greenhouse question

OK, we had our coldest night yet Sunday night. The temps got down into the low 20's. I went to the GH Monday and somethings aren't looking too good. My spider plants are wilted and the ficus tree is turning purple. I think what has happened is the temps dropped and stayed too cold for a long enough period to do damage. When it dropped before to 28, it didn't stay that cold long enough to hurt anything. The temps are back up to not hurt anything now but the damage has been done and it will get cold again soon. Somethings still look jgreat though. I think what I'll do is partition it off and cram everything in that part to confine the heat better. I plan to do that by drapping a sheet of plastic from the ceiling to the floor to separate the room. Any suggestion? Next year I'll do something better. This is a quick fix for the remainder of this winter. man, I hope I didn't lose a lot of my things...
Thanks,
Dawn

Are you saying that you think it got into the low 20's in the grhouse? or outside?

I got below 32 in the greenhouse. I am going out there tonight to couble check the low temp reading as Sunday is still the coldest night so far.

Ok, I went out and check the temp. The lowest reading says 28*. I took some pics from the snow we had Sat night. on Sunday. thne I took some today.
Sunday #1

Sunday #2
I didn't take a bunch of pics b/c everything looked fine

Wed #1

Wed #2
The plant to the left of the Ficus looks fine though

Wed #3
The small CoT to the right looks fine. This makes me sick. Do you think it will come back?

Wed#4
my Ric Rac cutting - Think I've lost that too?

Believe it or not, this is the same plant in the Sunday #2 pic

One more from tonight
My yellow CoT

Anything below 32 is risky for plants that aren't dormant. Tropicals have problems below 50 degrees. You might get lucky and only loose the parts that are showing damage.

MollyD

Thanks Molly. The Ti plant I'm not too worried about or the spider plants for that matter. I would hate to lose the CoT and the cacuts cuttings.

Dawn, Do you have any kind of insulation? My little 6 x 8 harbor freight GH was getting below freezing even with the space heater. I put bubble wrap up and it now stays in the 40s even with nights of 20s. I just ordered the 2ft wide stuff off ebay. Becky

Hi Becky. I lined the inside with thick plastic my DH got from an old construction job. I will have to do something else for sure next year. I went out there and got the CoT and cactus cuttings. I don't want to loose them. If I lose the Ti and Spider plants I don't care. All the other things are looking really good. Even the Geraniums are bloomin up a storm. I guess I am learning the hard way of what is really cold sensitive and what can tolerate these temps. geeze
I cut the bad leaves off the CoT. I'm hoping that they will come back if the roots and all are ok

This message was edited Jan 23, 2008 7:00 PM

Dawn regular plastic won't do any insulating. The reason bubblewrap works is those bubbles have pockets of air. That's what is doing the insulating.

MollyD

This site says that some regular red varieties of Crown of Thorns can take lower temps, but some hybrids (maybe like your yellow form) need more protection from frost. I’m hoping your yellow COT will replace its leaves. I don’t have many COT, but I have quite a few other Euphorbias, and from my reading most of them will not take freezing for any amount of time.
http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Euphorbiaceae/Euphorbia_milii.html

I think your Ric Rac cactus could be Selenicereus anthonyanus. Although PlantFiles shows it as being hardy to 30F, I think that’s a bit low; it’s from Southern Mexico, and I found another website that says it should be kept above 59F. Sometimes differing hardiness info can be annoying, but I try to err on the safe side.

I can sympathize, Dawn. I have been researching plants like mad to figure out what temps are too cold for which ones. If you know the botanical name, you can often Google for hardiness info (I usually try to find several websites to compare.) I’ve even made mad dashes to the greenhouse at night after reading on the internet that they were less hardy than I thought. It’s tough the first year, especially when you have many different plants with different tolerances for cold. There's just a lot to learn about who needs what, and it's not easy.

For this first year with my greenhouse, I've kept all of my succulents above 45F. Some will take less, but some won’t, so I set the temp to keep the wimpy ones alive. I hope this helps a bit…hang in there!
Sheri

Thanks. This is a tough lesson to learn. I'm glad I did not put everything out there. Other than the CoT and the Ric Rac and an Epi I have lot of "old faithfuls" that just about everyone I know has. The more I get into plants the more I acquire unusual plants that arent that easiely replaced, those I hate to lose. Don't get me wrong, I dont want to lose anything but... Some are so big (like the ficus tree) I couldn't move it now If I wanted to. I need a dolly, a ramp and trailer and another set of hands. I will most deffinately look into better insulating it. Right now I want to get through this winter as best I can. I'm gonna have to move some more back to the house (tomorrow). The rest I'm gonna have to see if i can group them closer together and heat a smaller section of the GH. I'm hoping this will work. I'm doing a lot hoping aren't I? I will survive!

My Ric Rac got frost bite last winter when we had a very rare freeze here. I thought it was a gonner, but I cut off the frozen parts and it has come back with lots of new growth where I cut it off. In fact it sent out mutiple branches from it.

Good luck with the rest of your plants,
Donna

Thanks Donna.

Was reading through old threads, and wondered how y'all made it through the winter.

An idea might be to build a small "greenhouse inside the greenhouse" to keep better heated the more tender of things.

This way you can keep the big part "kind of warm" for those who can survive it, and that will buffer and insulate the air around the smaller G[gh]H making it easier (and cheaper) to keep those precious tenders extra warm.

I have always been jealous of those old Victorian partitioned GHs.

Just a little curious.

Hi WNY. I did pretty good through the winter. I did end up having to downsize some. My GH did great until the weather(nights) started staying in the twenties longer than an hour. I ended up making a wall with plastic in the middle of the GH and putting all my plants in the south end. I put both the heaters in there and kept them on low. This did really well. I will not be putting my tender tropicals in there this winter. Other than that I am really please with it.

Mine did fine. I was prepared with three source of heat and ended up using kerosene most of the winter.

MollyD

Molly,
You ran your K heater all night? Didn't you have to keep a constant watch on it? Is your GH close to your home?

My greenhouse sits about 100 ft from the house. The heater runs 12 hours on a fill up so no I didn't have to watch it all night. This is one we bought from Walmart. Instead of being round it's a big rectangle and sends the heat out from the front.

MollyD

Great!! I am so glad you made it through without too much challenge. You have a great space for greenhousing.

My GH is connected to and heated/cooled by the house. The only trouble I have is the sun in the summertime. Only half the GH gets shaded by a large, mature mulberry. I like the mulberry because it grows fast and doesn't mind being chopped and hacked. Plus, the berries are a treat too. I have to be careful things don't get sunburned when moved back into the GH in the fall. I am looking into aluminum shade cloth.

I bet you would have super luck (and a smaller bill) heating a tiny greenhouse framed inside your current GH, as opposed to just walling the GH in half. By having the original greenhouse surround all sides and top of the smaller one inside, you get a really nice wind / thermal barrier around the smaller one.

I have a large old aquarium (terrarium) inside my GH for those tenders that do not want it below 50ºF. A lot of plants I have need to get colder in order to flower, etc. so, I have to be creative as to how things could exist side-by-side. Of course, when the power goes off in the middle of winter for 8 days, all bets are off! Those Tea Light Candles sure came in handy to keep the aquarium warmer.

Your greenhouse reminds me of my original cold frame that I first built in my teens, which has now been replaced by my current monstrosity! It's nice when everyone around is in construction, too!! I only had those nice panels on the roof, and poly plastic around the sides. Thought you might get a kick out of a pic of it. When the neighbor got rid of his louvered windows, he gave them to me which I expanded the coldframe to install.

I would love to see some more photos, esp. when you start putting things back in again for the fall!! I have already borrowed a couple of ideas you have there in your photos.

Thank you. I will post more pics this fall.

In my case I need more not less room! I was so cramped last winter.

MollyD

MollyD, I hope to be in there one day! I am seriously working on it.

I'm thinking that I am going to need to build another small GH soon.

Here's a shot of part of my cacti / succulent collection. Always room for one more.

What all are you keeping?

WNYwillieB I grow daylilies. I start them in the GH and grow them over the winter before transplanting them into the ground around May. That shortens their seed to bloom cycle by anywhere from 1 to 2 years.

MollyD

I grow anything at this point.

Me too .... well, anything that can stand a certain amount of neglect :-)

If you see anything I have that you want a spare of, just ask!

Molly, I only have two DLs ... the common double ditch lily, and a DL I am told is 'Bonanza'

Have any pic? (if you have the time! of course)

Here's one that bloomed today

and this one also bloomed today

Molly,
When you grow from seed, do you get the same as the parent? Is it hard to do this? I have some DL's with seed pods on them. Would be neat to grow some and give to my sisters.

Molly, those are both very nice! Is that top one Night Embers? I just discovered that one and is now one of my personal favs.

I recall that when you collect seed, things will not always come out exactly as expected.

Depends on the cross pollination, but I remember reading that it is always a surprise to see exactly what the seeds will produce. Some appear like one parent, some like the other and every variation in between.

The only way to be certain it will be true to the parent is to divide the clump, I believe.

Here's a shot of my DL I am told is 'Bonanza' (I think 'Bonanza' might be more yellow than mine, which seems a bit more orangie .... what do you think?)

pdoyle23323 when you grow from seed each plant is unique just like the children from any couple. There may be a resemblance but they're usually not identical.

WNYwillieB the top one is called 'Upon This Rock', second one is 'Victorian Lace'. Yes you are right about divisions being true. The other way is to grow proliferations (small plants that grow on the same stems as the flowers). Those will also be true.

I use to have Bonanza. The colors are similar to yours but I think the petals were a wee bit wider. Pretty thing you've got there.

MollyD

Molly, do you think the petals might be wider if it was ever watered or fed? Those guys are on the other side of the house by the neighbor's and pretty much left to fend for itself.

I like 'Upon the Rock' looks bigger than 'Night Embers' and not a double.

Possibly. Food and water can change how a daylily looks tremendously!

Upon This Rock is over 6" big so it's much bigger than Night Embers. As you said it's not a double. Also it's a recently hybridized plant. Night Embers was registered in 1997 by Pat Stamile. UTR was created by Phil Korth in 2007. Big difference in price too!!!!!

MollyD