The Alpine Garden Society’ Show

We try most years to go to the Alpine Garden Society’s show in Cabinteely for several reasons. You are guaranteed to see well grown and interesting plants there; there will be good plants for sale – both at the members’ stand and from the professional nurseries which attend – and it is also a very …

The Bountiful Bay of Beauty

Quite simply, a very pleasant and enjoyable afternoon…in a garden, what could be better! Iain and Frances MacDonald are opening their garden - The Bay, Co. Wexford, for their Tulip Extravaganza this weekend and despite the rather dreadful weather this spring the timing and the display are quite perfect. The planting immediately inside the entrance …

In the Interlude…

Perhaps it is being optimistic to describe the break in the rainfall as an interlude but all gardeners, though forever complaining about this and that, are optimists for we perennially plant for the future with visions of beauty ahead though the present may be dull and overcast. Between the heavy morning rain and the forecast …

A Róisín Dubh – Dark Rosaleen.

Those who grow and those who see Primula 'Dark Rosaleen' are unfailingly cheered to see it come into flower - as I was to see it do so in my own garden today. The dark purple flowers with their yellow stripes match beautifully with the bronze foliage making it a delightful plant. It was raised …

A Moment of Inspiration

I had such a moment today, a moment which moved me to thought and consideration of how we garden and how we live our lives; a moment with a lesson, so to speak. It was something which made a lot of sense, I thought; something we allow to slip by and not take notice of …

Magnolia ‘Anne Rosse’

We have many interesting and beautiful plants associated with the famous Nymans garden in West Sussex in England – Eucryphia ‘Nymansay’ and Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ are probably the two best known and most widely grown. There is also a Camellia ‘Maud Messel’ and a Forsythia suspensa ‘Nymans’ but a particularly beautiful Nymans plant …

The Chequered Lawn

Nature can, at times, benevolently redirect our gardening plans and it is as well to go with it rather than fight against it – going with the flow, so to speak. Some years back we had the idea of having a patch of grass in the garden where we would plant bulbs – a bulb …

My Ever So Healthy Lungs…

The lungworts (Pulmonarias) are in season with their attractive foliage and pretty flowers. Lungwort” is rather an odd name for plant – the lung herb – and it dates back to the 1600s when the Doctrine of Signatures was in vogue – a plant was used to treat ailments in those parts of the body …

Primula Bounty!

Primulas are ever-reliable and obliging plants in our gardens. Variants and cultivars of the common primrose, Primula vulgaris, and the Juliana primroses, Primula juliae, grow exceptionally well for us and lend themselves to easy propagation so we can multiply their numbers with ease to give greater impact in the garden. They have always been treasured …

Breaking the 6p.m. Barrier!

It is a milestone of the gardening year, a significant move from one gardening season to another, that first evening when you work in the garden past six o' clock. There certainly is that stretch in the evening and it a pleasure to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, this year's weather means that the ground …