Gardeners are very suspicious about organic gardening but, as I always say it isn’t a new-fangled thing. It’s been practised for centuries by our ancestors, who knew the importance of the natural world when it came to growing crops. Winchester Cathedral’s thousand or so 14th century roof bosses contains some with flowers and vegetables. These almost […]
On certain nights in January this year, more than ninety percent of the U.S. shivered with temperatures under 30 degrees F. Especially vulnerable were those plants with evergreen foliage. So what’s a gardener to do? If you couldn’t trundle susceptible plants into a greenhouse or other shelter when the cold hit, how do you help […]
The Mid-Century Modern Landscape is the title of my recent book. It’s rather misleading because it’s about gardens: I’m old school and I think of landscape as the natural surroundings in which we build or shape our dreams: The Parthenon is set in a dramatic landscape; my greenhouse is part of my garden. Oh, well, […]
These are tough times for those plants that are waiting in the greenhouse for warmer days. They have made it through winter, yes, and it is true that light levels are improving all the time, but many are weakened by their months in less-than-perfect circumstances, and need a little extra help to limp through to […]
Time lapse video of our RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017: View a time lapse of our Hartley Botanic RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017, professionally built glasshouses and greenhouses demonstrating the build quality and the care that goes into all our show stands. See us at RHS Chelsea, RHS Chatsworth, RHS Hampton Court and RHS Tatton […]
Death fuels new life in the garden, so we should delight in the signs of decay. Rot… death… decay… decomposition… mouldering… disintegration. What sort of gardener has these kinds of images racing preternaturally through their everyday thoughts? Those like me, I guess (c’mon, there must be more of you out there). While everyone else is […]
What in the world is as weird and wonderful as carnivorous plants? At first, it seems so odd and wrong that some plants can eat animals. Yet seems to me that bug eating is a remarkable and inspiring adaptation to the tough circumstances in which these species eke out a living. The weirdness is what […]
The Friendship Plant is a very tough house plant, and an even better choice for the glasshouse. Attractive clumps of foliage erupt nodding spike after spike of pink bracts, each cascading green petals with a bright blue edge and golden anthers. These continue to appear over a long period. It will withstand neglect, and resists […]
If you are growing C. orientalis and C.tangutica; Clematis texensis, Clematis viticella and their cultivars and the large flowered hybrids like ‘Hagley Hybrid’ and ‘Perle d’Azure’, now’s the time to prune. This group flowers in summer and autumn on the current year’s stems, so select the strongest pair of buds near the base, and cut […]
