A Year Full of Flowers…with Sarah Raven. Paddy Tobin Book Review March 31, 2021 Here is an exceptionally good book, full or relevant information, practical advice and suggestions to enliven your gardening life. It is an absolutely superb handbook for the enthusiastic gardener. That should be “enough said”; you could stop reading here and go and order it […]
Author: Paddy
E-Bulletin, March 2021
Dear IGPS member Whether you choose to use the Celtic, astronomical, or meteorological start date, spring is definitely now with us and, even better from a practical gardening point of view, summer time starts this weekend. We have both been busy with basic activities, Branka planting her potatoes and Maeve dividing herbaceous perennials, so no […]
Pollination – Timothy Walker
Pollination Paddy Tobin Book Review March 17, 2021 Pollination: The Enduring Relationship between Plant and Pollinator, Timothy Walker I have a deeply held wish in my aging life that my sense of wonder and fascination at the extraordinary workings of the natural world will never leave me. Nothing makes me feel so young (despite being retired more […]
New Nordic Gardens – Annika Zetterman
New Nordic Gardens – Annika Zetterman Paddy Tobin Book Review March 4, 2021 New Nordic Gardens, Scandinavian Landscape Design – Annika Zetterman Gardens “should be designed with dignity, worked on with modesty and maintained with persistence. This is how we think, how we work and this is what we are.” There is an ethos and a feeling […]
A Touch of Africa in Ireland – Nicola Milligan and Peter Milligan
It may seem a long way from S. Africa but the distance has not stopped a native South African from putting down roots in Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe. The crocosmia, originally referred to as montbretia, became a very popular garden plant. Between 1880 and 1900 Victor Lemoine, a nurseryman based at Nancy […]
E-Bulletin, Late February
Dear IGPS member, Welcome to our late February ebulletin. There has been more very encouraging feedback to the online lectures. Comments about the most recent one by Mike Nelhams, Curator of Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly included: Enjoyed the lecture. What a garden! Joan I really enjoyed the virtual visit to Tresco. Peggy […]
Windcliff – Dan Hinkley
Windcliff, A Story of People, Plants and Gardens by Daniel J. Hinkley Paddy Tobin Book Review January 31, 2021 Daniel J. Hinkley spoke in Dublin around the year 2000, an event organised by the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland at University College Dublin, and I can still recall the anticipation and excitement of attending that talk. He was […]
A Year at Brandywine Cottage – David Culp
A Year at Brandywine Cottage Paddy Tobin Book Review December 24, 2020 David Culp’s writing transports his readers, even those at the other side of the Atlantic, to an enjoyment of his garden in Pennsylvania, USA. It is a gardener’s garden and a gardener’s book, written for fellow gardeners who will understand so very well the happinesses, dreams, […]
The Modern Cottage Garden
The Modern Cottage Garden Paddy Tobin Book Review December 10, 2020 If you were starting out in gardening you would be very well served by this book. It could very well be considered the essential guidebook to the beginner and to anybody gardening in a small space who wished to have plant interest throughout the year. Originally, the […]
E-Bulletin: Mid-February 2021
Welcome to the IGPS ebulletin Mid February 2021 Dear IGPS Members While it is obviously disappointing not to be able to go to lectures and chat to friends, the very positive aspect is that all of us, regardless of where we live, will be able to enjoy a bit of escapism and find out about […]
IGPS Winter E-Bulletin
IGPS ebulletin January / February Dear members Welcome to another ebulletin. There was an amazing turnout of almost 200 of us from all over Ireland and further afield for Rosemary Maye’s talk on 21st January; we think everyone who enjoyed it will want to say a big thank you to her for injecting some wonderful […]
Post Brexit Online Plant Shopping.
Post Brexit there are complications importing plants from GB to Ireland, North and south, with Customs checks and phytosanitary certificates needed. Most GB companies, if not all, have now stopped delivering to Ireland. Bord Bia has compiled a list at…https://www.bordbia.ie/gardening/plant-delivery-collection-services/…of nurseries and garden centres around Ireland. Please look through for online ordering and postal delivery […]
Plant Portraits – Irish Heritage Plants – now Online
We have begun a collection of Plant Portraits, pen pictures of some favourite Irish heritage plants which you could grow in your own garden. These are now online on the society’s website: https://irishgardenplantsociety.com/ Simply click on the “Irish Plants” link at the top of the page and on “Plant Portraits” in the drop-down menu or, […]
Past Newsletters now Online
You can now browse many past issues of the society’s newsletter online. Newsletters from 2003 – 2020 are available to date and earlier issues will be posted in time. Go to the website: https://irishgardenplantsociety.com/ and click on “Publications” at the top of the page and then on “Newsletters” in the drop-down menu or use this […]
Plant Portraits
A selection of “Plant Portraits” of Irish Heritage Plants has been added to the website. These have been taken from recent issues of the society’s newsletter. Go to the menu item, “Irish Plants” and select “Plant Portraits” from the drop-down menu to view this first tranche of portraits. Or just click on “Plant Portraits” here. […]
Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’
Solanaceae, what a useful plant family: potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes, chillies and peppers of many kinds, but also one with many poisonous plants including mandrake Mandrogora, and tobacco Nicotiana. Ornamentally, not so useful? But think of Brugmansia or Cestrum. Surely though, the member of the family one sees most frequently is the climbing potato, Solanum crispum […]
Primula ‘Julius Caesar’
The words: ‘…and now it is probably extinct’ kindled a tiny fire of excitement when I read them twenty years ago. They referred to Primula ‘Julius Caesar’, in Charles Nelson’s encyclopaedia of Irish garden plants, A Heritage of Beauty. The Juliana primula, with wine flowers and bronze foliage, had been bred by Winifred Wynne sometime […]
Omphalodes ‘Starry Eyes’
The ability of some gardeners to spot an unusual trait in a plant is a known fact. Maybe the particular trait has to do with the plant’s stature, flower or leaf colour or its ability to fruit well. It is from here that we get our garden cultivars. In the case of Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Starry […]
Luma apiculata ‘Glanleam Gold’
Since Victorian times, the Chilean myrtle has seeded itself in millions at Glanleam, Co Kerry; in places their wonderful cinnamon trunks soar over 60 feet high. The rust-coloured bark, flaking to reveal creamy-white patches beneath, is one of the most charming features of this evergreen tree; the clouds of white blossoms are an added bonus […]
Galanthus ‘Straffan’
When I was a child, a programme of traditional Irish music and song wrapped up with ”If you feel like singing, do sing an Irish song” . I feel the words could be rehashed to “If you feel like growing a snowdrop, do grow an Irish snowdrop” and heartily recommend you give Galanthus ‘Straffan’ a […]