Clark from Baltimore

Hello from Baltimore, Maryland. Orchid grower since 1957. Greenhouse grower since 2013. Specialize in terrestrials, Brazilian rock-growers, and Paphiopedilums.

 

The greenhouse has changed everything. I grew 50 years indoors under lights and am quite proud of what I was able to do. But the quality of growth and number of flowers is a whole new dimension. Basically, every axis of culture is easier to optimize. Water: nothing ever goes thirsty now. With 3,000 plants in the basement, too many were parched. All the pseudobulbs are always plump now. Nutrition: I have an injector so every plant receives a very light feeding every week in the warm weather. Lucky if once a month in the basement. Light: natural cycle now. Temperature: Good 15°F day/night variation. Can't do that with a family in the house. The greenhouse is split into 2 section. The warm-intermediate has a maximum temp of whatever it is outside except the vents and fans seem to keep it naturally cooler. Minimum year-round in this section is 60°. The air-conditioned half, where the Mostly Species acquisitions live is max 75° in the day, 60° at night, minimum 50° year round. The rupicolous Laelias and Sophronitis live in the cool section. The Laelias are up against the south wall so essentially full sun in the afternoon. I am getting blooms from plants that have always been simply foliage plants before. I spent 50 years researching this and the last 5 asking all my greenhouse-owning friends, civilian and commercial, what they would do differently and incorporated their advise. As a result I've had relatively little tweaking beyond moving plants around. I will be posting illustrations from time to time about the greenhouse itself and hope to be writing a book on the subject this fall. It will be a "why-to" rather than a "how-to" as there are a number of good books for that.

 

This would be one example. About 10 years ago, I finally figured out how to keep Laelia milleri alive in the basement but it had no intention of blooming. Now with a pretty close simulation of the south Brazilian highland, it is blooming.

 

One of the really great products I got from you (you have many, but this is my favorite) is the laser printable labels! Every plant as I repot them gets a full description, including their taxonomic citation if species or hybrid origin info from the RHS database. One of the best investments I ever made.

 

I had enough plants, I didn't worry about humidity. Instead, I used open nursery trays, carried several to the sink each day in rotation and double-watered with rain water. As the size of the collection increased, the period between watering became too long. I have several different nozzles for watering now; a water breaker 1000 which gives a really gentle rain and a low-volume Fogg-It nozzle for delicate seedlings like Fuchsias. I have a hot water heater in the greenhouse to avoid temperature shock in the winter. Total time to water the whole greenhouse is about 20 minutes if I don't stop and check things out.