Inside My New Tropical Hoop House
Here in Bedford, New York, temperatures today are expected to reach 50-degrees Fahrenheit - quite warm for this time of year.
Yesterday was also unseasonably warm - 64-degrees Fahrenheit - warm enough to open my tropical greenhouses just a bit to let in some fresh air. I now have three large hoop houses where I store most of my tropical plants over winter. The last one was completed just a few months ago to accommodate my growing collection of potted specimens. These large structures are made from steel frames and polyethylene panels. Inside, the temperature and humidity levels are monitored and can be adjusted when necessary. And every few days, I like to go into each one to see how all the plants are doing.
Enjoy these photos from my newest hoop house.
-
- Here at the farm, I now have six different greenhouses. This is the newest – located in front of my vegetable garden right off the carriage road and across from another tropical hoop house. These hoop houses work by heating and circulating air to create an artificial tropical environment. The entire structure is built using heavy gauge American made, triple-galvanized steel tubing.
-
- The fabric is made of two layers – one is a heavy-duty, woven polyethylene that features an anti-condensate additive to reduce moisture buildup and dripping. The other side contains UV additives that allow the fabric to maintain its strength through the seasons. This Polyethylene fabric is designed to stand up to just about any climate. It also resists rips and tears, so it could last up to 10-years depending on the weather.
-
- The plants inside are all arranged with enough space in between them, so they don’t touch each other. These plants grow a little more each year, so the placement of these specimens will change every time they are stored. The addition of this hoop house allows for ample room to store all these healthy potted specimens.
-
- Just inside the front doors is this potted Beaucarnea recurvata, the elephant’s foot or ponytail palm – a species of plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz and San Luis Potosí in eastern Mexico. Despite its common name, it is not closely related to the true palms. In fact, it is a member of the Agave family and is actually a succulent. It has a bulbous trunk, which is used to store water, and its long, hair-like leaves that grow from the top of the trunk like a ponytail, gives the plant its name.
-
- I have many agaves, including this giant blue agave with its beautiful gray-blue spiky fleshy leaves. Do you know… tequila is actually distilled from the sap of the blue agave?
-
- There are several thermostats in all the greenhouses. The houses are checked a couple times each day to make sure the temperature remains comfortably warm inside. Too cold, plants will freeze – too hot, plants will rot. To simulate the best subtropical environment, we try to keep the temperature in this greenhouse between 50 and 85-degrees Fahrenheit with some humidity. On this day, it was quite warm outdoors, so we let in some fresh air. The temperature was at 80-degrees, still within proper range.
-
- Fans strategically placed around the greenhouse help to circulate the air. I like to set ours on low.
-
- The heaters hang from above and are fueled by propane.
-
- At the back of the hoop house is this pretty potted ruffled fan palm, Licuala grandis. It is an unusual and gorgeous species of palm. Ruffled fan palm is native to the Vanuata Islands, located off the coast of Australia. It is a very slow growing palm which can reach up to 10 feet, but usually closer to six feet when grown in a pot. They are grown for their gorgeous pleated, or ruffled, leaves.
-
- Another palm is the European fan palm. This is a slow-growing, clumping palm that grows eight to 15 feet tall and spreads six to 10 feet wide. This is the only palm native to Europe and is very hardy. The fine-textured fronds make this palm stand out from other plants. The leaf color ranges from lovely light green to silver.
-
- The staghorn fern is an unusual and attractive epiphyte that thrives in the tropics. I adore staghorns and over the years have collected quite a few of these magnificent specimens. Staghorn ferns are called Platyceriums. They are Old World tropicals native to Africa, northern Australia, and Southeast Asia.
-
- The staghorn fern leaves are actually called fronds, and staghorn ferns have two types. The first is the “antler” frond – these are the large leaves that shoot out of the center of the plant, and from which staghorn ferns get their names, since they resemble the antlers of deer or moose. The second type of staghorn fern frond is called the shield frond. These are the round, hard plate-like leaves that surround the base of the plant. Their function is to protect the plant roots, and take up water and nutrients.
-
- Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia nicolai, is a species of evergreen tropical herbaceous plant with gray-green leaves that grow up to 18-inches long out of a main crown in a clump.
-
- Here is one of my bird’s nest ferns, Asplenium nidus. The bird’s nest fern is known for its tropical fronds that grow out of a rosette in the middle of the plant which closely resembles a bird’s nest. It is also occasionally called a crow’s nest fern.
-
- Asplenium nidus forms large simple fronds visually similar to banana leaves, with the fronds growing up to 20 to 59 inches long and 3.9 to 7.9 inches broad. They are light green, often crinkled, with a black midrib.
-
- Spores on the bird’s nest develop on the underside of the fronds. These form long rows extending out from the midrib.
-
- Goeppertia insignis, the rattlesnake plant, is a species of flowering plant in the Marantaceae family, native to Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. It is an evergreen perennial with slender pale green leaves heavily marked on top with dark blotches and purple undersides.
-
- I often underplant various pots with small spreading ground cover plants. Carpet Sedum is low maintenance, sun-loving, evergreen succulent that will thrive where other plants do not. It is native to parts of eastern Asia, with its name coming from the Latin word sedeo, meaning to sit, and lineare meaning linear, because of the narrow leaves. Sedums are often referred to as stonecrops because they are often found growing wild in rocky or stony areas.
-
- Another underplanting I like is baby’s tears, Soleirolia soleirolii – a plant in the nettle family. Baby’s tears is a mat-forming tropical perennial with myriad tiny green leaves.
-
- These are the leaves of a Ctenanthe burle-marxii – a compact plant with bright green leaves that are striped with alternating lance-shaped bands, and have deep purple undersides and stems. Ctenanthe are commonly called “Prayer Plants” because their leaves lie flat by day, but fold upwards in the evenings.
-
- It’s always so satisfying to walk into these hoop houses and see all the plants thriving. I am glad all my precious plants can be stored safely indoors during the winter. And of course, I always look forward to when they can come out of hiding again in the spring.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
