So What’s Happening in the Greenhouse?

Alophia drummondii (Pine Lily)

Alophia drummondii (Pine Lily)

This is my first full year with the new greenhouse and I still haven’t got a plan for the summer. While I’m pretty confident about what I want to do with it in the wintertime, I’ve been less certain about how to treat the environment in the heat of the summer.  Out of inertia, I’ve left the basic springtime plan intact — the misting and watering comes on four times a day for 10 minutes.  I’ve only just gotten to moving out some of the plants that were clearly not happy with that climate (the temperature can go to 95 – 100 degrees even with the automatic venting).  So the temperate plants and seeded pots are mostly on the outside now with filtered shade and automatic watering.  What I expected was that many of the South African bulbs would grow and go dormant for the summer so that as foliage died off I moved them to the basement for a rest.  We’ll see if they start up again as planned.  And the preying mantis seems to still be enjoying the opportunities for eating in the greenhouse.

Preying Mantis between fig and banana

Preying Mantis between fig and banana

Note the many little figs.

What has been a real surprise was to see that we have inadvertently created the perfect environment for Kalmiopsis leachiana.

Kalmiopsis leachiana

Kalmiopsis leachiana

This beautiful little relative of the Mountain Laurel is found only in the Northwest, particularly the Siskiyou Mountains of Southwest Oregon.  When you read that this is a difficult plant to grow but that in it’s native mountains it experiences 250 inches of rain and hot dry summers with porous soils you can see how it might find the greenhouse reminiscent of home.  In any case it is thriving.  I see a ton of flower buds for next year.

Kalmiopsis leachiana buds

Kalmiopsis leachiana buds

My original idea was to plant it outside, but now I’m not so sure…

Some of little bulbous plants are showing flowers from seeding this year via the seed exchanges.

Alophia drummondii

Alophia drummondii

Ixia polystacha

Ixia polystacha

I also have a ton of little plantlets that I should have separated by now.

Greenhouse with many little seedlings needing separation

Greenhouse with many little seedlings needing separation

Life just keeps marching along.  I spent this morning finalizing the first courses for a retaining wall around the greenhouse.

Laying the greenhouse alpine retaining wall

Laying the greenhouse alpine retaining wall

The idea is to have a raised bed for alpines with more space than I can manage in a trough.  This will be a lot of fun to plant once I finish construction…