The History Of The Greenhouse Gives You A Comprehensive Understanding Of The Greenhouse!

The idea of growing plants in environmentally controlled areas has been around since Roman times. The Roman emperor Tiberius ate a vegetable similar to cucumber every day. The Roman gardener planted using artificial methods (similar to a greenhouse system) so that it could be used for his table every day of the year. The cucumbers are grown on wheeled carts and basked in the sun every day, then they are brought inside for warmth at night. According to the description below, cucumbers are stored under frames or in cucumber houses, glazed with linoleum or selenite (aka lapisspecularis) known as specularia. Pliny the Elder.

The first description of greenhouses is in the chapter on growing vegetables in winter in the animal husbandry treatise "Shanhe Yule" written by an imperial physician of the Joseon Dynasty in the 1450s. The paper contains detailed instructions for building a greenhouse capable of growing vegetables, blooming and ripening fruits in an artificially heated environment, using Ondol, a traditional Korean underfloor heating system, to retain heat and humidity; corncob walls to retain heat ; and translucent oiled hanji windows that allow light to penetrate plant growth and provide protection from the outside environment. This Joseon Dynasty chronicle confirms that a greenhouse-like structure containing Ondol was built in the winter of 1438 to provide heat to the orange trees.

The concept of greenhouses also appeared in 17th century Holland and England, along with plants. Some of these early attempts required a lot of work to close at night or for the winter. There were serious problems with providing adequate and balanced heat in these early greenhouses. In 1681, England's first "stove" (heated) greenhouse was built at the Chelsea Physical Garden. Today, the Netherlands is home to many of the largest greenhouses in the world, some of which are so large that they produce millions of vegetables each year.

Experiments in greenhouse design continued in Europe in the 17th century as technology produced better glass and building techniques improved. The greenhouses at Versailles are an example of its scale and sophistication. It is more than 150 meters (490 feet) long, 13 meters (43 feet) wide and 14 meters (46 feet) high.

In the 1800s, French botanist Charles Lucien Bonaparte built the first practical modern greenhouse in Leiden, the Netherlands, to grow medicinal tropical plants. Initially only on the estates of the wealthy, the development of botany led to the spread of greenhouses to universities. The French called their first greenhouses the orangery because they were used to protect the orange trees from freezing. With the popularity of pineapples, people built pine forests or pineapple pits.