Heated greenhouses

[crucify]

So I'm getting my own greenhouse outside next year when it warms up, and I'm stupidly excited to grow all the plants ever. My snails are being moved out there because my parents think my room is too crowded and we're also going to be having builders tear things down at some point. None of us have actually had a proper greenhouse before though. It's only small, tall rather than long/wide. Maybe we could have a bigger one if we weren't buying chickens too. Anyway I don't want my snails to get cooked in there, and I have absolutely no experience with heating things other than shuffling my heater around and sitting spiders next to the radiator. Even if I was fine with hibernating them, (GALS are staying inside no matter what though, aspersas, slugs and others go outdoors) I don't want my plants to freeze either. I have three orchids and a stack of cacti that I don't plan on losing. Does anyone else here have a greenhouse of some kind?

[muddydragon]

I have unheated greenhouses. I'm always too much of a wuss to risk my plants over winter using a heater in the greenhouse (i just don't trust the electricity not to cut out or the gas to stop running or some other random event) and lose all my precious orchids, Cacti (and other succulents), various carnivorous plants (those that don't tolerate the cold, obviously i have some that stay out all year) and a whole host of other plants (i have rather a lot of plants... my house is actually becoming a jungle) . i do keep some indoor plants in greenhouses the over summer (Some spring and autumn too) if there's room among crop plants and other outdoor plants im growing, but anything that i'm worried i might lose comes in in winter, then the less hardy or young plants who have been living outdoors in pots then go into the greenhouse for winter (just to give them a little more protection) some of them are pretty heavy, i move some of the potted trees around using an old skateboard . sorry i'm going off topic a little...
ANYWAY My dad's friend has a heated greenhouse and he keeps cacti and carnivorous plants in no problem (infact it's amazing and i want to steal it all!), he uses a paraffin heater i think, more trustworthy than electric (also extra CO2 for the plants!). you can get greenhouse automatic window openers which open the windows if it gets too hot inside which may help. (although not so much if it's extremely windy as if a gust goes in through the automatically opened window it can throw out glass panes elsewhere...). I would be worried about your snails overheating in summer as it can get very hot in greenhouses, especially if its not shaded on the south facing side (infact it can get too hot for plants in general if the south side isn't shaded unless you open the door a lot).

P.s. I'm very jealous that you are getting chickens, i LOVE chickens (and ducks) would love some one day! what sort are you getting? please post pics when you get them

[crucify]

Since they're going outside I'm perfectly happy to fight through the snow/blinding sun to check the greenhouse temperature, they're going in a corner between a hedge, the shed and the neighbors fence, so the sun is mostly blocked out. The cat sleeps down there so it can't be too bad. I'm pretty sure I've stripped the garden of large snails so hopefully it won't be a problem to leave the door wide open in the summer, should be good for the pitchers and sundews I want to buy. I always keep old tanks so if the weather takes a bad turn I'll just scoop everything out and keep them in my bedroom. Good thing I live on a hill rather than by the rivers.

I wanna get silkies, they're so adorable. I spent some time with my cousins chickens and they were so soft and warm and gorgeous. They are going to get a ridiculous amount of pampering and photos.

[muddydragon]

i think (could be wrong) that you can also get heaters with automatic cut outs so they dont overheat in winter.

i love pitchers and sundews, when sarracenia flower they are stunning! whenever i go to the flower show it's always a struggle to resist buying some form of pitcher or sundew (read this as fails miserably at resisting buying a pitcher or a sundew )

oh silkies are sooo fluffy! they'll be awesome! can't wait to see pics

[crucify]

Oh that's a good idea. Don't see why they wouldn't exist, people need heaters for all sorts of expensive things after all.

I would love to go to a flower show, I love flowers. I want to get a fork-leaved sundew and as many pitchers as possible, they're amazing.

[muddydragon]

i would definitely look into it.

I've been to a few but my favourite is malvern spring flower show: www.threecounties.co.uk/springgardening/ it's not too expensive (unlike Chelsea which i would love to go to sometime but it's just so expensive!) and there are tons of sellers there, quite a few carnivorous sellers and there's an absolutely lovely man with tons of sarracenias he's everso lovely and has lots of helpful advice, hes so nice i always end up buying something from him. if you go be prepared to come back with a lot of plants , i always end up with atleast one carnivorous plant and one cactus/succulent and then several other things. i also like looking at the enormous vegetable competition, who doesn't enjoy looking at huge vegetables??! We get a coach trip there it's very good and means you can exhaust yourself looking at the plants and buying plants and not worry about the very long drive back. you really should try and go if you can, you would love it all the big names in carnivorous plants and cacti are there. (and all the big sellers of pretty much everything else ever too!). i'm sad to say it's very possibly my highlight of the year! (i love it so much i drive all the way from the northeast down to the midlands (150 miles) then get the coach with my mum all the way out to malvern (80-90 miles) THAT'S HOW GOOD IT IS!) oh i'm all excited now . i seriously cannot recommend it strongly enough!

I've been to harrogate flower show which people always rant about, and it was awful (not many plants but if you like fancy food then yes plenty of that) however that was the autumn flower show so the spring one may be better, i'm thinking of trying to go to the spring harrogate one next year to see if that's any better (also because it's a lot closer to me..).

Oh i love fork leaved sundews too! i possibly may have ended up with three.... the standard two pronged one, a multiple pronged one and a short dumpy one (LOVE THEM!) you must get some

[crucify]

Oh hey, that's where my mum's family comes from. Shame it's so far away, maybe one day it'll be on while we're visiting. The curse of living too far south. Chelsea is beautiful but it definitely looks expensive, it'd still be great to see it all though. Giant vegetable competitions are mind boggling, how do they get that big? I've seen some huge pumpkins this year but it's incredible how huge people can grow them. I wouldn't want to be the one hauling it around.

We love shopping for plants so maybe it'd be something nice to do next year, find a flower show and see what they've got. And an arachnid/invert show, I'm determined to go to at least one next year. I should start learning to drive, aha.

I only had a little alice sundew, it exploded into clumps of plants in the pot but one day I found it completely dead and brown. I think that was during the summer when it was getting ridiculously hot, still a shame though. Sundews are fascinating odd looking plants.

[muddydragon]

you should definitely arrange to go visiting when the show is on i really love that show.

And yet i'ld still LOVE to grow some that big but i think it requires a serious amount of TLC.

if you love buying plants then you just MUST find a flower show near you and go! as for invert shows, I dont know how far south you are but when i lived in london i went to kempton park invert show and that was very good, i got my Hadra webbi from there in 2010 (or 2009 can't quite remember without working it out).

Oh lovely! i really should get an alice sundew since it's my namesake! sorry to hear it died though sometimes they come up again when you think they've died. i love seeing sundews in the wild they're just amazing, i got stupidly excited when i saw some when i was in the lake district (also got very excited when i saw Pinguiculas too!).

p.s. on weird wonderful plants have you ever seen Mimosa pudica? it's a brilliant plant reacts suddenly to touch. i grew some from seed off ebay once, lovely things and have pompom like pink flowers too

[crucify]

Yeah, I don't think I'm brave enough to tackle something that big. Maybe I'll just start with obscenely huge cacti so I can point at them and ask people if they want to touch them. I'm going to London next year, don't live that far away from there fortunately. Gonna have to keep an eye out for shows in that area, as long as the trains aren't days late as usual. Never trusting the underground to be on time.

There's sundews in the lake district? Now I definitely want to go back there, it was gorgeous. Little brother was sick the whole time though, ruined the whole holiday thing a bit.

They're really cool, I've never seen the flowers before. Pompom flowers are the best, we had giant globe ones in the garden ages ago.

[muddydragon]

everyone loves an obscenely huge cactus!

i'ld love to grow a giant pumpkin the biggest i got was this fella (the larger numbers are inches):


If you are going to london go to Kew it may seem expensive (not their fault) but it is really really worth it it's beautiful!

yup! you really must go back to the lakes it's stunning. i saw the two main sundew species there (although sadly i can only find a pic of one) heres some photos of the carnivorous plants (and a beetle) (im experimenting using a different image host so let me know if you cant see them..):

Drosea rotundifolia. taken on the decent from red pike:



Pinguicula vulgairs at buttermere:


Also lovely inverts beautiful dung beetle?



Also to tempt you to a flower show... a small section of one of the many cacti and other succulent displays at malvern:


and a sempervivium dalek...

[malacophile]

Ahh, lovely! I'm quite a fan of cacti and succulents myself. If my apartment's light levels were better, I'd be up to my ears in the things!

[crucify]

I miss Kew so much, I've been once and it was stunning. I hope we can go next year, we are staying in a hotel for a while so maybe if I pester enough, aha. I love Kew.

[muddydragon]

I'm lucky in that i've moved into a house of my own instead of sharing with others meaning ALL THE WINDOWSILS ARE MINE MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! so i'm filling them up mostly with plants i left at my parents or boyfriend's due to a lack of room. not everything is back yet and i'm already up to my ears in plants

if you can go to the tropcial extravaganza when it's on go it's amazing! i love the place but i haven't been back in a long time. if you go, keep your eyes peeled for chinese water dragons in the princess of wales glasshouse. When i was there a few years ago they used them as biological pest control they had full run of the glasshouse, they even laid eggs. Sometimes they'd bask in the path blocking the public's walk way but they were very friendly and posed for photos. Othertimes they would sit unnoticed then a kid would point one out everyone would wonder if it was real or not, then it would move, everyone would take photos then as that group slowly left they would go unnoticed again until someone else pointed them out. There was also an axolotl in that greenhouse in one of the pools (different section to the dragons). I also found S. octana shells in that greenhouse so i suspect there's some of them roaming around too.