Loving the Rhyncholaelia glauca right now.
Brilliantly clear sky again today and cold and the temps are going to be tomorrow night around -4 degr F. I am keeping my eye on the level in the oil tank....

I may have to find another, less expensive way to heat my two greenhouses. My wife, Kathy, told me what our electric bill for January was. Ouch!

I remember those days, living in VA during the winter and spending $400/month in electric heat and $700 every other month to fill the auxillary heater oil tank during winter. No thanks

Our Social Security checks don't go very far.

Ken, I am thinking your planned porch addition/ enclosure will be surely more cost effective to heat.
Since my greenhouse is connected to the oil heating system of the house and share the same duct work, even on those bright and sunny cold Winter days with temps not climbing above 18 degr F. At noon the greenhouse temperature climbs into the seventies. The warm air circulates through the whole house, keeping the oil consumption down at least during day time.

Ursula, I will still have those two separate greenhouses. I have just settled on a contractor and he wants to have the sunroom with its own heating/cooling unit, rather than using our two existing AC/heating units to cool and heat that new space. He thinks it will be more cost-effective and more efficient. Of course, we don't use oil down here. It would more than likely be an all-electric (new) unit.

Sounds care-free, Ken!

IF I can afford the project. I still don't know the total cost.

You could write it off as a business expense for your nursery biz

Have you looked at a Rocket Mass heater like Melissa put in her new greenhouse, Ken?

I didn't understand how they work until I read the explanation on this page. (skip the video part, it's just an ad for his DVD's) Scroll down the page to where it has the diagrams and explanation of how they work. So clean, efficient and clever!

http://www.richsoil.com/rocket...

You should also look at using some kind of a solid heat sink to retain the solar and artificial heat that you're generating. Solid brick or concrete block walls on the north sides of greenhouses are very common up north, and both insulate better than a greenhouse wall, and absorb then retain heat that the sun generates during the day, releasing it at night.

As I've said before, my friend in Utah had great (economical) success keeping his greenhouse warm and humidified using storage tubs of water, and for the coldest weather he'd keep the water warm using a waterbed heater.

I know that there are probably lots of ways to better-heat my GH's, but one problem I have is the space necessary to do so. My GH's are really small 10'x12' ones, and with 500 or so tropical plants jammed in, to say the least, space is at a premium. I can't do anything now regardless, but come spring, when all the plants can go back outside, under my oak and cedar trees, I will give the heating question a good looking at. Perhaps LP will be an answer, but I just have to compare efficiency against cost. I have a single-burner LP heater that I use for tailgating and as an emergency heater for one of my GH's, and when it gets really, really cold (like tonight) I will fire it up. Even set at the lowest burn-rate, it will keep the GH above 60F with no problem.

My CPA would probably have a hissy-fit if I even mentioned taking a tax-advantaged stand with the (proposed) sun room. Just to give him something to worry about, I might fly it by him. I always accuse him of really working for the IRS, and not for me.

I'm still trying to catch up. I just downloaded and installed OrchidWiz 11.3 so I am right up to speed on boffin news.

MJ, I'm very impressed by your lovely Den anceps. What a beautiful plant!

Ursula, I love your Chrisanda [Csn.] Memoria Anri Bracker, so I looked it up. It is now called Papilionanda [Pda.] Memoria Anri Bracker (Ple. teres x V. vietnamica). What a great flower!

I pronounced the rain over prematurely yesterday as it began to rain again and it lasted most of the night. We are only up to 58 degrees today for an afternoon high but it is nice and sunny so I managed to get some yard work accomplished. The forecast calls for yet another cold front to come through tonight dropping tomorrow night's low down to freezing. If so, it would be the first freeze we have had in three years. My tropicals will not be amused. I will drag down some blankets from the attic and try to cover the blooming cyms. My company delayed their trip from Indiana due to the ice storms in Kentucky and Tennessee. I'm not sure when they are going to leave.

Jim

Thanks Jim, I'm very happy with my Den. anceps this year. It's turning into a grown up plant !

Been out most of the day moving stuff around and emptied two big trunks of blankets to cover plants that are in the ground that I'd rather not see go dormant ( or worse) so late in the season. Everything else will come back fine. I actually don't mind if the Sky Vine's get a good frost, they need a good pruning anyway !

Mj, I had to go back in this thread, I missed reading a few posts there yesterday and amongst them was your Den. anceps!! It is a really nice looking plant, I like its growth habit very much, very attractive.

Thanks Jim!! I should have guessed that the name of my Chrisanda has changed.
Except, now I am looking at the parents and I realized I gave an incorrect I'd for this plant. It is Vanda Martha Ragan. No, looking it up, it is now called Vandoglossum Martha Ragan.
One could just give up....

Stay warm, Floridians!!

Tongue-in-cheek, Ursula, tongue-in-cheek. I just know all you nor-easterner's feel so sorry for us southerner's that are (gasp) are dealing with freezing temperatures.

You know I am just joking. Just because you are used to sub-freezing temperatures doesn't mean that it is any less difficult than when we have to deal with it.

I fired up my LP heater in the Everything Else GH. That greenhouse cools down more than the lean-to, Orchid GH.

Ken, you know the way I see it, comes Fall in my climate zone, I have to move everything inside and there is in a way a sort of a pleasant finality to it.
Not having had a real frost in our Southern regions in several years, I could imagine a paradise like that for ever. So when chilly temperatures approach, one has to protect all those tender plants. I totally get it!!

Yup, we really shouldn't complain about the few nights per winter that we have to cover and protect our tender treasures. We have such a lot of wonderful weather the rest of the time. We're spoiled and a little bit wimpy.

Weather guys say tomorrow night will be the first freezing temps the Tampa Bay area has seen in nearly 5 years, yes, winter of 2010 was a brutal one but not as bad as the year before when we had nearly 2 weeks of cold.

As Mj says, it does accomplish some much-needed pruning for you, that's fer sure.

This little cutie opened today. Vanda testacea x Vanda garayi (not registered). V. garayi used to be Ascocentrum.

This is a Martin Motes orchid and is quite hardy. First bloom seedling.

A bit wimpy? We are 100% authentic crybaby weenies when it comes to temps in the 30s-40s for two to three whole nights out of the year...(oh no!)

Ken, sounds cheaper and less complicated just to move to Miami.

Melissa...I have a soft spot for the mini delicate blooms...they are SO CUTE...can you post a picture of the whole plant? I may want this....