Of all the flowers to grow in a greenhouse Hibiscus rosa-sinensis are probably the most imposing. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to have a tropical vacation you will have noticed hotels often have table displays of hibiscus flowers. The reason they’re so often used for cut flowers is their endurance as unlike most other […]
Now’s the time to plant garlic. The year before last, my garlic was successful and my onions were not. This year is has been the other way round! They were both planted at the same time and treated in the same way but the results are different! It is interesting how success and failure are […]
Going peat-free is essential in an earth-friendly garden, but there’s more: the compost you use needs to be a truly renewable fuel. Coaxing a steep, bracken-riddled bank of acidic, nutrient-poor soil into a structured, productive garden might sound challenging enough. But imagine setting out to do it in a deliberate, thoughtful way where your guiding […]
Following on from my late sowing theme last month, I’m not sure whether sowing winter salads constitutes late sowing for this year or early sowing for next, but since it is a ploy to provide winter salads all year round I don’t think it really matters. Just because it’s October doesn’t mean that sowing and […]
Little did I know, when writing last month’s diary, expressing my hopes for an ‘Indian Summer’, it would manifest itself in record breaking temperatures at the end of the month and 29.9C at Gravesend on the first of October! It has thrown plants into confusion, I am not alone in having fruit trees, like the […]
You may not know the name and few grow this sumptuously perfumed greenhouse plant, which is odd as it is so gorgeously scented. Polianthes tuberosa bulbs are commercially available though strangely seldom sell many. Though heirloom varieties are known the only named variety you will commonly find is an old favourite The Pearl. Most closely […]
Using a greenhouse to grow your own food will make your garden greener and help trim your ‘ecological footprint’ – but only if you tap into the right kind of sunshine. My garden has become important to me in ways I could never have imagined. Barely a week goes by without it providing me with […]
It’s such a spidery time of year now that I have had trouble finding spider-free pots for my cuttings. It doesn’t seem like the right time for cuttings, while everything is slowly but surely grinding to a halt. Perhaps it isn’t. I meant to do this in August. The idea is to keep my half […]
Hartley Botanic have teamed up with Waitrose to support the retailer’s Get Your Grown-ups Growing competition – part of the RHS Campaign for School Gardening – by making a Hartley Tradition 6 greenhouse the first prize in the contest, for the most inspiring event staged as part of the scheme. We’re thrilled to be supporting […]
Over 70 of New England’s leading landscape architects and garden designers will be the guests of Dr Phil Budden, the UK’s Consul General to New England on September 27 when the British Consulate Boston, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hosts a horticultural high tea featuring talks by Johnny Mobasher, managing director of Hartley Botanic and international […]
And Win A Hartley Tradition 6 Greenhouse For Your School. The Get Your Grown-ups Growing event forms part of the RHS’s wider Campaign for School Gardening, which encourages schools to create gardens, teach the skills of growing and in turn enable their pupils to learn outside the classroom. Each October schools are asked to hold […]
Greenhouse gardeners can be guilty of wishing the year away. No sooner than it’s autumn and we are wishing it was spring with barely a second thought to poor winter. And when it’s spring, well there’s so much to do, it’s summer before we know it. I’m as guilty as anyone, always looking ahead to […]
