My Greenhouse in Winter

March 11, 2011

At the end of a long and trying winter, it’s always nice to see a bit of green and the beauty of thriving plants. I was happy to read your comments regarding yesterday’s posting of the New York Botanical Garden’s fabulous orchid show. Seeing so much beauty is simply breathtaking! I feel so fortunate that I have beauty like that, albeit, on a much smaller scale. My greenhouse is a great source of pleasure for me. It provides me with a winter haven, which I like to visit every day. It is so satisfying to watch my tropical plant collection grow year-round in this harsh winter environment. Enjoy this little excursion!

: During the winter months, my grounds crew gets to wash the entire inside!

: This is no small task.

: Floor mops work well to reach the higher glass surfaces.

: Wilmer reaches with a sudsy sponge.

: And then squeegees the clean glass dry.

: This is the front side of my greenhouse. On either side of the entrance are my currant bushes – red, white, and black. You can see their long canes poking through the snow.

: You may recall when Byron Martin and Laurelynn Martin of Logees Tropical Plants http://www.logees.com/default.asp presented me with this miniature papaya ‘T.R. Hovey’.

: As you can see, it’s thriving and the papayas are beginning to ripen.

: Shaun always has plenty of succulents rooting to plant outdoors in my urns in the spring.

: This very fragrant plant is Jasminum polyanthum, an evergreen twining climber from China. It’s fragrance permeates the greenhouse.

: This plant is the very hardy camellia japonica ‘April Tryst’.

: It blooms with true red, very showy anemone form flowers.

: He also has some seedlings sprouting already. These are tomato plants.

: And a variety of hollyhocks, which I love in perennial gardens for their great height and showy flowers.

: Bromeliad leaves can be curled, splayed, or twisted, and some are striped or splattered with different colors, like this showy one.

: . The primary job of bromeliad roots is to grip, as nourishment comes mainly through the leaves. You can see how water collects in the center of the rosette.

: These are some of my very beautiful bromeliads, a huge family of plants which the pineapple is a member of. These plants grow either terrestrially, meaning with roots in the ground, or epiphytically, as air plants, perched in trees or upon rocks.

: My lovely collection of potted standard topiaries

: There are many succulents in the greenhouse, including these fleshy jade plants.

: This cactus is a type of euphorbia triangularis.

: Weberbauerocereus johnsonii – Golden column – A densely covered cactus with golden spines

: Cactus Opuntia – The spiny look is due to rudimentary leaves.

: A beautiful cactus specimen – Opuntia cochenillifera (Variegated form)

: The other half of the greenhouse is devoted to the more moisture-loving plants, like these lush and verdant ferns. There are many varieties to choose from when decorating the house for entertaining.