How I lost my greenhoue due to a faulty heater.

[Dumb chemist]

Last January, I had the greenhouse propane tank filled. After the filling, I went to the greenhouse and checked the gas heater and it was working okay. I then went back to the house. The next day I went to the greenhouse. Upon opening the door I knew something was wrong. Instead of warm moist air, my face was met with cold air. I checked the thermometer and the temperature was 29 F. I instantly knew that all the plants would be dead. It seems that the gas heater had shut down sometime in the previous afternoon and the pilot light had gone out. Mind you that this heater had worked the previous winter with no problems.

What I learned:

1) Have a secondary heater ready in case the primary heater fails.
2) Have a means of reading the GH temperature from a remote location and have an alarm to notify you if the temperature drops.

I did salvage 2 plants from the greenhouse that survived. One is a Hare's foot fern and the other is a Maidenhair fern. The latter had a half inch of ice on the water that the pot was sitting in. Both ferns were transferred to the house where they are growing very happily.

I have 2 Cymbidium pants that I have had for over 25 years and they were in the house. I had bought 4 plants since January: a Lycaste, a Stanhopea, an Encyclia and a Phalenopsis. They will have to do until I can fix the GH gas heater.