Greenhouses are winter’s refuge

CEDAR RAPIDS - Who among us Iowans, hunkered down in a winter marked by either a mantle of snow or gray hazy days, does not salivate for the green of the outdoors once more?

Some Cedar Rapids residences - rural and city - are blessed with private greenhouses, some year-round, some three-season. The latter just slumber for a few chilly months until springing into action again in early spring, when bulbous bulbs are brought out, brown muses before blooming into radiant and vibrant flowers.

The Gazette visited two such greenhouses in 2014, to give you a February treat. Kathleen Aller's rural three-season greenhouse has its own mark of distinction, inspired by the Lord & Burnham greenhouse at Brucemore, imported from England's Hartley Botanic company, and sporting ornamental metalwork at its roof ridgeline.

It's also attached to a 'headhouse,” a 14-by-16-foot red brick edifice that's meant for the 'head” gardener. It's a room designed to provide working and storage space.

'It's my woman cave,” says Aller, with her deep, throaty laugh, describing the comfortable wainscoted room with tumbled slate floor, wood-burning stove, upholstered easy chairs, an ice-cream parlor set and a casual pull-down 'bar” with stools. 'There are no electronics out here. When I'm here and in the greenhouse, I feel relaxed, warm and peaceful.”

In the growing season, when she's through nurturing her plants in the greenhouse, the headhouse is a perfect place for a glass of wine and reading - or sharing her famous chocolate chip cookies with friends.

The 464-square-foot greenhouse is three-season because 'I didn't want to heat it,” says the nature enthusiast. But in Iowa's generous three seasons, this is where Kathleen transplants house plants, makes cuttings and propagates seeds. It also holds her favorite plants: zinnias and coleus. 'Zinnias are easy to grow,” she explains. 'They make people happy - and my mother liked them. Coleus are instant color.”

In addition, there are vibrant orchids, begonias, tiny moss roses struggling to become adults, and morning glories, to say nothing of numerous herbs and succulents. Too, there are the 'dinner plate dahlias” and Chinese lantern flowers.

Functional notes: The greenhouse's windows at eye level are manually operated; overhead ones are automatic. A rain barrel and tank of well water supply that element for the operation.

Emblematic of Aller's feelings about the warmth of her 'woman cave” is a plaque that says: 'Make new friends. Keep the old. One is silver, the other gold.”

Kathleen's husband, Tom Aller, researched greenhouses and came up with the Hartley Botanic. 'Tom loves projects and being the contractor,” says Kathleen, smiling. The couple's home is on 53 acres in rural Cedar Rapids. She is retired from Grant Wood AEA, and he from Alliant Energy.

Not many people have an Oriental rug in their greenhouse, but Elizabeth Lederer on Linden Drive SE does. The 8-foot-by-10-foot rug from India adorns the floor in her potting room - which Lederer admits also doubles as a 'woman cave.” Here she and her friends enjoy conversation or coffee or a glass of wine along with some music - all taking place atop the rug and in view of dozens of clay pots of all sizes, a whole bin of gardening gloves and more tools than you can shake a trowel at.

Lederer takes great joy in puttering around her potting room and the petite greenhouse (9-foot-by-16-foot), built many years ago by a previous owner of the home.

They were big attractions when Elizabeth and her husband, Greg, bought the house 23 years ago. The greenhouse and potting areas have their own heating/cooling system, and the greenhouse windows retract automatically.

Lederer admits she does most of her gardening 'in-ground” in the warm spring and summer months of Iowa, but the magnetism of nature's beauty doesn't stop for her with fall's frost. So she nurtures the plants and flowers inside during the winter. 'The yard can be overwhelming,” says Lederer, an American Airlines international flight attendant, 'but the greenhouse is therapeutic and restful.”

Stepping into that little glass-encased jewel is like stepping into an Impressionist painting with colors attached to all shapes and forms of the flora species. There are blues, pinks, purples, whites and, of course, all shades of green.

Here it is that Lederer grows her succulents and orchids and numerous other tropicals. Exotic names abound: dipladenia, a tropical vine that boasts warm pink blossoms; agapanthus, a tropical perennial also known as 'lilies of the Nile” that is in blue here; and kalanchoe hortagel, an unusual succulent that propagates by growing dozens of baby plantlets along its edges, almost resembling beading. It's also appropriately known as 'mother of millions.”

Then there's the perennial shrub plumbago that has lovely blue blossoms and sometimes white, the latter of which Lederer acquired last year. (In the yard, hummingbirds love it.) And who can overlook the spiky 'ponytail fern,” so- called because the evergreen perennial has 2- to 3-foot-long stems covered in thick needles that give the plant the humorous nickname.

Lederer, the greenhouse gardener, has hibiscus, camellias, amaryllis (over a dozen in pink/white/coral/green), and she even sports a Meyer lemon tree. But her favorite plant is the common geranium.

'I've had geraniums for a million years,” Lederer says. 'They're my favorite because they have the most color. They're annuals. But I winter them, and I have color all winter long. When we're entertaining, I throw on the greenhouse lights and have all this color against the snow.”

Her husband is Greg Lederer, one of the founders of the law firm Lederer Weston Craig PLC.

In this season, though, when the earth is quiet with an occasional shroud of snow, and Elizabeth goes out to her greenhouse and its heated refuge, she says, 'It's a little therapeutic in the winter. It's peaceful. I put on my music and play around with my flowers …. It's kind of my quiet time.”