Hartley Magazine

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

Indian Shot with bright flowers

Indian Shot or Cannas are happiest in frost free greenhouses or a conservatory, they can even go outside all summer. But their lush foliage and incandescent blooms look better for longer under cover where their tropical appearance also seems more appropriate. Found in almost all frost free parts of the world the Cannas are possibly […]

Renewable garden

Top-down solutions

Forget complex, resource-hungry gadgetry, and soak up simplicity: earth-friendly mulches make greenhouse watering easy and guilt-free. Gardening – especially any-weather greenhouse gardening – is a just-steps-away activity that offers us sanctuary from our increasingly busy-busy, rushed, technology-driven lives. Plants don’t go ever-faster to keep up with the latest app, or to improve their efficiency; they just grow, chasing […]

Scindapsus aureus, Devil’s ivy

Devil’s Ivy is a robust variegated scrambling climber, not exactly exciting but so very useful. It’s one of those near bomb-proof plants essential in warm greenhouse, frost free conservatory, the home and many an office. A born survivor it puts up with shade and neglect only eventually dying from cold, prolonged drought or severe water-logging. […]

Autumn Fireworks – the penstemon

A good garden should shine throughout the year and it should also provide plenty of nectar from early spring until late autumn. This is the time of year to think about late-flowering plants, because many of them come from the southern hemisphere, particularly South America. Flowers tend to be pigment packed, with plenty of reds, […]