Scottish Greenhouse in the Winter

skelly01

Hi Folks,

I live in Central Scotland, in the clyde valley with very cold frosts (upto -15). Is there anything i can grow through the winter in the greenhouse without it being heated?

ClootiesMum

I have no idea, I'm afraid - but being in the same temperature band, I'll be watching this thread with interest.......

Lotus-eater

Anything you can grow outside, just they will do slightly better inside the greenhouse.

mrbadexample

Icicles.

Jnelhams

An ideal range of plants for a cold greenhouse, especially in your zone, are the Alpines, and of course the Hardy Cyclamens.

see the following society pages

http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/

http://www.cyclamen.org

With Alpines and Hardy Cyclamen, it is not the cold that kills them, but the winter rain, as in their native mountain areas, they are kept virtually dry by the snow until spring, so -15C is a walk in the park for these guys when kept under glass with the windows open for some air!! :eek:

choille

Watch the weather forecast & have bubble wrap handy to drape about as a bit of extra protection, or use an old fashioned method - the parafin heater if the temps going to really drop.

Rummer

Sadly we just use ours as storage over the winter.

Jake'sGran

I have an unheated GH too and there was a good tip, on here I think, about raising the temperature. The lady who wrote said she uses a terracotta pot turned upside down with a thick lit candle inside on a dish or similar. She said the pot gets very warm. We are going to try it this year but I have decided that my tender stuff, like pelargoniums, will overwinter in the potting shed which has a lot of light and a very low wattage heater. Some of my fuschias have become hardy after being left in a sheltered spot.

Jnelhams

It's is theoretically possible to keep the temperature up, by storing water in large containers painted black. Anyday time sunlight will be absorbed into the water, and radiated at night. As I am sure you'll all remember from physics lessons, cold water takes longer to freeze than warm, as it needs to absorb more energy, so as the water cools it absorbs more of the surrounding cold and raises the air temperature slightly. Again another system is to build a gravel and polystyrene heat sump under the greenhouse base before it is installed, which is connected into the greenhouse by a pipe and this again allows heat to be gained by the air in the greenhouse.