Great Dixter is a Dolly Parton Garden.

The thoughts that come into one's mind can be very peculiar at times and it came to me this afternoon that Great Dixter is a Dolly Parton Garden. It's a long story but I'll explain. We were attending a talk today by the Head Gardener and C. E. O. of the Great Dixter Trust, Fergus …

Plants and People.

The Head Gardener would say that I lack a certain finesse as a gardener; that I lack that attention to detail and routine that brings good to excellent; that I am fine as an "edges and hedges" gardener, as Jean Van Der Lee (a Dublin gardener) used describe her husband - another long-suffering Under Gardener …

Bloom in the Park 2016

Bloom in the Park is the most successful and best attended horticultural event in the Irish gardening calendar. Tens of thousands come each year and this, its tenth year, has been blessed with good weather and I expect attendances are likely to set a new record. The range of attractions is extraordinarily wide in order, …

A Display of Gems

Each year in April the Dublin branch of the Alpine Garden Society holds its show at the Cabinteely Community College and it is an opportunity to view the most beautiful plant gems imaginable and, of course, an opportunity to meet some of the people who are gems of the gardening world. A visit to the …

A Reflection on The Carlow Garden Festival 2015

It was a week of garden celebration and enjoyment, of gardening experts, gardening celebrities and enthusiastic followers travelling and gathering and sharing in plants and gardens. This was the Carlow Garden Festival, a week crammed full of events, talks, guided walks and garden visits which seems to grow and grow in its success year on …

Bloom in the Park 2015

Bloom in the Park (The Phoenix Park in Dublin) is the biggest gardening event of the year in Ireland and attracts thousands of visitors. While the title indicates a strongly horticultural leaning it has, in fact, come to host a far broader range of attractions with a view, I imagine, to make it interesting to …

A Weekend Away – Our Annual General Meeting Weekend in Co. Donegal, May 2015

It’s great fun to go off with a group of fellow gardeners, leave your own patch behind for a while, and wander around other gardens admiring, chatting, photographing and finding new ideas that you might try back home. We had such a weekend recently. It was the occasion of the Annual General Meeting of the …

Snowdrop Time is with us again!

The major event of the snowdrop season is the open week at Altamont Gardens in Co. Carlow. The gardens are open to the public completely free of charge and Paul Cutler, the head gardener, gives a guided walk of  the garden twice each day pointing out the various cultivars grown in the garden and telling …