The Hartley Botanic Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016 – Introducing Opus Hartley Botanic has been exhibiting beautifully planted trade stands at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for close to sixty years, but for 2016, MD Johnny Mobasher is taking it to another level with a Main Avenue show garden designed by Catherine […]
This competition is now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered. The lucky winner was Jane Hatch of Worcester. Do you fancy attending the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show? Then you’re in luck! We have a pair of day tickets for Friday 27th May to give away, which would enable you to explore the most […]
This competition is now closed. Thank you to all who entered. The winners were: Terry Wells, Jon Knight, Rebecca Evans, David Morris & Wendy Collard. We have five copies of John Walker’s latest book Digging Deep in the Garden: Book one (RRP £4.99) to give away, plus five £25 National Garden Gift Vouchers to be […]
It’s going to be quite a year for the ladies at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with show gardens designed by Anne-Marie Powell, Jekka McVicar, Rosy Hardy and for Hartley Botanic’s 1st ever show garden it’s Catherine MacDonald who will be at the helm. Hartley Botanic MD Johnny Mobasher has long been a fan of […]
The life cycle of a butterfly can be seen as very simple compared with other forms of wildlife. For a butterfly, life starts with the caterpillar, continuing with the pupa stage and ending with the last stage – the actual butterfly. Depending on the species, breeding can be particularly hard, so it is important to know […]
For those that want to help the plight of the UK’s butterfly population, you can support many species of butterfly by encouraging them into your garden. If you want to do so, it’s important to know what kind of plants attract butterflies into certain areas. Adult butterflies will take and feed on nectar from a […]
There has been a long standing and increasingly one-sided debate over whether certain pesticides harm both butterfly and bee populations around the world. Since 1975, UK butterflies have faced long-term decline, with up to 70 per cent of species declining in occurrence, and 57 per cent declining in abundance. That said however, not all butterfly […]
Aside from offering a great deal aesthetic value to our countryside and heritage, butterflies offer a great deal to the world in which they live, which is far beyond what we see as they flutter past. Much like bees, butterflies are heavily involved in the pollination of plants, but they do this in a way […]
This competition has now closed. Thank you to all who entered. Entries can be viewed here. As part of our butterfly and wildlife awareness campaign, we are announcing the launch of our Butterfly colouring in competition! Starting on March 3, and ending at midnight on 3rd May 2016 , all you have to do to […]
Gardening has gone through plenty of fashions, fads and phases, from the very first humans to grow vegetables and edible herbs on their doorstep, instead of foraging for them, through to planting flowers and shrubs for their aesthetic appeal rather than any real practical purpose. Victorian gardens are key But it was the Victorians who […]
We have five copies of John Walker’s latest book Digging Deep in the Garden: Book one (RRP £4.99) to give away, plus five £25 National Garden Gift Vouchers to be won in our easy-to-enter competition to find Britain’s most green and eco-friendly gardening tips. Followers of John Walker’s ‘renewable gardening’ blog will know that his […]
As soon as The Chelsea Flower Show closes its doors to the public on Saturday 28 May, the work of disassembling the beautiful gardens, trade stands and horticultural displays begins. The Main Avenue Hartley Botanic Show Garden takes more than three weeks to construct and lovingly plant but only a few days to disassemble. Hartley […]
