Greenhouse effects are often used for growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, and tobacco plants.
Major retail establishments, as well as small niche players, sell hobby greenhouses primarily over the internet.
In botany, a greenhouse or glasshouse is an enclosed structure that typically is covered primarily with glass, plastic, or fiberglass, and that provides a controlled environment (temperature, humidity, ventilation) for growing plants.
The French called their first greenhouses orangeries, since they were used to protect orange trees from freezing.
The first modern greenhouses were built in Italy in the sixteenth century to house the exotic plants that explorers brought back from the tropics.
Light and temperature control allows greenhouses to turn non-arable land into arable land.
Special greenhouse varieties of certain crops, like tomatoes, are generally used for commercial production.
The Roman gardeners used artificial methods (similar to the greenhouse system) of growing to have it available for his table every day of the year.
The greenhouse cover can be described as a selective transmission medium for different spectral frequencies that serves to trap energy within the greenhouse.
Greenhouses thus work by trapping electromagnetic radiation and constraining convection.
Hydrothermal anhydrite in veins is commonly hydrated to gypsum by groundwater in near-surface areas.
The concept of greenhouses soon spread to the Netherlands and then England, along with the plants.
The greenhouse at the Palace of Versailles was an example of their size and elaborateness; it was more than 500 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
The British sometimes called their greenhouses conservatories, since they conserved the plants.
The largest greenhouse complex in the world is in Willcox, Arizona, U.S., where 262 acres (106 hectares) of tomatoes and cucumbers are grown entirely under glass.
Backyard hobby greenhouse use has increased dramatically in the United States in the past decade.
Backyard hobby greenhouse use is still more popular in Europe and England, however.
The development of greenhouses involves the creation of a management process whereby plants can be grown under optimal conditions maintained even under external conditions normally unsuitable for those plants, such as winter environments.
Originally built on the estates of the rich, greenhouses spread to the universities with the growth of the science of botany.
Greenhouses can feed starving nations where crops cannot survive in the harsh deserts and arctic wastes.
Biologist John Todd invented a greenhouse that turns sewage into water, through the natural processes of bacteria, plants, and animals.
Companies such as Rion, Solexx, and Juliana have introduced entire lines of backyard greenhouses for use by the hobby gardener.
Jules Charles, a French botanist, is often credited with building the first practical, modern greenhouse in Leiden, Holland, to grow medicinal tropical plants.
A greenhouse typically is a structure with a glass, fiberglass, or plastic roof and, frequently, walls, supported by a frame constructed of aluminum, steel, or wood.
The conservatory at Kew Gardens in England, is a prime example of the Victorian greenhouse, although intended for both horticultural and non-horticultural exhibition.
Greenhouses may range in size from a small shed with a few plants to a large building, perhaps covering hectares (multiple acres), and known as a hothouse or conservatory.
The closed environment of a greenhouse has its own unique requirements, compared with outdoor production.
Greenhouses protect crops from too much heat or cold, shield plants from dust storms and blizzards, and help to keep out pests.
Greenhouses are increasingly important in the food supply of high latitude countries.
Greenhouses often rely on at least partial heating by the sun and generally provide a means of cultivating young, tender, or out-of-season plants by protecting them from excessive cold or heat.
A major architectural achievement in monumental greenhouse building was the construction of the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken (1874-1895) for King Leopold II of Belgium.
Experimentation with the design of greenhouses continued during the seventeenth century in Europe, as technology produced better glass and as construction techniques improved.
Bumblebees are the pollinators of choice for most greenhouse pollination, although other types of bees have been used, in addition to artificial pollination.