I'd move my roommates outside instead!

Your phals will most likely be toast within a few weeks of your cold nights.
Give them to a friend instead and enjoy nice phals at the orchid shows.
Like roommates, eventually they are trouble anyway.

Instead of dealing with the hassle of a greenhouse for your small space, I'd
give the phals away, keep the Colmanara inside over the winter then build a
shade house/cover for your brand new collection in the Spring.

You live in a great part of the country to grow orchids outside under shade.
I'd go visit Andy's Orchids just to the south in Encinitas, CA in the Spring
and give him $1500 to put together for you a nice collection of plants that
grow and flower easily and can be kept outdoors in your part of the state.

You will probably want to get started on the shadehouse this weekend. Pick
a simple wood pergola design and get some help from your lame roommates.
Cover it with 50% or so shadecloth and add plenty of space to hang plants
from the overhead. Run a PVC waterline if you don't have a spigot handy.
Get a standard timer and a sprinkler system control valve. You can easily
fabricate a watering/sprinkler system for your plants that need to be
watered every day.

Andy is at http://www.andysorchids.com/.

Good luck and enjoy your new plants!!!

Garland


"Munir" wrote in message
ups.com...
I live in Southern California (Pasadena area) and, due to a small house
and anti-plant-people in same, need to move my orchids outside. Before
I do so, I'm thinking about what I'll need to set-up for the move to be
successful. Currently I have 5 phals and 1 oncidium cross (Colmanara
Wildcat) that are healthy, each seated over a humidity tray, with
plenty of light from their own window.

I've already discarded most beginner greenhouses b/c they don't allow
enough space between shelves, are too flimsy, or are too big. So I'm
planning to take an old desk, nail wood supports up from which to drape
humidity-trapping plastic and light-abating greenhouse netting, and
place the plants under that.

Will that work? Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I'm concerned that
extremes of cold (sometimes around 45 at night in winter) and heat
(sometimes around 100 in the summer) will kill them. Do you think I'll
need some sort of fan, heater, cooler system for them to thrive, or
will they be fine with just the light and humidity controls I
mentioned?

I really wish there were some kit for a 4' x 2' x 6' outdoor orchid
case that could really pamper them. Hmmm. Maybe that's what I should
do: enclose the walls with plexiglass, cut holes for computer-type
fans, and have a computer control the humidity, temp, etc. according to
a program.

As you can see, I need some practical guidance or I might under/over do
it. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

-Munir