Hartley Magazine

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

Grafted Vegetables – You’re going to want them

Grafted what? OK, as home gardeners, most of us are familiar with grafting apples, roses or grapes for disease resistance and vigor. But right now, around the world—from Japan to India, Israel to Greece and New Zealand—commercial growers are grafting hybrid rootstocks (bottoms) to single-season scions (tops) like watermelons, eggplants or tomatoes. Within a few […]

Five for Fabulous – 2010 Plant Stars

Just imagine, box loads of free plants from major growers arriving on your doorstep each spring. Oh boy. That’s my favorite garden writer’s perk—the chance to trial new plants a year or two before they hit the market. However, when I first started writing about gardens, I was uncomfortable receiving what some term “swag” from […]

Discover Northwest Flower Field Walks

Think of the delight of stepping into a greenhouse, surrounded by the sights and scents of flowering plants. Now, I invite you to expand that greenhouse experience into a field walk, moving through acres of flowers that spread to the horizon like a colorful sea. It’s a gardening joy like no other. But growers rarely […]

Five Specialty Nursery Catalogs for the Holidays

The hunt is on for the rare and unusual It’s the darkest time of the year, when your outdoor garden makes few demands—although you may be enjoying the plants in your greenhouse—so now is the perfect time to curl up and read catalogs. Start your armchair hunt for the next fabulous wow-factor plant to give […]

Hot Ferns for Cool Greenhouses

Ferns are the duct tape of garden design—they visually connect all other disparate plants. That’s why floral designers feature ferns in bouquets. And they perform the same function when you’re staging plants this winter in your greenhouse. To find out which ferns thrive best under glass I called on my friend Judith Jones, the owner […]

Wish Upon Next Year’s Plant Stars

The decisions about which new plants will appear at a nursery near you next spring are happening right now. Here’s a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes process so you can jumpstart your own plant wish list. I was recently one of three judges for the 2009 New Varieties Showcase at the Farwest trade show in Portland, […]

Ten Fruiting Plants for the Greenhouse – beauty plus food

Unusual fruiting shrubs and trees – where have you been all my gardening life? That was the question I asked myself while standing at One Green World’s tasting table in Molalla, Oregon. The nursery specializes in unique fruits from around the world. Affable owner, Jim Gilbert, presided over an enticing array of mouth-watering offerings. Landscaping […]

What’s Wrong with my Plant?

Five questions for strong healthy growth What do gardeners really want? Recently, I conducted an unscientific two-day sampling of homeowners’ gardening questions. The most common concerns were about how to help ailing plants. I spent an enjoyable weekend, volunteering in the “Ask An Expert” booth at the Sunset Celebration, a hoopla of all things great […]

Veggie Garden Mistakes—And How to Avoid Them

This is the year of the vegetable garden—from the White House to local front lawns—everyone is planting crops. However, even seasoned gardeners can have disappointments with veggies. So I asked my friend, Rose Marie Nichols McGee, owner/ president of Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Oregon, what to do about the most common edible errors. Rose […]