Question re conservatory plants

Sharon_1970_2

I am not sure if I am posting in the right place but here goes. We have recently moved into a new house and we have a large conservatory attached to the house. One wall is brick the other three are all glass. It also has those built in blinds. Ok my question is I would like to put some plants out there but am not sure what would work well. I don't mind one or two big ones but some smaller would be good. I have thought of things like ficus but would have to bring them in during the winter as there is no heating. So really wanted suggestion for things which would work well over winter and summer please?

angelavdavis

Is your conservatory south facing?

I have a conservatory and have weeping figs out there - the unvariegated are fine there all year round, but the variegated is a bit fussy with the cold.

I have bird of paradise plants in mine and lots of orchids. The orchids love the light and most of them (one is fussy) don't mind the cold in winter. I put the bird of paradise plants out on the patio in summer. I always fancied training a bourganvillea up the wall, but have never got round to it.

I also start off hyacinths in pots for spring colour and scent.

Edit: Orchid types i grow are Phalaenopsis (moth orchids) and Cymbidium Orchid, one of the Cymbidiums is flowering now!

Sharon_1970_2

It is South Facing. Whereabouts are u? We are in South Wales.

angelavdavis

On the South Coast, near Hastings.

You will no doubt suffer like we do with an overheated conservatory in the summer time although your blinds will definitely help and its manageable as long as you open the windows when you can and use a demister spray to spray the plants to stop getting hit with red spider mite due to the heat. You may also have to water every day. I sit most of the pots ontop of gravel to create a more damp environment.

We have some other plants too that I had forgotten about in my initial post, we have a Christmas cactus that flowers twice a year and lives in the conservatory most of the time (I brought it in when it flowered last as it was so lovely it was wasted on the conservatory as few people use it in winter). I also have a huge spider plant which babies and babies on the babies.

alanobrien

A banana will make a great specimin plant in a large conservatory.
Musa Basjoo or better still Musa Sikkimensis Red Tiger. Both are realtively easily available from April. They grow fast and are not to expensive.

peter_the_piper

Our local Lidl (Hastings) has 3ft conservatory plants at about £4.00 at the moment. (Well they did have yesterday) Worth a look.

nodwah

my conservatory sounds like yours - but we don't have blinds.
We do have a radiator in there but don't put it on as it just sends money straight out the glass as far as I'm concerned, so in the winter we only put on an electric heater when we're in there.
We have far too many plants in there including, umbrella plants and yuccas - which I mostly got on freecycle and are now huge - I'm overwintering garden plants like geraniums and I'll soon be filling it up with seeds for the summer
Anyway they all survive fine without any extra heat - even through that cold snap we've just had - there must be a wee bit of radiant heat coming from the house wall though it feels freezing to us. We've been in this house for 3 years and I haven't lost any plants due to cold- but what you need to watch is the summer heat and glare, It's good that you've got the blinds, but I tend to give my plants a summer holiday outside for July and August.