{"id":9192,"date":"2011-02-27T20:33:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T01:33:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-13T18:35:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T22:35:56","slug":"greenhouse-mecca-visit-to-lyman-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardern.co.za\/2011\/02\/greenhouse-mecca-visit-to-lyman-estate\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenhouse Mecca – A visit to The Lyman Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"
The entire greenhouse complex was built over the span of the nineteenth Century, far before electricity and furnaces. In the UK and Europe, early greenhouses were still being perfected, with primitive glazing systems, complex heating systems using everything from manure to heated air which came from coal and wood fired stoves ( early greenhouses were even called Stove houses).<\/p>\n
\nOn the Lyman estate, there is a well known older pit house, which most likely is the oldest greenhouse structure in the United States. It was featured in a rather unsuccessful yet collectable book from the early 20th Century entitled Winter Flowers in Greenhouse and Sun Heated Pits by Katheryn S. Taylor, which is one of my favorite books on keeping a cold greenhouse ( you must track one down if you are ever to grow such plants in the north!).<\/p>\n
\nIn 1804, the Lymans began building a new greenhouse system, starting with a \u2018Grapery\u2019, which was heated by a boiler in the new \u2018English style\u201d popular at Kew, with pipes, glass and brick walls that could hold in the radiant heat from the sun where they could grow fancy Muscat grapes which required protection from New England\u2019s harsh winters.<\/p>\n
Mr. Lyman also collected grape varieties from his business trips to England, bringing back via ship Black Hamburg grape cuttings from the Royal Greenhouses at Hampton Court, to grow on trellises that elevated the vines near to the glass, these vines are still alive today. Green Muscat of Alexandria grapes were a popular table grape in the late 1800\u2019s, and they are golden colored, with a brownish bloom, and extremely sweet.<\/p>\n
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