The Juliana Premium greenhouse is billed as a top-of-the-line, high-strength, high-quality hobby greenhouse. In this respect it did not disappoint. The Premium truly is a strong and well-built greenhouse with it's heavy duty aluminum frame and extremely thick 10mm polycarbonate panels. If you live in a location that gets extreme winter weather with very strong winds and multiple feet of snow, this would be a good consideration. The panels are very insulating and if you continue to garden throughout the winter, every millimeter of polycarbonate thickness helps!

The Premium comes in a few size options (9'x9', 9'x12') which is nice, but we would have liked to see a few more sizes available, or possibly a greater spread between the sizes so some longer length greenhouses were an option. Something like a 9'x18' or 9'x20'. The height at the peak of the Juliana Premiums is significant (nearly 8 feet) which gives plenty of headroom while standing in the center of the greenhouse, but the roof is sloped much more than the barn-style of the Rion Hobby Gardeners and Prestiges, so you may be ducking down a bit if working on staging tables set up along the side walls.

The first big drawback we found to the Premiums is that they are shipped via LTL Freight. In case you didn't read the reviews on the Rion Hobby Gardeners and Prestiges, basically LTL Freight means the greenhouse is shipped on a flatbed truck instead of via a common carrier like UPS or Fedex. The reason for this is that the package size and/or weight is too much for common carriers. When our Premium arrived we didn't have to help unload the ample box, but occasionally with freight shippers the customer can be expected to perform some or all of the unloading.

Installation of the greenhouse was also somewhat more difficult than the Rions. The primary reason for the difficulty was the, in our opinion, poorly written instructions. We spent almost as much time deciphering the confusing instructions as actually putting the greenhouse together. We didn't think the actual construction of the greenhouse was particularly hard once we figured out what to do, so we hope that in the near future Juliana will see fit to rewrite the instructions to be more clear and understandable.

Similar to the Rions, the Premium has an optional base kit that can be used to secure the greenhouse to the ground. As with the Rions we would definitely recommend purchasing the base. It doesn't add much expense (around $200), and is extremely sturdy and a much better solution that simply erecting the greenhouse directly on the soil or on a custom built wood base.

A couple of the nicer features the Premium offers that many competitors do not is the enclosed rain gutter and downspout system, and the hinged, lockable Dutch door. The rain gutter system is great at keeping the rain from pouring off the sides or front, which may not be a huge deal, but is a nice added bonus. And the Dutch doors gives the Premium a high-end, European style feel, along with the frame shape, that adds to the attractiveness and functionality of the greenhouse.

Conclusion: The Juliana Premium series is a very nice greenhouse, especially for those gardeners who live in areas with very harsh winters, or who like the look of a European-style greenhouse versus the barn style of the Rion Hobby Gardener or Prestige. It is attractive, has nice standard features, is extremely well insulated and durable. Also, be aware that the Juliana Premiums are approximately double the cost of the Rion Hobby Gardeners (our #1 pick) per square foot.

Update 8/15/2007: Subsequent to our testing/review, it has come to our attention that there have been some reported cases of warping on the Juliana greenhouses. The warping is occuring in the plastic molding that holds the polycarbonate panels in place and it appears to be caused by direct sun exposure/heat. There have been varying levels of warping seen to occur, but it is a concern to us because if the molding warps out of the aluminum frame, the panels may become loose and can potentially blow out in windy conditions.

Sample pictures of plastic molding warping (click to view larger):

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