Ken, regarding the blue Vanda, I always like the V. Sansai Blue....

OK, I will have to keep an eye out for that one, Ursula.

Oh, you are so right, Alice, what's another plant when I have about 500 of them?

You are no help here, Ursula.

Ken...you might be in the wrong group...this is the ' Orchid Enabler ' group..
the 'Orchid Hoarder Intervention' group is three doors down...you can't miss it..the room is always empty!

Now that brings everything into focus.

Jim

I just got my two new, 240V heaters installed in the two greenhouses. It took two electricians 5 hours to do the job. Now for the billing.

Chump change..when you have peace of mind on those 40 degree nights ...( or worse!). Ask Jim if the cost of redoing his pool enclosure was worth it!

40 degree nights! How about teens, Lindsay. I could use candles when the temperatures are in the 40's.

I do use candles when it gets down towards 40 . . . one large votive candle under an upturned clay pot keeps my little greenhouse shelf units above 50 for one night. Happily it's not looking like going that low for a while yet!

Okey dokey.

I am trying to picture this candle set up. So does the clay pot hold and radiate the heat? My risk aversive DH would probably pitch a fit if I left anything with a flame burning overnight.

Hm, I think I have a picture of one, Alice. Basically the votive candle sits in a glass candle holder, on the mesh shelf at the bottom of the unit, and I turn the wet clay pot - or two - over top (upside down) so that it acts like a diffuser. I also put a little foil muffin cup over the hole in the clay pot so all the heat doesn't go straight out of the hole.

There's nothing near it that could possibly catch fire, since they are well away from the house, out on the brick paved pool deck. Plus everything inside the little unit is wet as well.


In the last picture, the large clay pot at the bottom goes over the candle and the smaller clay pot. The clay itself also retains a lot of heat as well as releasing moisture into the air over night (those cold nights are also usually dry, dry, dry).

The two jugs on either side of the clay pot have water and used coffee grounds in them. (makes the water dark colored, and keeps out mosquitoes) I put them in the sun during the day then tuck them into the shelf unit at night. They provide ballast for the unit in case of wind, and also retain and diffuse a lot of heat.

I "tested" a piece of the plastic greenhouse cover, out of an abundance of caution, and the plastic melted when held to the candle flame but did not burn.

That all makes sense - at least to me, not sure what the DH would say.

You are a wealth of information! Coffee grounds discourage mosquitoes? Due to all the rain we have had and the higher than normal temps we are getting eaten alive here. Just walking the dog is an issue, we have to spray up before we venture out.

Well, I know Ken's experience differs, but I have not seen a single "wiggler" in any of my jugs of water that have coffee grounds in them. Maybe some strains of mosquitoes tolerate caffeine better than others? . . I also throw my coffee grounds around on my beds of bromeliads and the plants seem to like it. I see very few mosquitoes when I go out there, either. Mind you, my broms seldom have a lot of water in them because the cups are usually full of oak leaves, too.

All you can do is try an experiment - put out jugs of water, one with and one without coffee grounds. See if the skeeters breed in either or both. Then IF they do breed in the clear water, put in some coffee grounds and see what happens? (don't know about you but I just love an experiment)

I walk around with pieces of Mosquito Dunk in my hand at least once a month, and apply to every bit of standing water I can see. Even treated the water in the ditch across the street a few times this summer. My friends visiting from Canada commented that my garden is relatively free of skeeters (compared to some other places they went while visiting here). When I run out of Dunks, I go for the coffee grounds.

Yep, I use those Dunks in my big tub of rain-water. The do a good job with those larvae. I have sold the vast majority of my bromeliads and I will never grow the number I had for the last two years. Mosquitoes shouldn't be much of a problem, but then, they don't seem to like my skin. If my wife is outside for 5 minutes and there is a mosquito within a mile, it will quickly get to her. She always gets pierced by those suckers and I never do.

Yes, , I am forever trying things just to see what happens. Well, I have to do something with those coffee grounds........

I never waste coffee grounds. When the canister is filled I will either throw the grounds over azaleas or if I have dosed them within a month or so, I will just dump them in my potting media-filled wheelbarrow. I mix it right into that media.

I put them around my cycads, it does seem to help with scale although we don't have the problems here like they had in FL.