Winter is a special time in the greenhouse.

Read what the famous horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey said about it in 1928 . . .

"It is in the dead of winter that the greenhouse is at its best, for then is the contrast of life and death the greatest. Just beyond the living tender leaf- separated only by the slender film of the pane- is the whiteness and silence of the midwinter.

There, a finger's breadth away, the temperature is below zero; here, is the warmth and snugness of a nook of tropic summer.

This is the transcendent merit of a greenhouse, -the sense of mastery over the forces of nature. It is an oasis in one's life as well as in the winter.

One has dominion. But this dominion does not stop with the mere satisfaction of a consciousness of power.

These tender things, with all their living processes in root and stem and leaf, are dependent wholly on you for their very existence.

One minute of carelessness or neglect and all their loveliness collapses in the blackness of death.

How often have we seen the farmer pay a visit to the stable at bedtime to see that the animals are snug and warm for the night, stroking each confiding face as it rises at his approach!

And how often have we seen the same affectionate care of the gardener who stroked his plants and tenderly turned and shifted the pots, when the night wind hurled the frost against the panes!

It is worth the while to have a place for the affection of things that are not human.'

 ---Liberty Hyde Bailey 1928