Alpine House - actually just a normal greenhouse with a little more ventilation! Alpine houses are slightly more specialist..with a premium price tag! This is now the fourth one I have grown plants in. Apart from a few extra vents I have some heating to keep frost out and two fans (fan heaters set to summer mode, ie no heat) on all the time to keep the air moving over the plants all of the time. This keeps (hopefully) free from mould in the autumn and winter and help cool them in the summer. Most of the plants are in aluminium trays nine inches deep filled with sand. Again this keeps the roots at a more even temperature, supplies some moisture when needed as the pots are in clay pots. I have then excavated the flooring so that there are sand beds under the benching, suitable for resting plants, seed pans, pleiones and thin leaved cyclamen. 

 

January - mixed side, Primula allionii, and a mix of other plants	January - bulb side with Cyclamen in flower	January - further down the bulb side, Fritillaria just appearing and some more cyclamen at the end. Also fan1 blowing over the plants.