What A Bore!

As happens at this time of the year a number of new hellebores were purchased and added to those already growing in the garden. A hedge of hypericum, along the top of a retaining wall above a patio area, and a line of pendulous cotoneasters hanging over the same wall were dug out, removed and …

Coolaught Gardens

We dropped into Coolaught Gardens and Garden Centre (Caroline and Harry Deacon) in Clonroche, Co. Wexford, during the week, always a good port of call when you want something special, a tasty plant. As expected, Caroline told us to feel free to take a walk around the garden and I had brought my camera with …

The Scarlet Pimpernel – at Altamont Gardens.

I sought her here; I sought her there; I sought her everywhere; Is she in heaven? I hope not in hell; Oh, that elusive Pimpernel! Baroness Emmuska Orczy may have worded the origin lines differently and, indeed, to express the annoyance of the French rather than the disappointment it was for me. This is what …

Primrose Hill Snowdrops

Our galavanting to see snowdrops and snowdrop gardens and snowdrop people brought us to Primrose Hill in Lucan, Co. Dublin, last Saturday. I could have said that we "eventually" got to visit for if I were asked to draw up a list of snowdrop gardens that one might wish to visit, Primrose Hill would be …

RHSI Bellefield

This will be a new name to many even here in Ireland though the "Bellefield" will certainly ring a bell as it was the garden of the late Angela Jupe. Angela was an architect, a garden designer and an enthusiastic gardener with a great love of plants especially roses, irises, paeonias and snowdrops. It was …

Let’s be Charitable!

Sunday brought us to a garden to the west of Cork City which was opened in aid of Cancer Research at Cork University Hospital. It was a "Snowdrop Open Day" and it was that which prompted the almost two hour journey. However it was meeting with gardening friends that made the day. These are "the …

Huntingbrook Snowdrops

Huntingbrook Garden is the home, workplace and love of Jimi Blake. Now, I could have introduced him as "plantperson Jimi Blake" or with such words as "plantaholic" or "plant geek" but such terms have a slightly pejorative tinge to them and I prefer to think of Jimi as a person with an extraordinary enthusiasm for …

Burtown Kindness.

Kindness is what I associate with Burtown House and this adds greatly to my enjoyment of each visit. It is an 18th century house and, something quite uncommon, it is still lived in by the family which built it and is presently in the care of James and Joanna Fennell. James and Joanna are to …

Several Layers Cast Off!

It came rather as a surprise, to be honest, a day that really was a spring day! I cling to my old ways that spring starts on the 1st of February, the Feast Day of St. Brigid, but it can often take a little while for the elements to catch up with my firmly held …

To Walk in Many Gardens

We can't be everywhere but at times we can be taken there while seated in the comfort of our armchairs. These last weeks I have dawdled and drooled over Clive Nicholls' book on English gardens - Brilliant English Gardens - as prolonged a browsing of a book as I've had in ages, a glass of …