Conservatory Garden Flowers

The Conservatory

• Conservatories celebrated the height of English botanical exploration by providing showcases for palms, arums and other tropical plants brought back by explorers like Charles Darwin. Intricate iron and glass houses at Kew Gardens inspired similar structures in wealthy and middle-class homes. Modern conservatories, fabricated of steel or wood with double and triple-glazed glass, are too small for breadfruit trees and queen palms. Their shelves and hanging baskets, however, provide room enough for collections of kaffir lilies or gloxinias as well as space for last summer's geraniums and primroses.

Winter Shelter

• Fewer plants need be consigned to the compost heap by conservatory owners. Geraniums, miniature roses, fuchsia and other container plants from the patio bloom all winter and can be moved back outside in spring. Gift plants such as poinsettia, azalea, chrysanthemum, cyclamen and kalanchoe receive as much light as in the greenhouse where they were raised and live longer. Many plants brought into the conservatory for winter shelter such as impatiens and begonias can be used for stem cuttings in late winter to provide summer garden stock.

Tropical Finery

• The classic conservatory is filled with orchids, bird of paradise, anthurium and other exotic tropical blooms. If orchids take too much effort, try the arums; anthurium, calla lily, and spathiphyllum, or peace lily, bloom freely in winter and rest in spring when garden duties call. Chinese hibiscus provides lush, brightly-colored blooms all winter long. For conservatories in USDA zone 5 and further north, camellias that bloom in February and March in their native zones provide late-winter blooms. Indian shot and other cannas provide impressive foliage as well as bright blooms. Conservatory heating units or connection to household central heating plants help keep daytime temperatures in the 70s Fahrenheit and nighttime temperatures in the upper 60s, a range necessary for healthy, productive tropical plants.

Permanent Residents

• In addition to potted flowering plants, which can be easily moved outdoors to the summer porch or garden, consider flowering vines for the conservatory. Although too sprawling for small conservatories, climbing or trailing vines, given proper support, provide dappled shade for shade-loving plants, mask undesirable views and soften sharp corners. Vining nasturtiums, butterfly pea, cypress vine and moonflower are annuals that reseed themselves when grown in large containers. American wisteria is a less aggressive form of the wisteria genus. Climbing roses, scarlet runner bean and climbing hydrangea grow as well in the garden. Pink jasmine blooms in winter and yellow jessamine in late winter to early spring. Mandevilla, bougainvillea and gloriosa lily, all tropical bloomers, are exotic-looking blooms for a summer conservatory.