I’m coming out!

Yes, I'm coming out! I’m horticulturally mechanically panicky! In this age of openness and tolerance of difference I feel at last that I can be honest about this condition. It has been with me my entire life and continues to be a problem. Spring is the worst time, a time of anxiety, even fear, but …

Iris pallida ‘Phylis Moore”

Phylis Lady Moore was wife of Sir Frederick Moore, Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin - now, the National Botanic Gardens. She was a very enthusiastic gardener with an eye for a good plant and she grew this form of Iris pallida in her garden at Willbrook. Dr E. Charles, formerly taxonomist …

Gardening Notes from a Late Bloomer

Clare Hastings came to the joys of gardening later in her life - something I feel she regrets deeply - and in this book passes on advice to her daughter, Calypso, in hopes that she will be less daunted and will come earlier to gardening and, as any mother would wish, have a lifelong pastime …

New Trees!

New Trees: Recent Introductions to Cultivation by John Grimshaw and Ross Bayton This is a hugely impressive volume of work, truly an outstanding resource and an immense contribution to horticulture. In recent years there has been a boom in the number and variety of trees we grow due to increased activity in plant exploration, collecting …

Catching Up – At Long Last!

We have commented so many times this year that the season was running behind that it had almost become a constant refrain running through our lives. Time and again we have noted how late one plant or another was in coming into flower. Indeed, it has been a miserable winter which seemed to continue forever …

Caher Bridge Gardens – Back to the Wild!

There were, no doubt, excellent reasons for Carl Wright to settle and begin a garden in Formoyle West, Fanore, Co. Clare but it was certainly not for an easy life. Caher Bridge Garden is on the rocks of The Burren, an area of limestone pavement with only the most shallow layer of soil and thoughts …

That Peekaboo Moment!

A return to the garden after a few days away can resemble the Peekaboo game we play with our grandson. In our short absence some plants seemed to have simply leapt out of the ground and into flower. This is a regular experience so that the return to home and garden will always have a …

The English Garden

The English garden is admired around the world and anybody who wishes to gain an insight and understanding of these gardens will be well served by reading this updated edition of Ursula Buchan’s, The English Garden. It is possibly the most comprehensive, yet concise, treatment of the topic that I have read. Perhaps the defining …

Gash Gardens – An Insight.

Mary Keenan, of Gash Gardens in Co. Laois, gave a talk recently at Kilkenny Castle, part of the series of talks organised by Shirley Lanigan with the Office of Public Works and the last of this year. In a way it was a very simple talk, a story really, but it caught my attention and …

Annes Grove – A Rejuvenation

Annes Grove is situated in north Co. Cork between Doneraile and Castletownroche. Lieutenant-General Grove Annesley inherited land here from the Grove family in the early eighteenth century and laid out the grounds as informal parkland with a walled garden and there was little change until Richard Grove Annesley (1879-1966) inherited in 1900. Influenced by his …