Hartley Magazine

All the latest news, hints, tips and advice from our experts

Written in United Kingdom

Bare essentials

Whether youā€™re planting a new garden, or filling out an established plot, bare-root perennials will deliver: theyā€™re cost-effective, eco-friendly and raring to grow. It doesnā€™t take much to embark on a lifelong adventure in gardening. You might be a newbie with a builders-just-left-the-scene blank canvas, or be itching to make your own mark on a […]

Gardening and Microclimates

Last year the US Department of Agriculture released a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which is based on average minimum winter temperatures over the prior 10 years. Most locations were given a somewhat higher categorization on this new map to account for global warming. So, because of ongoing climate change, gardeners may be seeing earlier […]

Written in United Kingdom

Grow you own button-hole blooms

Our greenhouses are graced with many from the Malvaceae family: Abutilons, Okra, Sorrel and Hibiscus, all somewhat resembling our wild Mallows possessing mucilaginous sap and attractive flowers. Amongst these the tropical Hibiscus are famously large, flamboyant and popular as cut flowers so often seen in tropical hotels as slow to wilt in the heat. And […]

The Colors of Winter Belong in Your Greenhouse

For more than twenty-five years, with few time-outs, I have attended Seattleā€™s Northwest Flower & Garden Festival. This year, in the gardens created on the show floor, I was struck by the tawny shades of winterā€”tan, brown, gray, and almost blackā€”apparent in many of the displays. Not that the gardens didnā€™t show off massive amounts […]