Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Pleione and Orchidaceae => Topic started by: Maren on September 19, 2010, 09:59:14 PM
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Hi,
I've been working for the last three years on the restoration of a small Victorian greenhouse, built in 1907, never maintained and totally rotten through and through. It stands in a large former kitchen garden, now put to grass, and when I first came across it, it was hidden in a jungle of brambles, nettles and thistles and there were trees growing in it and through the broken glass.
I made a deal with the owner that I would be allowed to use it for free for my pleiones if I undertook the restoration. Well, he got a good deal. The worst part was that the sills were rotten and had to be replaced. It's tricky to fit something in between existing brick and metalwork. We also found that there was no symmetry, all the angles were untrue and one side was longer than the other. All the glass panes were of different measurements etc.etc. It was a bit of a nightmare.
But it was worth it. The pleiones love it and I take great pride in the result, particularly the smart staging which I designed to replace - well - there was really nothing there before.
Now this is the Little Greenhouse, there is a bigger one in front of it, about three times as large and equally decrepit.......
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Wow! What a transformation! A LOT of work, Maren, but what a super end result.... the old style is just so beautiful. Lucky plants!
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Hi Maren , three years to turn the ugly duckling into a beautiful white swan, amazing transformation.
Thanks for showing.
Angie :)
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Maren, that greenhouse is absolutely wonderful!
I think I would love being a Pleione growing there. ;D
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wow Maren i only wish i had of lived near you, one of my dreams is to restore a Victorian greenhouse,they really had the knack of building stunning greenhouses and by the looks of it your restoration job is fantastic,you lucky Devil.Did the owner have any paperwork going back to the construction of the glass house,maybe the catalogue from which it was originally chosen,or is that wishfull thinking.
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Davey,
catalog? you must be kidding. These buildings were custom made, each one had its own design according to the customer's wishes. But the craftsmanship is quite wonderful, apart from nothing being square etc. There is a wealth of tenons and plugs to hold things together. Unfortunately they all had to be cut and replacement timber screwed into place. That's what you have to do when you take a structure, remove the middle and replace it with new timber. I'll keep you posted on what happens to the rest.
Here are some pictures of the next emergency and how far we've got. The gentleman helping me is Roy White, member of the RHS Orchid Committee, chairman of the Orchid Society of Great Britain, President of the Thames Valley Orchid Society, terrific grower of paphiopedilums, expert carpenter and most of all, a very, very nice man. He reckons we'll be tinkering (if that is the right word for a lot of hard work) with this greenhouse complex for many years to come.
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What a fantastic job, well done.
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Thank you all. I'm glad you like it.
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It is just incredible. I'm green with envy, not about the work but the result. For anyone who watched 'A Victorian Kitchen Garden' in the 80'ties it is a dream come true.
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What an amazing result Maren !
Many congratulations, it's a stunning beauty !
That owner did one hell of a deal if you ask me... :-\
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Maren
Congratulations on the restoration of the greenhouse, it looks stunning. Now are you going to start work on restoring the larger one? :)
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Brilliant Maren. Wonderful job.
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That looks really wonderful Maren. I take my hat of for that.
A greenhouse like that is every gardeners dream.
Hope you will have many years of good growth and fun with it.
Greetings
Pieter
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Hi all,
thank you for your kind comments, they are much appreciated.
For those of you who are smitten with the beauty of the old, let me bring you down to earth (sorry!!) and tell a about a few drawbacks when using a Victorian greenhouse to grow things (pleiones) that require to be frost free and prefer temperatures less than 25C.
It works best when you live next to it, especially in spring and autumn, when you can expect cold nights and hot days. As there is no automation or electricity in "my" Victorian greenhouse, all the vents (side and top) have to be opened and closed manually. If I lived there, I would stroll to the greenhouse in the morning, say 10am, check the temperature, look at the sky, remember the weather forecast and open the vents (or not). Then around noon, I would check the temperature again, open the vents or not. ... At 4pm, I'd do the same and close the vents or I would leave it until 7pm.
As it happens I live 18 miles from this place and I don't go there every day. So if I leave the vents closed, talking about spring and autumn, night temperatures will be OK but day temperatures will be way too hot. If I leave the vents open, day temperatures will be OK but at night, the heating system (gas bottles) will have to work overtime, with the heat going out of the windows, and it would cost me a fortune. I thought about installing automatic vent openers, but the vents are so heavy, being made of timber, the openers couldn't shift them. - So on balance, I would prefer a nice aluminium greenhouse with automated vents.
I have solved the summer problem: I leave all vents open, and I take the glass out of the doors to create a draft (will someone help me with the spelling of this word please). :)
Anyway, since I don't have anywhere else to grow my plants, I make the best of it. :) :) :)
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Wonderful of you to let us all admire your fantastic glasshouse, without having to help you with all the hard work Maren!
draft (will someone help me with the spelling of this word please). :) - the spelling you want is draught. (A draft is a rough sketch or outline)
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Wonderful of you to let us all admire your fantastic glasshouse, without having to help you with all the hard work Maren!
draft (will someone help me with the spelling of this word please). :) - the spelling you want is draught. (A draft is a rough sketch or outline)
Being Friday a pint or two of my favourite draft may well be on the agenda ;D
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Thank you Gail, much appreciated, I knew it was there somewhere but drought meant something else and I will join everybody in a draft or two tonight. :) :) :) ;)
More progress to follow. I have been held back a bit, had a cataract taken out of my right eye on Tuesday but was able to drive again today, so the surgeon said. I recommend it if required, the result is spectacular. ;D
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Hi Maren and Gail. Both spellings are correct and there about 15 different meanings of the word.
In your context it is a movement of air such as a cold draft under the door in winter.
Also describes the upward movement of air in a chimney,
John B
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Hi Maren and Gail. Both spellings are correct and there about 15 different meanings of the word.
In your context it is a movement of air such as a cold draft under the door in winter.
Also describes the upward movement of air in a chimney,
John B
The definition of a draft is when someone else leaves a door/window open; if you leave it open it's called "fresh air"!
;D
cheers
fermi
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The definition of a draught is when someone else leaves a door/window open; if you leave it open it's called "fresh air"!
;D
Fermi, that's brilliant, I'll remember that. ;D ;D
Oops, haven't quite got the hang of a quote. Can someone teach me please? It looks much nicer when done properly.
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If you wish to quote the whole text of a post then clicking on the "quote" button to the top left of the post is the way to go.
Should you only want to quote a phrase from a post, the best way is to copy and paste the phrase, then highlight the text and hit the yellow quote balloon icon in the range of options above your text box.... that will place your phrase in the neat quote box. Or you can follow the first method and delete any phrases you don't want.
happy to help!
I'm glad to hear your eye operation has gone well..... I seem to know a lot of people having eye ops and the thought terrifies me!
M
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I'm glad to hear your eye operation has gone well..... I seem to know a lot of people having eye ops and the thought terrifies me!
.... and me. It's the end of the world if I get as much as a speck of grit in my eye, can't even do eye drops as I can't face keeping my eye open long enough to get the drops in there.
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This is getting a bit off topic, but regarding eyes, yes, I'm with you. But I have mastered the eye drops by telling myself that I am putting them into the opening at the bottom, and not into they eye. This may be factually incorrect but it suits my nervous disposition to think of it that way. About the op itself, I was scared but it had to be done so there was nothing for it. In the end, it turned out to be more of an inconvenience than anything painful or traumatic. And the result - oh, the colours I can now see!! Being an orchid judge, that is even more of a bonus. :) :) :)
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Amazing, it's gorgeous !! ;D Very good job !
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Hi,
I was hoping to be able to report that the Pleione wing of the Victorian greenhouse had been completed. Alas, spanner in the works, or rather pane in the hand, meaning that a column of panes slipped when the roof was being glazed. I tried to catch one of them, as one does, and it sliced clean through my glove and hand, leaving an impressive trail of blood as I made for the first aid box. The glazier wagged his finger and said:"Never try to catch a pane of glass!!!" So all of you out there, please remember this for your own good.
Anyway, the hospital said I made a good job of patching it up, they insisted on an x ray to see if there was any glass in the hand, but there wasn't, so they glued it and strapped it and told me I mustn't go horse riding tomorrow, drat.
On the plus side, I just received the Tulipa 'Lilliput' I had set me heart on, so things can always get better, it just depends what one means by 'things'.
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Nasty Maren, been there done it, now I just let things break. Hope it heals up quickly for you.
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Oh, Maren, that could have been a truly terrible accident......you were very lucky.
Good to know that you... and we, I hope have learned a valuable lesson from that..... If in doubt, let it drop!
I hope you are soon better.
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Thanks, Neil and Maggi, I feel a right pratt, but the hand is better already. ;D ;D
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Phew, it's done - well, Phase 2. Here are some pictures, before and after. The inside view: the rosettes are there to encourage my 'little darlings'. Then there are piccis showing the mechanisms for opening the top and side vents, all operated manually, of course.
I'm quite pleased with the result. Soon it will be filled up again. :)
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Here is a picture of the entire complex. You can see that the right hand side is in good repair, that's my bit. The rest reminds me of my boss who, when presented with a problem, used to say: "There are no problems, only opportunities".
There are lots of opportunities here. ;) ;) ;)
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An impressive job, well done Maren !
At least when looking at the last picture, it must be a relief for you to see that you have even more "opportunities" when your half is full of Pleiones... ;)
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Oh Luc, it's full already. I may need to install some double decker shelving as I did in the Little Greenhouse, see picci. Trouble is, I would probably knock my head every time I want to reach what's underneath.
Looking at the picture reminds me of the early days when it was full of vegetation. I was cutting it down and reaching forward to get hold of a wayward branch when my foot didn't find solid ground and instead I stepped straight into a very deep water tank that I didn't know existed. Well, it was January - no more work was done that day. My right leg was pretty frozen by the time I got home. How we laughed .....
I later found out that each greenhouse has a galvanised water tank hidden under a bench, 1m x 1m x 1m deep, all interconnected. What a good idea. But one of them leaks, so all leak. Oh well, can't have it all!