My Garden of Grumbles!

Certainly in winter - and winter has continued far too long this year - my first reaction on stepping out of the car at Altamont Garden is to grumble. Now there are some who would say I grumble whenever I visit a garden but this is inaccurate for it implies that I grumble only in …

The Prize!

Evert plant has its story, its background and its connections. At times it may be the most recent and most local which become attached and are most immediately significant for us but it is good to also recall those more historical. Osmanthus delavayi is the plant of the moment for me and its immediate relevance …

Golden Oldies!

A friend living in Normandy posted a set of photographs of old daffodil varieties on Facebook earlier in the week. There were some weird and wonderful names, as suits such “old and curious varieties” as he described them with Narcissus obvallaris ‘Thomas’s Virescent’, Narcissus obvallaris ‘Fat Bud’, Narcissus pseudonarcissus ‘Gerard’s Double’, Narcissus ‘Martin’s Meadow’, Narcissus …

Orchid Summer by Jon Dunn

Orchid Summer – In Search of the Wildest Flowers of the British Isles by Jon Dunn This book was fabulously and fantastically far, far more than its title blurb lead one to expect. It splendidly recalls the author’s grand summer adventure to see all the orchids of Great Britain and Ireland within a single season, …

William Baylor Hartland Exhibition

Daffodils are part of the spring garden scene in Ireland to such an extent that we almost consider them native to the country even though they are not. However, we have a climate which perfectly suits the growing of daffodils and we have had many very successful daffodil breeders in Ireland over the years. As …

The Warren Gardens by Frank Mason

This article was first published in Issue 104, April 2007, of The Newsletter of The Irish Garden Plant Society. Bishopstown Library, Wilton, Cork presently has an exhibition on the Hartlands who had several nurseries and shops in Mallow and Cork and were especially famous for their collection of daffodils. They had collected old varieties of …

The Last Day of Winter

While spring is always welcomed few express any sadness at the passing of winter yet it has its own special highlights and plant interests which we treasured as they provided beauty and enjoyment when little else was in flower. Winter is the season of Witch hazel with its spidery flowers in yellows, reds, oranges and, …

The First Day of Spring

From my childhood spring began for me on the 1st day of February, St. Brigid’s Day, but it seems that spring 2018 began today, Tuesday 20th March, at 4.15p.m. While I might argue for old and traditional dates I couldn’t deny that today was the first day this year when the weather was truly spring-like. …

Thinking Small is Sometimes Best

England is a great destination for garden lovers with a richness of gardens which guarantees enjoyment for the visitor. It is a very convenient destination for gardening enthusiasts in Ireland – a short ferry journey and the comfort of your own car to travel from garden to garden. Our preparation for these visits generally begins …

After the Snow!

The snowfall of last week was the heaviest recorded in Ireland since 1949 and left gardeners wondering what was going to be lost, what damaged and what would survive. Our garden is now clear of snow and we have our first opportunity to begin the tidy up after the storm. There were some casualties, no …