Opening Again!

Mount Congreve Gardens have been closed for redevelopment for more than a year and I have missed our regular visits to the garden very much but the reopening is upon us and from Monday next, 31st October, the gardens will be open to the public again. The late Mr. Ambrose Congreve extended the original house …

Moving along!

We have continued our walks along the Waterford Greenway - a cycling/walking track developed on a disused railway line between Waterford and Dungarvan, a distance of 46Km. We are, in fact, walking each section twice: parking the car, walking to our set destination and then returning on the same route to the car. Because of …

Even on a Bad Day!

We can all, at times, work to the motto sometimes seen on sundials, "I only count the sunny hours". This is especially true of photographers who will inevitably seek out the most pleasant views, say in a garden, and ignore the less attractive pictures which may well present themselves. Likewise, if we have a choice, …

The Annual Show

Ambrose Congreve's planting style - at his Mount Congreve Garden - was very often designed to impress, to wow, to stop the visitors in their tracks and take their breath away and the Paeonia Borders do all of this in the most dramatic manner. There are other similar areas throughout the garden - the amazing …

One of the Greatest Gardens

Mount Congreve Garden, created by the late Ambrose Congreve, is one of the great gardens of Ireland and, indeed, of the world. He was greatly influenced by Lionel de Rothschild, a dear friend and mentor in the early years and followed his taste for rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias as the backbone planting of the garden. …

Magnolia ‘Anne Rosse’

We have many interesting and beautiful plants associated with the famous Nymans garden in West Sussex in England – Eucryphia ‘Nymansay’ and Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ are probably the two best known and most widely grown. There is also a Camellia ‘Maud Messel’ and a Forsythia suspensa ‘Nymans’ but a particularly beautiful Nymans plant …

Magnificent Magnolias

As I live very close to Mount Congreve Gardens in Waterford, magnolias are a big part of my gardening year as I can see not only an unrivaled selection of magnolias but also plantings in numbers which cannot be seen anywhere else. The February flowering of Magnolia campbellii, a planting made over fifty years ago …

Molly at Mount Congreve

A walk of the gardens at Mount Congreve with Michael White, the Garden Curator, always brings out great stories and connections. Michael walks at a gallop and talks at a gallop because he has much to do and his head is so full of information that it seems to simply burst from him. I recall …

Mount Congreve’s Magnificent Magnolias

Mount Congreve Gardens must be one of the very best places in the world to see magnolias. There are three spectacular plantings of magnolias in the garden: the first and original planting was on the terrace below the house where we can see Magnolia campbellii, Magnolia veitchii and Magnolia sprengeri var diva among others, all …

Heritage Irish Plants – Plandaí Oidhreachta

The beauty of the work of the members of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists was the inspiration for this project which features heritage Irish garden plants. The ISBA is quite a new society but has already made a fabulous contribution to Irish art and to our heritage of Irish plants with its initial exhibition, …