This wholesale flower greenhouse is a multi span film house built for commercial floriculture, where the crop is sold on appearance and timing rather than on bulk. A three-layer compressed PE film sits over a hot dip galvanized steel frame, holding warmth overnight and diffusing daylight so that flowers do not scorch under the ridge. Spans run 8 m to 12 m, gutter height 3 m to 4.5 m and the house is built 10 m to 100 m long to suit the site. It suits cut flower growers, pot plant nurseries and young plant raisers working to a market calendar.
Flowers are a harder crop to insure than vegetables. A lettuce that is a week late still sells, while a stem cut two days after the market window is a loss, and a flower with marked petals is a loss whatever the week. That changes what a greenhouse has to do: the job is not simply to keep the crop alive, it is to keep the timing and the finish predictable. This wholesale flower greenhouse is laid out around that requirement.
The house is a multi span film structure on a hot dip galvanized steel frame, with spans from 8 m to 12 m, gutter height from 3 m to 4.5 m and a ridge height of 3 m to 8 m depending on the span. Sharing gutters between bays keeps the floor clear, which matters on a flower nursery because pot plants and cut flowers are moved on trolleys along fixed routes rather than lifted by hand. Length is set from 10 m to 100 m by adding bays, so a range can be extended as a market is built rather than all at once.
The cover is a three-layer compressed PE film, with UV stabilisers on the outside, mechanical strength in the middle layer and condensation control on the inner face. On this site it sits alongside the rest of the film greenhouse range, which covers the same film system in single and multi span form.
Two things decide the finish of a flower crop under film: how much light gets through and how evenly it lands. A film cover passes most daylight, and a diffusing film spreads it across the bed instead of concentrating it under the ridge, so petals on the outer rows are less likely to scorch while the middle of the house is still developing. Pot plants standing on benches get the same treatment, which is why floriculture growers tend to specify the cover with the crop in mind rather than taking whatever sheet is available.
Heat retention matters just as much, because flower timing is driven by temperature. A three-layer sheet loses less heat overnight than a single extrusion, and holding a set night temperature is what keeps a batch moving toward its market date instead of drifting. A grower comparing covers for a flower film greenhouse is usually comparing exactly this: how much the house gives back at night. Guidance on protected horticulture standards and crop programmes is published by USDA through its agricultural research and extension services.
Flower crops suffer in still, damp air more than most. Botrytis and leaf mould start where humidity sits against the plant overnight, and damaged petals cannot be graded out later. Ridge vents let the warm damp layer leave at the top of the house while side openings bring fresh air in at bench height, which is where the crop actually sits. Run together, they let a grower hold a working temperature without opening the house so far that the climate swings.
For a nursery running several houses on one calendar, ventilation is also a scheduling tool. A house that can be cooled slightly in the afternoon, or held slightly warmer at night, can shift a batch by a few days in either direction, and a few days is often the difference between hitting a market and missing it. Regional reporting on flower and fresh produce markets, including for southern Africa, is carried by Farmer's Weekly, which growers use when they plan what to plant and when to cut.
The table below lists the standard build. Span, length, ventilation and benches are set to the site and to the crop.
| Greenhouse span | 8 m / 9 m / 10 m / 11 m / 12 m |
| Greenhouse length | 10 m to 100 m, or built to client demand |
| Gutter height | 3 m to 4.5 m |
| Ridge height | 3 m to 8 m |
| Structure | Hot dip galvanized steel tube, arch roof |
| Cover | Three-layer compressed PE film, UV resistant |
| Ventilation | Ridge vents and side openings, manual or automated |
| Crops | Cut flowers, pot plants and young flowering plants |
The house arrives as a bolted kit with arches, gutters, purlins and film cut to the drawing. Work starts on a level pad, since a multi span block has to be squared as a whole and any twist in the first bay carries down the house. Ground posts or base plates go in first, then the arches and purlins, and the film last so nothing is loaded unevenly while the frame is being lined up. A block of this size is standing in two to four weeks on a prepared site.
Frame maintenance is limited to checking fixings after the first season and keeping the zinc surface clean of soil and fertiliser splash. The film is the item on a cycle, planned for replacement in the three to five year band, and it is worth walking the roof at the end of each season to catch chafing over the purlins before it becomes a tear. Benches, trolley rails and vent drives are the parts that see daily use, and all three reward a little attention each season.
Houses of this type are used for cut flowers grown to a calendar, for pot plants finished on benches, and for young flowering plants raised for sale. The common factor is a crop where the harvest date is fixed in advance, which is why the night temperature and the airflow are specified as carefully as the span.
Growers comparing structures for floriculture usually weigh the cover against the crop plan and the market window. On the same site, a greenhouse for flowers in glass or polycarbonate is often specified where maximum light matters more than the cost per square metre, while film covers the larger working area.
The cover sets how much light reaches the crop and how evenly it is spread, and how much heat the house gives back overnight. A diffusing three-layer film spreads daylight across the bed rather than concentrating it under the ridge, which reduces scorch on the outer rows.
Yes, provided the layout separates bench space from the standing area and the ventilation serves both. Growers often run pot plants on benches in one bay and cut flowers in the ground in another, with the vents grouped so each can be adjusted.
The galvanized steel pipe frame is rated for 15 to 20 years under normal growing conditions. The film cover is replaced on a three to five year cycle.
We provide a 10 year structural warranty and a 5 year anti-corrosion warranty on the galvanized frame. Details are set out in the contract for each project.
Send your site dimensions, the crops and bench layout you plan to use and your local wind and snow loads. We reply with a layout drawing and a full quotation.
