Creating an Orangery
At our last home we had several citrus trees growing in our
east-facing backyard and I really miss being able to walk outside and pick a few oranges for lunch and to share with friends.
Here in North Central Texas the garden shops bring in citrus trees but locals tell me they just won’t make it through the harsher almost 0 degree nights of this area.
And I can believe it after experiencing two cold and windy
winters now!
But, I am determined to somehow get an orange tree
and have a lime and lemon tree again, too…
 |
| Funny, I was just remembering how we had a little squirrel who came to live behind the pool grotto and planters. He loved to eat oranges as one year I went out and found the last of the oranges picked and gone! Silly little critter… 😉 |
Orange trees are lovely planted in large pots or planted
directly into the ground but in areas where temps get well below
32 degrees then drastic measures must be taken.
Our little mandarine orange tree was 8 years old when we left it when the house sold and was doing well in its enormous pot
out along the south wall by our pool.
It received maximum sun from early morning until dusk
and just needed a little more water and food to keep those
baby oranges in good health {and not dropping off the tree}
when it was really hot during the summers.
In the winter rain took care of most of the watering but
when we had dry spells I would deep water it twice a week.
In Southern California winters if the weather was dipping down
into the freezing range below 32 degrees then I would actually
cover it with a couple of old blankets/quilts we had.
It’s amazing what blankets and a few clothespins can do
to protect our precious garden plants!
🙂
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| This was a post on making a German Chocolate cake ~ my hubby’s favorite. |
Here in Texas
Especially here in north Texas, we are so close to the Oklahoma border that we have wind-chill that really swoops in.
Sometimes with straight winds that top 60 mph!
The idea of having citrus trees at my next home is something
I’m really going to have to noodle…
It did occur to me while working on the post about Beatrix Potter
{Miss Potter, the movie and the chicken recipe}
and looking at sites this week that related to France when
I was working on the post A Little Bit of Paris Aujourd’hui
that maybe I could have an orangery…
Wayfair has a really cute wood greenhouse that I fell inlove
with when I first saw it on Courtney’s French Country Cottage
blog a year or so.
I think it would be perfect in our next backyard garden!
Maybe it could help me save my hydrangeas too as with
this vicious summer heat I’ve managed to kill another…
And it made it through the winter with the little heater and
wrapping it with towels…
🙁
Anyway all of this thought came up when I was looking
at the Château de Versailles site online and found information
on their grand orangery building where the palaces’ gardeners
bring all of their fruit trees inside to overwinter.
Here are some espaliered trees from my visit to Biltmore
Estate’s gardens which I was lucky enough to visit last fall.
Fruit trees look lovely this way and are perfect for planting
along a wall in a small garden areas such as one might find
in a big city where homes and apartments are
much smaller in scale.
It does get fairly cold in the mountains in Ashville, NC but only down to just around 28 degrees Fahrenheit ~ very similar to what we had at our high desert home {zone 10 on the gardening charts}
in Southern California.
So with just a portable heater or two when temps are expected
below freezing and/or just covering them as I’ve mentioned above ~
these measures can help keep the frost off the fruit and leaves
of our tender fruit trees helping them survive mildly colder
temperatures.
Magnolia’s Greenhouse
This is another greenhouse that I shared from Magnolia Market
in Waco this past spring when I stopped by to really study
their gardens.
I had intended to go back and write a post about the greenhouse
itself so I’m happy to share it here with you now.
https://pin.it/yqv5xjutworqhg
🙂
I like how this one has a tile floor with drains in it so that you
can water plants yet not create a mold situation.
Something to consider when we put in a greenhouse or
orangery.
Also with areas which receive hot summer sunshine it’s a
good idea to have a way to cover the glass windows of the roof
and on the western sides of any greenhouse.
During the summer months however I expect not many
plants would be kept indoors as we’d want them
outside anyway.
🙂
Wayfair’s greenhouse
Wayfair’s greenhouse is all glass windows with a super cute entry door and the roof is lightly covered with what appears to be corrugated fiberglass sheeting.
My father used some green corrugated fiberglass like this back when I was young to create a shaded patio at one of our
base homes on Oahu, Hawaii.
It can get hot under the fiberglass having clerestory windows
up along the roof-line or windows put into the roofing will help
eliminate heat on winter days which are too warm.
How to face your greenhouse?
Whether you call it an orangery, a glasshouse or a greenhouse,
placing it in the yard or attached to one’s home is
fairly straightforward.
Face the greenhouse so that the windows face east/south-east to catch maximum sunlight during winter from early morning
until sundown.
For summer’s stronger sunlight, situating the greenhouse up
against a wall of one’s house or up against a garage up will help keep summer’s heat out when needed.
Magnolia’s greenhouse had upper windows which could be
cranked open with a long shepherds crook to let heat escape ~
you can just see the gold handle hanging down from the rafters
in the photograph above.
After your orangery greenhouse is built, just add your
favorite plants and trees!
I hope to have a mandarin orange again plus a lemon and a lime tree as I mentioned at the top of this post.
Having a greenhouse would be fun too in that it is its own
little hideaway from the world.
Having a sheltered place to work indoors when the wind
is blowing really cold outside is just a bit of gardener’s heaven!
With winter sunshine trying its best to warm things up
outside, you can stay pretty warm inside your orangery
and putter with seedlings and plants to your heart’s content.
😉
More orangeries
I’ll try and post some photographs and/or links here in this section so you can see some typical modern day orangeries…
Part of the new European rules for sharing things and notifying readers that your blog uses cookies must also include a way
that not as many photographs can be shared.
Here is one over in England ~ https://goo.gl/images/dVE6VX
And this lovely site Safechoice has a variety of beautiful
glasshouses of which to choose to add onto your home.
Probably only selling to folks across the Pond but thought
it’d be fun to share their site anyway.
😉
Well there you are! Just a few orangery ideas to put in your
dream garden scrapbook…
Here’s a pin for you to share, if you would, thank you!
Sharing with
Style Showcase ~ Shabby Fufu
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage
Thursday Favorite Things ~ Katherine’s Corner
Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondock’s Blog
Garden Party with Friends ~ Poofing the Pillows
Update ~ This post was featured at:
Thursday Favorite Things ~ Petite Haus
Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home
Happy gardening,
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