It might help the more hardy of your tropicals... but it looks like you get some seriously hard freezes there...
You can't bring them indoors? An unheated greenhouse really is only good if you just get down to freezing... for tropicals anyway.

Yeah, It's doubtful I'd be able to bring them indoors. I have so many. The garage is full and increasing the "houseplant" factor only works to a certain extent. I have my Jackfruit and Santol in large trash bins, I can't even see carrying those inside, lol.
Not sure what to do.
Thanks, heathen!

I was in the same boat here in Ohio. Our winter weather is pretty similar...crappy and brutal! If you are growing those types of plants...rare fruits as I am, then in my honest and humble opinion, doing anything less than a greenhouse/sunroom would be wasting your time and effort and doing only harm to your plants. No matter how you insulated it, without heat, it's going to drop down to and most likely below freezing inside whatever you construct. We finally settled on putting up an all glass sunroom to serve as a greenhouse. Good luck.

I've done a lot of research and I agree with ohiojay. A cheapie unheated thing isn't gonna get them through our winters. If you have a cool but not freezing basement/crawlspace/etc., you can winter over many tropicals in a dormant state.

I'm lucky to have a spare bedroom. I have growlights, a fan, humidifier, etc., so it's basically an indoor greenhouse that I don't have to heat as it is already part of the house. Works very well for my tropicals although I do fight insects every winter.

tropicaliste, a REAL tropical lover in zonal denial would FIND places to store their plants inside! :D I Used to crane my neck to watch tv around a large michelia tree (now I found it's hardy here)
My parents had a biannual ritual of getting a hand truck and moving their large bougainvilleas in half barrel sized pots in and outdoors. :o)
I am sorry for you, and I heavily recommend that you move here to California. :o)

Get a HID lamp, hang in in the garage and place your plants under it, the lamp will give you lots of usable square footage, while the plants can be kept semi-dormant in the cooler temps.

Thanks everyone for your posts!

heathen: LOL, I know! Such zonal denial!

Everyone: Well, if I can somehow singlehandedly clear the den of years of storage boxes, maybe I can bring some in. I go to school most of the year, and then live at home during the summer. My mom, who grew up around these plants, loves them, but my dad on the other hand finds them to be a nuissance. I can't help it, they don't sell my favorite tropical fruits at the local supermarket, lol.
Besides, I need my little plant escape. Gardening has got to be good for your blood pressure.
I'm looking into one of those harder types I was reading about in the Greenhouse forum.

Don't listen to your Dad... just like I don't listen to my BF.... who is now proud of my banana tree. :o) Gardening is VERY good for the blood pressure... It's good to be close to the dirt in this high tech age.
How about your bedroom? :o) you only really need it for sleeping... and sleeping inbetween plants can be relaxing. If you get a nice greenhouse, I will be envious... but I warn you, heating them is atrociously expensive... I have some well to do friends in the San Franisco Bay Area who feel they can't afford it.... and THEY only get down to the high 20's. Maybe with Global warming... soon your zone will bump up a zone or two. :o)

I'm in MD and we use propane to heat our greenhouses. Last winter the fuel just for keeping one large GH in the mid 40's and a small house in the upper 60's was over $8000 and we didn't have that bad a winter. I've at least quadrupled the amount of plants that will need to be kept warm. I don't want to think what the heating will cost this winter : ( It would be impossible to keep the plants in our house. They wouldn't fit and I couldn't provide enough humidity. Even with a built in humidifer our house is bone dry with the gas heat running. Besides that I can just imagine the spider mite infestation that I'd end up with, ick! I've been trying not to think about what I'm going to do when it starts getting cold.
Karyn

$8000 in greenhouse heating bill. Wow, your all insane but I love it.

Holy HEATING BILL Batman! Well... guess I will have to wait till my ship comes in for that... and it'd have to be a serious TANKER to cover that! :D

LOL heathen.

I think I have a solution. I mentioned this predicament to my mom, and she suggested putting them in one of the bedrooms...suprisingly haha. Then I brought up my room too, and at least all the potted plants will be covered, as long as this all goes as planned. She said she'll lay a cover over the drawers, which means they should be right in the window when they are on top; then smaller pots will be around plants in bigger pots. I think that if they don't look so much in the way, my dad won't be so annoyed. He likes them when they're outside, but during the winter..God forbid I ask him to water them, lol.
As for the Langka in the trash bin, my mom is going to do her best to cover it and she said she'll blow some hot air to it to try to keep it warm. Hey, what other choice do I have, right? We use a humidifier during the winter, because of how dry the air gets, maybe that will tie it over until it gets warm.
Oh, and $8,000, you really are a true plant lover!

It really depends on the size of the gh and how warm you want to keep it. My dh finally broke down and got me a small 8x12 gh..It's not the largest gh, but holds most of my citrus and some other tropicals.
Considering the price of heating, our gas bill really wasn't that high last year. And I'm the type of person who detests the cold. So, I keep the house on semi-warm, but not hot. I have over 400 plants, most come in the house, so I have to keep it a certain temp..Plus humidifers, fountains, spraying, etc.
The lowest my gh got was 45 and that was on the coldest nights of winter..I'd like it higher, but I have to make do w/what we can afford..The highest our gas bill came for one month was about 320.00..But we only got a bill this high twice. And this includes the house, gh, dryer, cooking stove, water heater, etc. So, it depends on how large a gh, and how high you want the temps. Toni

karyn1, you need to tighten up your greenhouse! Have you tried to use any of the insulating measures like sealing tape, bubble wrap on the inside walls, etc??
If you don't mind me asking, how big is your greenhouse?

I'm not exactly sure of the dimensions of the greenhouses. The larger one is probably about 250x75 ft and the smaller one is about 50x20 ft. These are commercial greenhouses, not for the backyard hobbyist. We use 6 large propane heaters suspended from the ceiling in the large house. We have a small farm, 10 acres, and grow annuals, perennials, herbs and flowering shrubs as a side business. I use the small house during the winter for my personal plant collection.
Karyn

Toni: I've read some of your posts in the Greenhouse Forum, and it sounded like you had a nice setup. Thanks for the suggestion. I believe you mentioned the brand, but I've forgotten. Do you mind linking it here?

I think I'm going to go to the USBG again. It'll be inspirational!