Hartley Magazine

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

Written in United Kingdom

Why Low-Mow May is good for pollinators

Jean Vernon explains how going low-mow is good for your garden’s biodiversity and especially your garden pollinators If you’ve seen the call for no-mow May you might be wondering what it’s all about?? So, let me explain. No-mow May is a bandwagon that anyone with a garden can jump on. It’s a call to let […]

Geodesic Glasshouses For Our Times

No discussion of greenhouses is full without recognizing that some of the great botanical gardens of the world are renowned for the geodesic domes at their heart.  I grew up with the Mitchell Domes in Milwaukee, and have a postcard of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s ‘Climatron’, the geodesic dome completed in 1961 that kicked off […]

Written in United Kingdom

THE NEW WISLEY 8 GROW & STORE

A NEW GREENHOUSE DESIGN FROM THE HARTLEY BOTANIC HISTORICALLY-INSPIRED HERITAGE RANGE Hartley Botanic are pleased to add a new design to the popular Heritage range. The new Hartley Botanic Wisley 8 Grow & Store combines the 4-pane Wisley Greenhouse, an iconic design based on one of the 84-year-old company’s original models, with a useful partitioned-off, 2-pane storage area. […]

Growing Dahlias in Your Greenhouse

Dahlias come in many colors, shapes, and sizes, which is a major reason for their popularity. If you’re a fan of huge flowers, you can grow dinner-plate variety dahlias, with blooms up to a foot across. If compact blooms are your preference, you can grow small, pompom dahlias with tight flowers balls only about two […]

Written in United Kingdom

Plumbago, not a pain but a flower

Not introduced into our greenhouses and conservatories till 1818 when it was brought from the Cape of Good Hope now known as South Africa. Leadwort, Plumbago, soon became very popular with Victorian gardeners. A lax climbing shrub this can bloom non-stop from the end of winter right through until winter returns again. Without doubt this […]

Written in United Kingdom

Time to sow tender vegetables

Early May is the time to sow outdoor cucumbers, marrow, squashes, pumpkins (vertically on edge, not laid flat like a surf board) French and Runner beans and Sweetcorn in gentle heat around 20C in peat substitute seed compost or multipurpose compost individually in 7.5cm pots, ready for planting out once the danger of frost has […]