To The Plantsman

When the first bright day arrived we make a check on the weather forecast, saw that all fared well and fine at least until early afternoon, and decided we would make a bolt from the confines of the house where we had been interned for too many days because of the rain and general miserable …

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 …

Snowdrops at Huntingbrook.

Jimi Blake decided this week to take the plunge and open his garden - Huntingbrook, Co. Wicklow - at snowdrop time. Although he has gathered and grown snowdrops for many years he never considered his garden a "snowdrop garden" but he has taken an increased interest in snowdrops in recent years and has added enormously …

On the Use of Names.

Just a little rant! Fionnuala Fallon wrote a review of Jimi Blake’s book, A Beautiful Obsession, in today’s Irish Times. As might be expected, she was lavish in her praise – expected because they are long-time friends and also because it is well deserved. I hasten to point out immediately that I expect no blame …

A Beautiful Obsession

In his seventeen years at Huntingbrook Garden, Jimi Blake has cut a dash through the traditional herbaceous border, the shrub border, the woodland garden and is leading the way in Irish horticulture with his innovative approach to gardening, with his new plant trials and introductions but, most of all, in the manner in which he …

Wollerton Old Hall and Connected Thoughts!

The garden which draws you back has obviously something which attracts you. My first visit to Wollerton Old Hall, near Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, was an unfortunate disaster. I loved the garden but was so ill that it was a challenge to enjoy it. I went to hospital in Chester that evening and spent a …

Huntingbrook

Huntingbrook, Jimi Blake’s garden in Co. Wicklow, has taken a leap forward this year with the redevelopment of a large area of the gardens. That area to the right as one walked into the garden, a quite high bank until this year, has been lowered, new soil added and the whole area replanted. Now, rather …

Much more than that!

It is disappointing to see a good garden receive scant and silly coverage on a television gardening programme. Recently, BBC’s Gardener’s World visited Jimi Blake’s garden, Huntingbrook, and gave more time to Jimi on a trampoline than to the garden and plants. With any television programme there will be editing and selection of material but …