posted 8 years ago
We are at a nice point in time, I think, where flower sales have advanced past just the traditional flowers. There's a line available here that sales locally grown flowers. Right now they have, in addition to some more traditional flowers, things like dill blooms.
I don't have any knowledge of growing with a greenhouse. In my area people are more likely to build shade houses because many plants can't thrive in the full intensity of a Texas summer sun. You might keep that in mind when designing your greenhouse. Often such structures can be converted seasonally and that may better suit your purposes.
Sunflowers have become very popular, even in more traditional arrangements and would be more tolerant of desert conditions than most. So long as we dead head, our wild ones give us continuous bloom for six or more months. In a true desert they would probably need some watering, but relatively little.
My mother often laments how small the roses are in our area. She grew up in the deserts of California and with supplemental watering and no rainy days the blooms grew enormous. I've never heard of them suffering from too much light.
I don't know if they can take full desert sun, but gladiolus and alliums don't need supplemental shade here. They have the advantage of being something that can be planted in succession to create a continual harvest from early summer through early fall.
I would think so long as you can provide water, it would be both easier and more cost efficient to grow the majority of your plants outside. I'm in a warmer climate so it's not a direct comparison, but in warm winters I've had roses blooming in December, Iris start in January, and roses start again in February. All of these are planted in the ground in my front yard. How much of the year do you think your plants would need the protection of a greenhouse?
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