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by Adam Fulford
Darwin long noticed that flowers were matched with living creatures that pollinated them.
In Madagascar he noticed star orchids with very long passages to their nectar, about 30 cm in length. Darwin asserted that there must be a giant moth with a proboscis – sort of like a drinking straw— long enough to reach the nectar.
People laughed at him for saying this, but 41 years after his death, the moth that pollinates the star orchid (now known as the Darwin Moth) was discovered. It has …

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Calanthe
Winter-flowering Calanthe can be potted in a soil mixture of equal parts of loam, leaf mold, and sand, and grown in semi-shade in a 65-degree house. When, in the fall, the leaves turn
yellow and drop, it is time to rest the pseudo bulbs. Flowers, small and borne on long stems, are white or rose, sometimes blotched with crimson or yellow.
Cattleya
Cattleya is the largest orchid grown by professional florists. It is the one most people think of as an orchid. The cattleyas have large showy blooms of white, rose, …

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What Are the Main Types of Greenhouses?
There are many types of greenhouse to choose from. There is the low-cost (often heatless) pit greenhouse; the lean-to; the attached-to-the-dwelling greenhouse; and the free-standing greenhouse which often has a handsome exterior. The outside design, however, no matter how beautifully executed, is of minor significance when it comes to profits. In greenhouse growing, it’s the interior that counts.
How Do I Make a Greenhouse Myself?
Building your greenhouse can be a family project, or you can get professional help to erect all or part …

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Heat is not essential for all kinds of greenhouse gardening. Although gloxinias, for instance, usually are grown in a well-heated house, a Minneapolis man has found out how to make a tidy profit from them without heat.
In late February, he starts seedlings in his kitchen windows and in his basement under fluorescent lights. When the weather warms up in late April, he moves the seedlings to an unheated pit greenhouse.
By August, when the local market is just right for selling gloxinias in flower, he has quantities …

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Plastic, as a substitute for glass in greenhouse glazing, is here to stay, but it is still in  the experimental stage. It probably always will be, as long as new materials and different uses continue to appear, so you will have to keep yourself abreast of new developments.
Two types of plastic generally are used for constructing plastic greenhouses:

smooth transparent sheets of polyethylene and vinyl film
corrugated and special types of plastic such as Fiberglas, Al-synite, Mylar, Filon, and Corrolux.

Commercial builders are finding the smooth film plastic increasingly …