for the primary heat source which works well down to about 35. It's connected to the 1000 gallon outdoor pond and a waterfall distributes the heat as well as boosts the humidity. One tip I learned the hard way don't plant ANYTHING directly in the ground. Use pots that can be manuvered around as the "jungle " develops. I planted pine cone ginger and heliconia and have been unable to control them or get rid of them lol Good luck with yours . Not sure why but a shadehouse works magic .lol Plants seem to grow twice as fast inside lol gary