The Plant Lover’s Guide to Epimediums by Sally Gregson – A Review.
We have entered a period of renewed interest in epimediums following the introduction of a range of new species from China and the subsequent richness of cultivars bred from them. For many years gardeners have considered epimediums as the pretty plant for dry shade conditions but the new Chinese plants are simply astonishing and have […]
Hidden Histories: Trees –The Secret Properties of 150 Species by Noel Kingsbury. A Review
This book presents a collection of snippets of interesting information about a world-wide selection of trees and presents this in an arrangement of text boxes along with accompanying illustrations. As would be expected the practical uses of trees feature regularly – those used for building purposes, for making furniture or tools, for weaving into baskets, […]
Kilmacurragh: sourced in the wild by Megan O’Beirne. A review
A wonderful garden, an author who admires it greatly and a seriously flawed book. The National Botanic Gardens at Kilmacurragh are significant for the historic collection of plants which are grown there, plants introduced by the most famous of plant collectors of a bygone era and because the gardens are now in a phase of […]
The Irish Garden by Jane Powers and Jonathan Hession, A Review
In a combination of lusciously delicious text and exquisite photography, Jane Powers and Jonathan Hession have produced the most wonderful and delightful book on Irish gardens. Although there was a short interlude when Jane spent some years of childhood in America she is truly an Irish woman as she has spent most of her life […]
Secret Gardens of the Cotswords – A Review.
What is most striking about this book is the wonderful number of beautiful gardens there are within the small area of the Cotswolds and that this is matched by glorious photography and delightful text used to present them to us. Twenty gardens, all within the circle of Cheltenham, Banbury, Oxford, Cirencester and Stroud, are described […]
Subtly Scented Sarcococca
We learnt to recognise the signs, visitors stopped, looked around, walkedback, looked again, and then saw someone obviously gardening and out comes the question – ‘where is that lovely scent coming from’? This winter, especially on calm days, and after planting probably hundreds of plants over the years, the scent has gently wafted around as […]
Mount Congreve – A Preview
Mount Congreve Gardens, in Waterford, will open for the 2015 season on Thursday 12th of March but I took the opportunity to have a walk around the gardens during the last week. My first impression, as I remember the scenes of devastation we witnessed in the gardens following the storms at this time last year, […]
Authors and their Gardens by Paddy Tobin
A review of A Writer’s Garden: How Gardens Inspired Our Best-Loved Authors, by Jackie Bennett, with photographs by Richard Hanson – descriptions of nineteen gardens with the added interest of information on the authors who gardened in them. For some of the authors in this book their garden was a place which provided inspiration – […]
Munster Group Visit to Altamont Gardens, Feb. 2015
[cycloneslider id=”munster-group-visit-altamont-gardens-feb-2015″]
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 […]
Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden by Keith Wiley: A Review
When I first visited Keith Wiley’s garden, “Wildside” in Devon, I though the man must be a complete nutcase. At the time, the planting of the garden was almost complete with some area still under development. To me, it didn’t seem much like “development” when I walked it as there was still a large area […]
Royal Horticultural Society: The Garden Anthology – edited by Ursula Buchan.
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 with aims “to collect every information respecting the culture and treatment of all plants and trees” and to disseminate this information to it members. How this information was disseminated has changed but little over the course of the society’s history from “The Transactions of the Horticultural Society […]
By Coincidence – Two Irish Plants go to Cornwall and Back.
Plants with variegation in their foliage give colour and interest at this time of year when flowers are rather scarce in the garden. Two presently catching my eye are both of Irish origin, Griselinia littoralis ‘Bantry Bay’ and Luma apiculata ‘Glanleam Gold’. Peculiarly, neither has showy flowers so it is a testimony to their attractiveness […]
Burtown House is Opening Early – Special Events This Year!
The gardens at Burtown House will open earlier than usual this year as more and more people have expressed a wish to see the gardens at this time of year and especially to see the collection of snowdrops and wonderful display of winter aconites. Snowdrops and Early Bulbs There are many varieties of snowdrops and […]
Remarkable Plants that Shape our World – Helen and William Bynum
I have a habit since childhood that I will finish reading a book once I have started it. At times I put this down to my background, that Irish Catholic upbringing of the fifties and sixties with its sense of duty and obligation, and at others to my stupidity and obsession to see matters through […]
More Than Just a Pretty Flower
Growing snowdrops has become a particular interest of mine over the past twenty years and while I would not wish to be labelled a “galanthophile” I do enjoy them very much. The term “Galanthophile” when originally introduced by E.A. Bowles meant, very simply, “a lover of snowdrops” while nowadays the term has come to signify […]
The Splendour of the Tree by Noel Kingsbury. Photography by Andrea Jones.
This book could well be compared to a box of the most luxurious and delicious liqueur chocolates. It presents 100 tree species with each account so rich in information, so interesting in content and so delightful in illustration that it is better to approach reading the book as one would the box of chocolates – […]
Make Room for Sculpture in Your Garden – Matthew O’Connell of Doolin Garden and Nursery
Doolin Garden and Nursery sit on a half acre site surrounding a house built in 1995. The house was designed by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects and won an Architectural Association of Ireland award in 1995. Their brief had been to design a simple contemporary two storey house based on vernacular architecture […]
Growing on the Edge – Dhu Varren Gardens. Mark & Laura Collins
We moved to Milltown, Co Kerry in June 2000 where we both took up employment in a local hospital. We purchased an old farmhouse dating back to 1850 which sat on a 2.5 acre site containing the remnants of a farmyard. The only area under cultivation was a lawn to the front of the house. […]
Tag my Tree – The Blarney Castle Garden Way – by Adam Whitbourn
Here at Blarney Castle & Gardens we have a fantastic collection of trees and I have spent the last few years updating the database and labelling the more unusual specimens (around 2000). Unfortunately labels are often damaged or removed and tend to be costly. I wanted to look at a way of tagging the trees […]
