Collection: Orangery

What an Orangery Is

An orangery is a garden room with glazed walls and a substantial roof structure, historically built to overwinter citrus trees through European winters. That origin explains the design: more solid structure than a greenhouse, and built to hold warmth rather than simply admit light.

Today the format serves as both growing space and sitting room. It can be attached to the house or stand alone in the garden, and either way it is a permanent building with a floor and foundations rather than a frame on a base.

How It Differs From a Greenhouse

A greenhouse is glazed on all sides and roof, prioritising light. An orangery has more solid wall, a partially glazed roof, and considerably more thermal mass. It holds heat overnight far better and overheats less violently in summer.

The trade off is light. Less glazed area means less transmission, which matters for seed raising and for anything that needs full sun. For overwintering tender plants and for sitting in, the warmth is worth more than the extra light.

If growing is the priority, a large greenhouse gives more capacity for less money. If comfort is the priority, a conservatory sits closer to a room and further from a growing space.

Using It Through the Year

• Winter: overwintering citrus, olives, pelargoniums and other tender stock above frost.
• Spring and autumn: a usable room when the garden is not, with plants already in place.
• Summer: a shaded space, provided shading was specified at the outset.

Summer overheating is the most common complaint, and it is predictable at design stage. A glazed roof facing south will need shading and roof ventilation from the beginning rather than added after the first hot spell.

The Build

An orangery needs foundations, a damp proof course and a floor. That is a different order of work from laying a greenhouse base, and it takes longer and costs more.

Check whether planning permission or building regulations apply before ordering. The answer depends on size, siting and whether the structure attaches to the house, and it is not a question to leave until delivery.

Fitting It Out

Furniture has to handle humidity and temperature swings that indoor pieces do not. Our greenhouse furniture range is built for those conditions, and staging along the glazed walls keeps plants at working height while leaving the floor for living.