Greenhouse Mania

Tips for rose gardening

You’ll find that there are so many people who have a hard time with rose gardens. You’ll need to have a real green thumb to have a spectacular display of roses, but you will find that there are so many tips to keep in mind as well. Some of the tips that you are going to find seem to be off the wall, but they really do work. Something that I like to do is keep all my coffee grounds and egg shells. I then spread them around the base of the plant. I’ve never had bigger or more vibrant roses then what I have now. I also want to say that it is nice to plant roses in the greenhouse, because you can have roses all year long.

Vegetable gardens

Keep in mind that there are so many vegetables that can be grown from the backyard. You’ll find that there are many benefits to having a vegetable garden too. Not only do you have a good supply of fresh food, but you also have fresh produce that you know is good to eat.

There are so many out breaks of Ecoli that many people wish not to have fresh produce from the store. You’ll begin to feel better about yourself too, because you are getting the right vitamins and you’ll feel more energized from the food, because it is not tainted with chemicals and hormones. Vegetable gardens have a lot of potential.

They keep you active, but you also get a sense of self worth from growing your own food.

Get to know your plants

The best advice to growing healthy plants and flowers is to know your plants and flowers and what to expect. This way, you’ll be able to recognize when something is wrong and rest easy when everything is going smoothly. Basically, you’ll need to spend a lot of time watching your plants and flowers. You probably think you observe your plants enough already but I mean really, really look at your plants. Check the texture and shine of the green in the leaves. Are they extra shiny today? This could mean bugs. Are the leaves a tint of yellow that maybe wasn’t there yesterday? That could indicate lack of water or too much sun. Check the underside of the leaves as well as the soil and the stems. Check the nooks and crannies, places you may not normally look. Get the big picture and take everything into account. Problems don’t just happen; there is always a reason for it. Make it a point to check the workings of your greenhouse on a regular basis. If you’re a list making person such as myself, consider designing a check list to complete daily, weekly and monthly.

Dreaming of Watermelon

With summer just around the corner (whether that’s just my imagination is up for debate), the idea of sunning pool side and biting into a juicy watermelon slice is nothing less than salivating. And wouldn’t it be nice to be able to walk a mere few feet to your greenhouse to get some of that red, juicy goodness? I think so.

 

If you’re familiar with growing cantaloupe, then growing watermelon will be a little bit of the same dance. Because of their size, ample growing space will be helpful. Besides space, the other key ingredient to growing watermelons is a warm greenhouse. Watermelons like to be cozy and prefer a night temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

 

Like cantaloupe, watermelon can be trellised and require pollination by hand to get the fruit development going. Be sure to construct a strong trellis because the weight of the fruit can easily pull itself from the trellis if not sturdy enough. You can choose to grow the smaller icebox variety if you don’t want to deal with the larger fruit. 

 

One of the hardest things about growing watermelons is knowing when they’re ripe. There are tons of books to consult, experts to question and various ways of knocking, tapping and thumping watermelons to get an idea of when they’re ready. Unfortunately, after all that you may still find yourself picking too soon or too late. Picking a perfectly ripe watermelon will come with time and practice, maybe in time for next summer!

Sweet Oleanders

Having just started a greenhouse of my own, I bought numerous books on plants and fruits and vegetables to start growing. Orchids are my favorite type of flowers so of course naturally I wanted to start there. After I discovered they can be complicated to grow and the fact that there are so many different kinds with different requirements to flourish, I decided to start somewhere a little bit easier. Oleanders, although in the same letter family as the Orchids, are much different. 

 

Oleander is actually a shrub in the evergreen family. Some may say that it’s a tad crazy to grow Oleanders in a greenhouse because they can grow to the height of 20 feet or more if not pruned routinely. Keep in mind, if you are growing or are starting to grow Oleander, that the leaves are poisonous if ingested. Oleander may not be the best plant to grow if you have small children running around. 

 

The Oleander has six-inch-long lance-shaped leaves and the flowers tend to bloom in the warmer time of year. When they are in bloom, Oleanders have clusters of white, pink or red flowers at the ends of the branches. If suckers start to form just below the buds, pinch them out because the suckers tend to keep the flowers from forming.

 

Oleanders enjoy growing in full light. Pruning is best done in the winter months to control their rapid growth. Soil should be well-drained and make sure that there are big enough holes in the bottom of your tubs for draining. Oleander can withstand temperatures as cold as 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  When in bloom, constant watering is necessary but be sure to cut down on watering during winter months. 

 

After all your hard work, be sure to enjoy the pleasant fragrance that emanates from the flower blooms. 

Cornflower Gardens of Orange

Having vibrant colors in your garden is a good idea. One of the flowers that you can add is the Cornflower.  The bright gold orange color will brighten up your container garden, greenhouse, window boxes or outdoor garden.  The Orange Cornflower will grow to be about two to three feet high and will spread out about as far as the y grows. 

 

Orange Cornflowers look good in a vase, picked fresh from the gardens, and will last about a week.  You can press the flowers and the colors will last. Creating pictures with the flowers is also a good option.  The Orange Cornflower is a flower that you can dry in a cool dark place and hang the plants upside down so that the petals are open and brilliant looking. 

 

Orange Cornflower s is a hardy and sturdy plant that has leaves that are a bit rough.  The leaves feel if they have little prickles on them but it is a hard type of hair.  The leaves are narrow and think.  There are good numbers of petals on the flowers with about ten to fifteen on each of the flower blooms. 

 

Mixing the Orange Cornflower with flowers that are blue, white, or red are going to make your gardens noticeable and will attract others to your gardens as well.  The Orange Cornflower is a relative of the Black Eyed Susan.  The Orange Cornflower is a perennial plant that will grace your gardens for years to come, as they are more of an annual plant. 

 

There are aw few pests that will bother the Orange Cornflower but not many.  It is easy to grow and maintain. It is a good choice for anyone that is a beginner in the garden experience and you will not have to spend much time working with him or her.

 

The Orange Cornflower will start blooming in the mid summer months and will last until the cold days of fall kick off.  If you want to extend the season, bring in your containers and your flowers will last a few weeks longer.  If you have a garden that is filled with Orange Cornflowers you can divide them up every three years or so and they will spread out even further and fill in the gaps. 

 

Woolly Yarrow

Perennial gardens are a great area of your landscape where you can sit back and enjoy the plants that are growing in your garden and bloom every year.  Perennial gardens will give you a wonderful opportunity to create the garden that you will not have to spend a lot of time in each day.  You will able to enjoy the flowers that you love most often. 

 

The Woolly Yarrow is a hardy plant that will bring on many yellow flowers for the enjoyment of your summer landscape.  They will last through the mid summer heat and in areas of the country, or anywhere that it does not get too hot.  Your Woolly Yarrow will keep blooming and giving you wonderful colors each year. 

 

The plant does not grow to be high.  Some will only grow to be about two to three inches high and the highest they will get is about a foot.  It will depend on if you are growing the Woolly Yarrow in a container or in your landscaped garden, the plant will spread out about five to eight inches wide making it a great flower for window boxes, hanging planters, containers by the deck or patio, in a greenhouse or in your perennial gardens. 

 

This plant also does well in zones three through seven where they will grow well in moist areas of your landscaping. They will not grow in a pool of water.  The Woolly Yarrow does like the partial shade and dies off when the heat gets too high and humidity sets in.  Living in the cooler climates but with a spring like temperatures most of the time the Woolly Yarrow will do well in the garden. 

 

The Woolly Yarrow does not have many problems in growing except for survival in the high temperatures, so it will make a good plant for most of the beginner gardeners who have a shaded or partly shaded landscaping.  If you have a hillside where the soil always seems to be wet at the bottom, this would be a good spot for the plants to grow without having to deal with the hill maintenance that can be a pain. 

 

 

 

Beautiful Maples

A flowering maple may sound like a tree that would be grown in your backyard.  However it is really a plant that will grow inside your home.  In the warmer months, this plant will grow outdoors but in the wintertime, you can bring it inside for a new home.  A flowering maple is a distant relative to the hibiscus plant and you can make the plant bloom all through the year when you keep the environment just right inside the greenhouse. 

 

The plant needs to have five or six hours of sunlight a day and you can get this inside a greenhouse during the shortest days of winter.  The longer summer days are not going to hurt the flowering maple when you have this plant on your deck or porch but the flower will appear to be brighter and more colorful in this time. 

 

The one pest that will bother the Flower Maple is the spider mite and this will cause spots of yellow streaks and even brown leaves.  Washing down the pot with soapy water, and treating the plant with superior oil is going to help get rid of the spider mites.  This will increase the environment humidity that the flowering maple is growing and will keep the spider mites from wanting to be on this plant at all.

 

If you find that your flower is dying and your plant is looking bare, you will want to pinch the new leaves and promote the addition of new flowers.  This can be done at any time of the year, as the flowering maple is a plant that will flower all year round.  The flowering maple does have a few different names like the Parlor Maple, Yellow Maples and the Chinese lantern. 

 

 The Yellow Maple will do well in temperatures that are over fifty degrees and where they will not fall below forty degrees during the nighttime.  Misting the plant and keeping the humidity levels high is what the plants need to keep on growing. 

 

The leaves on the plant are oval in shape and have a light green texture about them.  The leaves on the flowering maple are different sizes and new leaves are always forming on this plant. The leaves will only grow to be about one inch with flowers that range from one inch to one and a half inches wide.  The flowers are different shades of yellow where the petals are going to be a lighter shade to the center of the bloom. 

 

Growing the plant in a larger container, a hanging basket or in the outdoor gardens when you live in a warmer growing zone will bring more flowers to your home all year round.  During the wintertime, pruning off about a fourth of the plant will keep this plant in shape and give you the best results. 

Plants indoors and out

The different temperatures though the country will mean that you need to figure out what your plants need the most.  If you have container plants, you will need to bring them in and out of the greenhouse or your home to make sure that they do well.  

 

There are many plants that will need to have temperatures over fifty or sixty degrees so when the fall months come, or the summer months are cooler you will need to bring your plants in and put them out in the morning so that they do well.  There are several plants that you might have in your garden that you can dig out of the soil and put in containers for the winter months.  You will learn here how to keep your plants thriving when you need to move them inside and out from time to time.

 

Many of the plants that you keep in your home over the winter months will also benefit from the sunlight, fresh air, and being outdoors from time to time. If you have houseplants, setting those outside for the summer on your deck or patio can do a great bit of work for them.  Flowering plants are one of the houseplants that will do better outdoors in the sunlight. 

 

During the summer, there are plants that you do have to be careful with when moving.  Some plants cannot take the hot sunlight.  As soon as you see that your plants are turning light brown or gray in color, you need to take them out of the sun and they should be moved to a shady portion of the deck or back inside. 

 

Before you move the plants outdoors you should wait until the temperatures are war, during his day and during the nighttime as well.  This is unless you are going to move your plants inside every evening. 

 

Moving your plants around is going to give you a good idea of when it is time to change the pot and if your containers need to have water. 

 

If your plants are outside plants, but you want to save the flowers for a longer period of time, you should start bringing them inside when the weather first starts to turn cold.  As the cold weather comes, the flowers are going to die off and you could possibly be left with a lot of greenery while you are trying to nurse your plant out of dormancy to bloom again. 

 

Trimming the plants that are coming out of the ground that you want to keep all winter long is a good idea.  Bushy plants that are already looking a little dead can be trimmed back and they will start to grow again as the warmth and sunlight gives them the incentive to know that it is springtime again.  Some good plants that you can bring inside include geraniums, rosemary, begonias, coleus, and even the plants that are producing vegetables like your tomatoes, peppers, and cabbages if you are growing them in containers outside. 

The Dusty Miller

The soft white plants that will bring life to your garden are the Dusty Miller.  The Dusty Miller is used as a border plant and filler but can also be used as a hanging or container plant.  The plant is a silvery white color with an underlying green as well. 

 

The single stem on this plant will produce many off shoots, which will spread out to make the plant even fuller.  There are no leaves on this plant and the stem and the branches of the plant will form thick leafy like material that will make one piece of plant very hard to determine the different from the main parts of the stem and the other areas of the plant. 

 

The Dusty Miller will produce tall and yellowish colored flowers in the fall months.  This is how the seeds from the plant will move out.  The flowers do not last very long but they will remind you of an onion that is turning to seed as the flowers sit high above the plant on a thin stem.

 

There are very few problems that a gardener will go through in growing the Dusty Miller. You can grow them from seed or you can buy the plant from many different home-growing centers in the spring months. 

 

In some areas, the Dusty Miller will only do well one growing season because the temperatures are too cold during the winter months and the plant will not survive the winter.  For the majority of the growing zones, the Dusty Miller will be easy to bring freshness to your gardens with the new white and silvery colors each year.  They will fill the areas of your gardens so that you have a full and beautiful look. 

 

Each plant will grow from six inches to two feet high and this will depend on your growing season and the majority of each plant.  Each plant will spread out about one half wide as it does high.  This is a plant that will do well in the partially shaded areas to the fuller sun gardens in your yard.  A soil that is draining well and that does not hold the moisture too long is the soil that will do best for the Dusty Miller and be just what they need to keep growing all summer long. 

 

If you are going to grow the Dusty Millers in the greenhouse by seed, you should start your seeds about ten weeks before you are going to get ready for planting outdoors.  About ten weeks before the last frost is ready to happen.