The Variegated Thumb

After just a week in the greenhouse, I could already tell that the plants were happy.  Immediately my Aroids began to produce aerial roots where they hadn’t before.  In fact, I have a variegated Monstera deliciosa that now has an aerial root about 5 feet long.  Pretty impressive for a plant that is only about 8 inches tall with 2 leaves!

Anyway, one of the best indicators of a plant’s happiness is their bloomage.  Not that a non-blooming plant is unhappy, but it’s a pretty sure bet that a blooming plant is happy.  In some rare cases, a very unhappy plant will produce blooms just before dying - a last ditch effort to spread seed and ensure its survival through its offspring.  But you can usually tell if your plant is blooming for this reason.

I don’t have very many “blooming” plants.  Most of my plants do flower at some point in their life cycles, but their flowers are not particular showy, colorful or desirable to look at.  But those few that I have have been performing for me pretty well since being moved into the greenhouse.  The Datura (Angel Trumpet) has been producing yellow trumpet blooms constantly, followed by nice, full seed pods.  The lime tree put out a profusion of blooms once moved in and is now desperately trying to make fruit from those blooms, even though I can’t seem to give it enough water.  Christie’s Streptocarpus (False African Violet) has been covered in little blue-purple flowers since we got it several weeks ago.

And my favorite blooming plant in my collection has even been performing.  I have two Passiflora x alatocaerulea (a hybrid Passionflower) in my greenhouse that have been producing a couple of blooms each week.  We purchased both of these plants last summer, keeping one and giving the other as a gift to Christie’s grandmother for mother’s day.  Since they are not hardy plants in our climate, I offered to overwinter her plant in the greenhouse with my own.  I was able to keep it attached to her grandmother’s trellis and temporarily hang the trellis in the greenhouse.  Assuming I can keep it from getting too tangled with my other plants and greenhouse itself, it should be easy to transport back to her house in the Spring.

Passiflora x alatocaerulea blooming in the greenhouse

With Christmas day just a couple of days behind us, I figured now is a good time to share about the symbolism and name for the Passionflower.  If you have seen a Passionflower bloom before, you were probably amazed at the complicated sets of elements that are present.  There is just so much going on with each bloom.  It’s not a simple set of petals with a colored center, like members of the Asteraceae family.  The Passionflower has many different parts and the numbers of those parts are significant in the Christian culture.  In addition, the Spanish saw a resemblance in this flower and a Saint’s halo, commonly depicted in Roman Catholic art.

Back to the numerology of the bloom.  The bloom consists of five petals and five sepals, which represents the ten apostles - leaving out Judas the betrayer and Peter the denier.  The filaments can represent the thorns in Jesus’s crown.  Apparently there are 72 of them and that is how many thorns were in Jesus’s crown, though I’m not sure where that knowledge came from…  There are many myths and elements to teh Catholic faith that are not shared by the Protestant Christian denominations, of which I am a member.  There are five stamens, which is the number of wounds that inflicted Jesus.  In fact, the plant is referred to as “Flower of the Five Wounds” by South American Catholics.

Additional symbolism can be found in the shape of the leaves of some species of Passiflora, such that they look like spears, which pierced Jesus’s side.  And some dots underneath the leaves are to represent the 33 pieces of silver which were paid to Judas for the betrayal.

Passionflower blooms are only open for one day, the same time that Jesus suffered on the cross.  After their show the bloom closes rather than falling from the vine, like many other flowers do.  This closing symbolizes hidden wisdom and Jesus being placed into the tomb.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish the best in the New Year.

My sister works for a non-profit outreach program here in town.  On Friday we went to a fund-raising dinner and trivia tournament for her group and my sister’s boss (Lynn), who also has a greenhouse, brought me a gift.

Ying Yang Beans from the Phaseolus vulgaris 'Calypso' plant

These are Ying-Yang beans (Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Calypso’).  Lynn was given some Ying-Yang beans when she got her greenhouse and she grew them into plants, which flowered and produced about 10 beans.  She is now passing three of them on to me for good luck.

They are really cool beans.  When she handed them to me I almost felt like I was being invited on a snipe hunt.  I thought, “Oh, this must be the mild hazing that all new greenhouse owners endure.  Surely these beans were painted by someone.”  But they’re not painted; they are authentically half white and black with little dots even.  And as far as I can tell, this is nothing like the fruitless snipe hunts.

These beans grow into small bushes that produce white flowers and eventually some little pods of similarly colored black and white beans that look like ying-yangs.  (see here) These beans have also been called “Anasazi beans” since they are believed to have been a crop of the Anasazi native Americans.  They can be cooked and eaten much like any other bean.  However, as far as I understand, the beans turn solid black when cooked.

I hope to be able to grow some beans of my own and maybe pass them onto to a fellow new greenhouse owner.

I actually moved the plants into the greenhouse nearly a week ago, but I am just now getting to posting pictures of the interior with the plants moved in.

I bought three wonderful shelving units from Aldi (discount grocery store) for a sale price that is less than half their normal going price.  They come with 5 shelves each and I only need 3-4 shelves for each unit, since I have to allow room for the height of the plants.  That left me with extra shelves, which I used to combine two units out of three kits!  My remaining kit is on the opposite wall.

Two units of kitchen shelves, combined to make 3.

I configured the heights of the shelves to allow for special plants that have trellises attached or are taller and need more head room.

Looking left once you enter the door.

Then I spent a good deal of time on Friday and Saturday of last week, moving all my plants from the garage or inside the house into their new home in the greenhouse.

Looking ahead and to the left once you enter the door.

I still have quite a bit of rearranging to do and have not made the best use of my space.  There are still some shelves that are empty, while there are a couple of plants sitting on the floor.

Looking ahead and to the right once you enter the door.

I’m sure I will be moving plants around quite a bit until I feel that everything is settled in place.

Looking to the right once you enter the door.

I also plan to hang a metal rod (which I have on hand) under the house eave, which will allow me to hang some hanging baskets in my greenhouse.  I might also put some hooks on some of the rafters, to allow me to hang more plants over time.  But we’ll just see what types of plants I end up acquiring in the future!

View of the exterior of the greenhouse this morning.

See other phases of the project here:

• Initial Plans
• Phase 1: Masonry
• Phase 2: Staining
• Phase 3: Anchoring
• Phase 4: Framing
• Phase 5: Polycarbonate
• First heater night
• Phase 6: Move-in Day

Temperature over the last 72 hours in my greenhouse (click for larger image)

The plot above shows a sawtooth pattern when the heater is kicking on and off.  You can see the night when my heater came on 12 different times over a 9 hour period.  The following two nights the temperature gradually decreased, but never low enough to trigger the heater.

I should state, that I am still not finished with the greenhouse.  The soffits are still open, so I have simply stuffed a couple towels in the gaping holes to keep air from leaking out of the eaves for the time being.  I should get the soffits attached later this week.

Also, I just finished the trim around the door and put weather stripping in place on Monday, which probably helped the greenhouse stay warmer over the last two nights.

I still haven’t had a big test with a freeze outside, but I feel pretty confident now that with the soffits in place, my heater will keep the interior right around 60 degrees, which will make my plants very happy.

Stay tuned for pictures of my finishing touches and the plants in place!

See other phases of the project here:

• Initial Plans
• Phase 1: Masonry
• Phase 2: Staining
• Phase 3: Anchoring
• Phase 4: Framing
• Phase 5: Polycarbonate
• First heater night
• Phase 6: Move-in Day

The greenhouse is coming along.  Unfortunately the cold weather came before I finished, so Christie and I spent about an hour last Friday night, hauling all of my plants into the garage.

The final component (besides the details) to the greenhouse construction is the fastening of the walls and roof.  The material I have chosen to use is triple-wall polycarbonate panels.  These panels come in 6′ by 24′ sheets.  Yes, you read that right: twenty-four feet long.  The double-wall polycarbonate comes in much more manageable sizes because it is more commonly used.  The triple-wall is generally delivered in big trucks to the site of the greenhouse and assembled by a crew.  It’s not commonly used for hobby greenhouses the size of mine.  When we picked up the panels at the greenhouse supply store in Oklahoma City, we had to take a circular saw with us and cut the polycarbonate on site so that it would fit in our trailer.

Then I made the mistake of unloading the polycarbonate in the backyard and letting it sit in the rain for a week.  The rain doesn’t hurt the polycarbonate, but I had not capped off the ends and prepared them for hanging, so the walls filled with water.  The water is not easy to remove, let me add.

We had to use a combination of hair dryer, leaf blower, heater and dehumidifier to remove the moisture in the walls.

Open end of polycarbonate panel, taped with clear breathable medical tape to allow water to run out the bottom end.

Next we had to do the normal preparation for hanging the panels.  Before a panel is hung, you must first cap off the top of the panel with aluminum tape and then a u-shaped bracket of polycarbonate.  The bottom of the panel is capped off with porous tape (to allow condensation draining) and then another u-shaped bracket.

First panel being installed. The film with labels was removed after the panel was attached.

Seam of two panels meeting at a stud. You can barely notice.

After a couple of hours of work on both Saturday and Sunday, we had hung all of the walls and only had the roof left.  By that time we were pretty proficient in terms of taping and capping the panels.  The only difficulty with the roof was being able to reach over to screw the panels into the rafters.

Multiple panels fitting together over the door. You can see the aluminum tape used to cap the top sides of the panels.

View of greenhouse with all polycarbonate panels installed. You can't really see the greenhouse roof from this angle, but trust me - it looks just like the walls.

View inside of the greenhouse through the doorway.

There is still plenty of work to do in order for my greenhouse to be plant ready: caulking, finish the door installation, attach the soffits (which are currently open), stain any remaining unfinished wood.

In my next greenhouse update, I’ll take you inside to see the shelves that I have purchased!

See other phases of the project here:

• Initial Plans
• Phase 1: Masonry
• Phase 2: Staining
• Phase 3: Anchoring
• Phase 4: Framing
• Phase 5: Polycarbonate
• First heater night
• Phase 6: Move-in Day