With summer coming towards its end, many people will imagine that Conservatories in the UK will slip into a state of disuse, effectively mothballed while life goes on in the rest of the house until the warmer spring months come around.
However, that need never be true, either for people – as conservatories can be kept warm in colder months with modern heating and insulation – or plants.
The latter is an issue well worth considering when you are looking at having a conservatory built. There are some plants that only thrive in unusually warm environments (unusual, that is, in having higher temperatures than the UK experiences most of the year). Others, however, can do just fine in cooler surroundings.
Knowing which plants thrive in particular circumstances can help you make choices about both the plants you keep in the conservatory and the extent to which you have it heated.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) recommends that warmer conservatory plants need minimum temperatures of 10-13 C. Among the ideal plants on its list for such an environment are climbers like cheese plants, herbs like begonia and bulbous plants like Amaryllis.
If you don’t want to maintain the temperatures so high, there are many alternatives, with the RHS producing an alternative list of plants for a cooler setting. These will still need to be frost-free in winter, but the plants will be able to handle temperatures as low as 5 C.
This list includes climbers like bougainvillea, shrubs such as acacia dealbata (which produces yellow flowers in winter and spring), proteas and rhododendrons, and herbs like agapanthus, although in the latter case, you will have to wait almost a year for the end of next summer to see its blue flowers.
However you choose to maintain the conservatory over the months ahead, there are plant options to suit it, helping ensure that this new addition to your home is full of attractive flora all year round.