Planning an outside grow area

I'm planning on starting a growing area in the coffee shop of my wife here in Campinas, SE Brazil. The area is about 3 x 2.5m (9 x 8ft), open above and surrounded by walls and a glass slide door on one side. Since this is inside the shop it has to look beautiful, it's going to be an "inside" garden of the shop.

My climate here is:
Summer max averages: 30ºC (86ºF) - extremes of 38ºC (100ºF)
Summer min averages: 19ºC (66ºF)
Winter max averages: 25º (77ºF)
Winter min averages: 14ºC (57ºF) - extremes of 04ºC (39ºF)

Yearly precipitation average is 1.425mm, with a lot of rain concentrated during the spring and summer months, and a drier winter where it may not rain for a full month or more.

My goal is to create a very lush garden, with a tropical look. I'm most interested in growing neotropical species, especially if they are from the Atlantic Rainforest, where I have constant access. I will probably intersperse the orchids with bromeliads and ferns. I plan on covering the place with some kind of shade to avoid the full force of midday sun, but it will remain subject to the summer storms that may last a few days.

What kind of approach would you take here? Would you go for substrats that dry quickly? Or maybe put most orchids on tree branches and such as true epiphytes and fix them to the wall? Thanks for any help and sorry for the long post, just want to ger started on a good direction.

 

Marni, I will provide a picture by tomorrow. Yes the walls are solid and on the glass door there is a bit of light coming through, but not much as it leads to the shop interior. Most of the light comes from above, and I will build a "roof" of parallel wood slats, very close together so they provide half sun half shade. The walls I can use to put flowers on face east, north and west.

I have visited orchid growers but mostly in more humid areas. I will visit one closer to here this week and see what he does.

I'm trying to make a selection of easy orchid species to start with (preferably from my area more or less) that can grow well under these climate conditions. The humidity here can be quite low during the winter months, but since I will put a lot of plants there, like ferns and bromeliads, I think this will help in keeping the humidity in that small area quite a bit higher than outside, which from my begginers perspective is very important in growing orchids - I don't see many orchids in dry areas.

 

Yes the slats will be north-south. What distance do you suggest for the sloths with a shade cloth over them?

As far as water, I think because of the heavy rains during the summer it might be better to plant most (if not all) orchids on wood pieces, branches, open baskets, etc. If I pot them I'm pretty sure I will have problems with rotting roots, unless maybe I use a very "light" substrate. During the winter I can just water them more regularly if needed, although since I will mostly be using local species, I will try to mimic the natural condition in the rainforest here, that is: warm and very wet summers and cool winters with water mostly as morning mist and sparse light rains.

 

I have made a pre-list of orchids I will try to get initially from commercial orchidariums around here (most below are readily available), plus many others that I can just grab from the floor of the rainforest - there is always an abundance of broken branches full of orchids, bromeliads and such. This list is subject to many changes and I'm not even totally sure these species are good choices for my weather. But I think they are most all from SE Brazil. Because this garden is supposed to look good, I have added some species based on different characteristics... like some hanging flowers, some traditional ones, large, small, clumps, different leaf shapes, etc. Are these good to start with? Anything you think should be left out or included?

Maxillaria picta
Oncidium flexuosum
Pleurothallis sonderana (too hot?)
Bifrenaria harrisoniae
Bifrenaria tyrianthina
Brassavola tuberculata
Dracula inaequalis (maybe? I would like to try one Dracula, even though I reckon they are harder to keep)
Hoffmannseggella flavasulina
Hoffmannseggella harpophylla
Miltonia regnellii aurea
Miltonia flavescens
Miltonia spectabilis
Epidendrum denticulatum
Cattleya forbesii
Cattleya harrisoniana
Cattleya tigrina var. leopoldii
Laelia purpurata (maybe in a couple different forms)
Gomesa recurva

 

Thanks for the ideas! Yeah I think it's wise to start with fewer (more spaced) slats and then add more or a shade cloth if needed.