So wide is the variety of seeds and bulbs that can be planted this season that even – the most experienced home gardener is apt to be confused when deciding what to plant.
Planting Schedules and Seed Catalogs
As we study planting schedules and seed catalogs, we tend to try to grow everything under the sun.
The fact that we can try everything makes greenhouse gardening alluring and is precisely what all gardeners should do – but not in a single season.
Best Results for Greenhouse
The best results are obtained by concentrating on a few compatible plants and by growing only as many as space permits.
Eventually, this leads to the cry we hear so often:
“I sure wish my greenhouse were larger.”
New Sections of Greenhouse
Fortunately, new sections can easily be added to most greenhouses.
Then too, shelves can be added along the eaves and under the ridge to provide more space.
However, too many shelves along the sunny side are not too good, for they shade and so slow up growth on the plant benches below.
Foliage Plants
This is all right for foliage plants that do well in partial shade, but you need full sun to bring flowering plants into bloom in the dead of winter.
If you must run a two-story greenhouse, narrow shelves spaced far apart arc much better than wider ones. Grow flowering plants on the shelves and foliage plants below.
Cold Frames For Extra Grow
Cold frames, too, provide extra growing and storage space for the greenhouse gardener.
Right now, the cold frame is an ideal storehouse where hardy and near-hardy plants and bulbs can “cure” and grow strong roots until winter for growing on in the greenhouse.
Storing of Plants
In spring, after these plants have flowered in the greenhouse, the same frames are used for storing the plants again until it’s warm enough to set them outdoors.
After that, the frames can be put to work raising seedlings for the spring garden. And in summer, they serve as seed propagating beds for the next season’s greenhouse material.
New Greenhouse Plants
This is a good season to acquire new greenhouse plants from the South or California.
You can order them in condition to bloom next season and have them shipped when the weather is favorable – not so hot that they will dry out nor so cold they’ll freeze.
Freezing Weather
Theoretically, during freezing weather, plants in transit are kept in heated rooms, but if yours arrive frozen solid, you’ll know someone left the crates out on the loading platform too long.
Good additions to any greenhouse are:
- Camellias
- Azaleas
- Hydrangeas
- Glory-bush
- Jasmine
- Reinwardtia
- Hibiscus
- Passion vine
Easy To Grow Subjects
But there are many other fine, easy-to-grow subjects not so well known. Many of the latter are described in the book “How to Grow Rare Greenhouse Plants.”
When your new plants arrive, unpack and examine them immediately. Those shipped in pots are best left in them until they become acclimated to their new surroundings.
When you’re ready to take the plants out of the pots, don’t try to knock them out, or you’ll break the root balls. Cut the pots with a pair of clippers.
44659 by E Chabot