Shade House Blooms - Orchid Board

Junebug · #1 06-09-2010, 10:37 AM

I'm loving my new shade house. My hubby built it last fall. It's still a bit under construction but my plants don't care. Now they have room to stretch out and reach for the sun and they're so much happier.

Here are a few of my current shade house bloomers. They're all noids except for the recently mounted Pot. Richard Young 'Cariad's Colette'. Her bloom is oriented sideways due to the sudden pot to mount transition.

The maroon Den. Blooms and spike are from 2 divisions of the same plant. One plant is pot grown and the other is mounted to a halved coconut. These plants (formerly plant) had no blooms and was sooo sick when it came to live with me. All it had came with was 4 severely shriveled canes, 3 or 4 leaves and a bunch of dried up dead roots.

The Noid Den. with lavender blooms was a Mother's Day gift from my son 2 years ago.

Thank you, Casey.

I've posted many photos of the red Ascda. noid. Best guess I.D. has been Ascda. Dong Tarn 'Robert' but you can never be sure. It has 4 spikes this time. Two from top of mother, one from base of mother, and one from keiki.

trdyl · #2 06-09-2010, 10:41 AM

Wonderful!

jrodpad · #3 06-09-2010, 10:43 AM

Inc readable. Looks like a happy group. 'Cariad's Colette' is a favorite.

And kudos to the hubby - that's some nice work on the shade house.

- J

Junebug · #4 06-09-2010, 11:24 AM

that's some nice work on the shade house.

Thanks. There was not much planning here. Prior to building we'd only agreed on post hole locations. A few days later hubby brought home a truck full of goodies and and decisions were made during construction. We had our share of disagreements concerning the proper type lattice. He liked the small (already purchased) and I liked the larger style with bigger openings for air circulation. We compromised and used both. The roof slats were another issue. He wanted to use thin widely spaced slats and I chose sturdier slats with tighter spacing. We compromised again, and used the (already purchased) thin slats on the lower wall sections and purchased thicker slats for the roof. We ran out of funds and only finished the lower half on 3 sides. The longer wall on the entry side will need better upper level support bracing before the next hurricane. I still need to make shelving decisions etc. All in all, it's been a fun and rewarding project.

camille1585 · #5 06-09-2010, 12:13 PM

Lots of happy orchids in the shadehouse!

Do you have a photo of the entire shade house? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

Junebug · #6 06-09-2010, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camille1585

Lots of happy orchids in the shadehouse!

Do you have a photo of the entire shade house? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

Thought you'd never ask.

As a matter of fact I do.

Here are some photos taken this morning. The shade house still needs a few things like structural supports for the south wall lattice, flooring, squirrel resistant shelves, and an attractive solution to hide rainwater storage, mounting materials, and other misc. junk.

I also have to figure out a solution on what to do when the weather turns cold. Much of my collection is mounted and this could pose a problem. I don't think the shade house can be properly insulated so I need to create mount support structures in the garage along with some lighting and sources of heat.

RosieC · #7 06-09-2010, 01:44 PM

Oooh, gorgeous blooms. Love the look of your shade house as well.

RosieC · #8 06-09-2010, 01:45 PM

Cool, your post of the enire shade house appeared as I clicked post on mine. It's wonderful... I'm green with envy!

camille1585 · #9 06-09-2010, 01:55 PM

Great looking shadehouse, hubby did a wonderful job! It's much bigger than I thought, but I suppose that once you get the shelving in there and all the supplies it will quickly fill up. And if it doesn't, buy more orchids!

Junebug · #10 06-09-2010, 03:49 PM

Cool, your post of the enire shade house appeared as I clicked post on mine. It's wonderful... I'm green with envy!
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Thanks Rosie. My dendrobiums are especially relieved. Before SH they had been growing in crowded conditions on the edges of my underlit screened porch. The mature canes grew mishapen and leggy. Now they're putting up new growth that's upright and straight.

Great looking shadehouse, hubby did a wonderful job! It's much bigger than I thought

Thank you, Camille. It measures 8' x 16'.