A Crabapple with Memories

Malus floribunda, a flowering crabapple, has just begun to open its blossom in the garden here and, as it has each year for over thirty years, it brings back very pleasant memories. Malus floribunda, the Japanese Flowering Crabapple The rear gate of the boarding school I attended in the late 60s was exactly across the …

The Dillon Garden 2003/4/5

A blast from the past: photographs of visits to Helen and Val Dillon's garden in 2003/4/5, came up unexpectedly today. A publication has asked me for photographs of another garden and the search took me to an old external hard drive with photographs dating back to my first digital camera. Browsing such collections inevitably leads …

Gardening just for the fun of it!

Helen and Val Dillon hosted a group from the Irish Garden Plant Society in their new garden in Monkstown yesterday afternoon. It was my first visit to the new garden so there was huge curiosity to see what it was like, what Helen had done, how the garden was laid out, what plants she had …

Helen Dillon wears Lipstick!

“In an Irish Garden” was Helen’s greatest book! It was a collection of garden accounts written by the gardeners themselves, edited by Helen and Sybil Connolly, and it captured the feeling of a generation in Irish gardening which was about to pass. Many of those who featured in the book are no longer with us …

First Ladies of Gardening: Pioneer, Designers and Dreamers by Heidi Howcroft with Photographs by Marianne Majerus – A Review.

This has been one of the most delightful and enjoyable books I have read in quite a while. Marianne Majerus’ photographs are immediately captivating and this lead to my having to wait until my wife had read the book before I could have the pleasure. It was worth the wait and if you too wish …