Common Greenhouse Plants

Common greenhouse plants can be grown to be a credit to you during the dark winter days. Do you want to raise summer colour from seed? We give ideas for every gardener.

Common Greenhouse Plants for an Unheated glasshouse

Tender shrubs like camellias and even hydrangeas benefit from starting off in your glasshouse. Protection from frost and wind is vital. Grow them in containers and move them outside in late spring.

Shrubs

Camellias are often thought to be tender, especially in windy, open conditions, possibly because the flowers which open early in the year are sometimes damaged by frost. For this reason camellias are good subjects for glasshouse gardening. All the varieties of Camellia japonica will grow happily in pots of lime-free soil, but they should not be cosseted as if they were hot-house specimens. Prunus triloba flore pleno has double pink flowers and is another fine flowering shrub grown as common greenhouse plants. Yellow flowered forsythia, rosy-purple Rhodedendron praecox, lilacs as well as winter flowering heathers (Erica carnea) will all produce a brilliant display.

H. paniculata grandiflora

Hydrangea paniculata produces enormous white flower trusses and can easily be grown in pots - the stems should be cut back severely each spring. Hotensia hydrangeas will flower even earlier than H.paniculata; treat the soil with a blueing powder to produce the best blue flowers.


N. bulbocodium	N. triandrus albus	N. cyclamineus

Bulbs

Bulbs can provide a wonderful display early in the year. The earliest to flower are "prepared" daffoldils in January followed by narcissi, the dark blue Iris reticulata and named varieties of snowdrop. Other small bulbs well worth growing are miniature daffodils, such as Narcissus cyclamineus, N. triandrus albus, and N. bulbocodium.

Lilium auratum virginale

Also try winter flowering crocuses and Eranthis hyemalis, the winter aconite with butter-yellow petals.
For summer flowering you should try lilies such as L. auratum and L. speciosum which look superb grown in pots. Gloxinias and tuberous-rooted begonias are understandable poplular with their brilliant colours which can be started into growth in early April.

Other common greenhouse plants are flowers which can be purchased, or lifted from the garden in autumn, for a spring display. Wallflowers, dicentras, astilbes, forget-me-nots, polyanthus, lily-of-the-valley and Christmas roses can all be potted up for the cold glasshouse.

Common Greenhouse Plants for an cool glasshouse

Shrubs

A greater variety of common greenhouse plants can be grown if the temperature can be held above 10⁰C. The provision of heat helps to maintain a good growing climate. In addition to the hardy shrubs and bulbs that can be brought into a cold glasshouse for flowering much earlier than those in the open, more delicate species can be cultured. Indian azaleas are popular florists' pot choice; these can be kept from year to year provided they are fed regularly, and are common greenhouse plants for enthusiasts. They flower in winter and early spring and can be put outside for the summer. Acacia dealbata, or mimosa, with its yellow fluffy flowers and a heady scent can be enjoyed in early spring. There are also a great many ornamental climbers that will thrive in the warmth; passion flowers, brightly coloured bougainvilleas, soft blue Plumbago capensis and Lapageria rosea with rose pink, waxy bells, all flower in summer and are common greenhouse plants.


Bougainvillea	Plumbago capensis	Lapageria rosea

Bulbs

All the popular bulbs can be treated as common greenhouse plants; daffodils, hyacinths and tulips can be brought into flower in winter, weeks before their outdoor neighbours do so. After the pots and bowls are removed from the plunge beds outside they should be given cool conditions at first and gradually introduced to warmer conditions. Hippeastrums, often mistakenly called amaryllis, can be planted in February and will bear huge, impressive flowers in spring. Freesia corms started into growth in August, will produce colourful scented flowers in February and March.

Common greenhouse plants that can be raised from seed in spring and early summer for a display in winter and spring are: Primula obconica, P. malacoides and calceolareas.


Primula obconica	P. malacoides	Calceolarea

Fruit Growing in a Greenhouse

Maybe bananas and pineapples, which require a great deal of heat and humidity to thrive, are outside the scope of the average greenhouse gardener, but a number of hardier fruits can be obtained earlier with the protection a greenhouse affords.

Any hardy fruits can be grown under glass but thos generally considered to be the most rewarding are peaches, nectarines, figs and grapes.

Grapes are especially good as they can be planted outside the greenhouse and trained through the glass panels so they grow inside. They can be trained so their foliage adorns the roof where they catch the best of the light and heat from the sun and cast a little, much needed, shade on the plants growing below.

A well grown young vine can reach the roof of a greenhouse in a single year and should provide a healthy crop within a couple of years - possibly the best reason for growing a vine is to use the grapes for making wine as well as for eating, and the leaves are ornamental as well as edible.

Wine making is not taxing to make and is so rewarding that you will wonder why you did not do it earlier!

With a little planning a grape vine is a valuable addition to those more common greenhouse plants.

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