Greenhouse Supplies and Flower Seeds

I have gone ahead and ordered the covering for the greenhouse and the automatic, temperature-activated pistons that will open and close my vents.  Initially, when I considered a greenhouse, I was really worried about having to bundle up in the middle of January and February and trudge through snow to go out and open and close vents, and also about problems that could arise if I wanted to get out of town for 2-3 days with the prospect of overheating.  These pistons should make this project a much less stressful endeavor.

As for plants, I ordered about 35 different seed packages of popular annual flowers and a few biennials and perennials.  One of the issues that gave me problems was the number of changes I made to the order from my rough draft.  I had a number of automatic flowers to order just based on what I know are in high demand every year:  begonias, geraniums, impatiens, portulacas, coleus, and a few others.  But I need to have a wide variety of plants to suit different people's preferences and since I don't read minds, it took a lot of effort to really make sure there was a good deal of variety in the order.  There is also an inclination to order lots of fancy stuff that people might not be used to seeing.  I did pick up a number of interesting plants, but it's important to remember I already have a pretty good handle on the basic flowers from years of experience working with them, there's no need to complicate things for myself trying to become an expert on exotic plants.

I am planning to make an order of some interesting tropical plants like Birds of Paradise and banana plants, but mainly for container use on a small scale.

Birds of Paradise

Black Elephant Ear

It's hard to believe, but a lot of these annuals will need to be planted in a couple weeks around the holidays.  In order for them to be looking good and ready for transplanting by Mother's Day or May 24 weekend, mid-December to mid-January is standard planting time.

Vegetables are planted in March to April, so luckily I don't have to worry about them just yet.