Hartley Magazine

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

Starter Gardens

Succulent plants are ideal for first-time gardeners and suited to growing outdoors in mild, low-rainfall, frost-free climates, or in cold, damp regions, in conservatories or just a sunny window. Succulents are those fleshy-leaved plants that thrive in well-drained soil in hot, dry, steppe to desert-like climates. They are not frost-hardy, like plenty of sun, and […]

Gardening addictions – trying to break them

It’s a new year, with a new gardening season on the way. That doesn’t just mean trying new plants; it means trying to remember all the things I vowed last summer I’d never do again. When you’re dreaming up the garden inside a well-heated conservatory or cozy living room in January, it can be easy […]

Michele Keith’s Greenhouse – in Chilly Wyoming

I talked with Michele Keith about her greenhouse in Wyoming. Michele’s property, which is close to the eastern edge of Yellowstone, is 6,000 feet above sea level and in hardiness zone 4, so it gets very cold in winter. She had 36” of snowfall a week or so before our talk. But cold is not […]

Indoors and Out—Best Plants for the Seasonal Dance

Some favored container plants luxuriate outside all summer, and when the weather shifts, they’re hustled into the greenhouse, frost-free porch, sunroom, or even a windowsill. These summer/winter dancers are mostly perennials or small shrubs— tender for whatever zone you’re in. What makes them worth the trouble? Outside or indoors, the best ones are easy care. […]

Written in United Kingdom

African violets, pretty, tough but fickle

Okay of the many tender glasshouse plants Saintpaulias can be one of the trickiest. Yet almost everyone knew an aunt with a massive old African violet enduring on for years blooming almost perpetually. It will have been the original blueish violet flowered Saintpaulia ionantha, and it was probably set on a table in some north […]