Society Blog

Paddy Tobin  Book Review  June 4, 2021 Tom Stuart-Smith has deservedly earned recognition as one of the great British garden and landscape designers. His reimagining of the box parterre in the walled garden at Broughton Grange where the hedging was organised not in a traditional geometric layout but following the cell pattern of a leaf as viewed […]

Secret Gardens of Somerset  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  May 3, 2021 The gardening tourist could have no better companion if visiting Somerset than this wonderful book from Abigail Willis with photographs by Clive Boursnell. It will be the perfect guidebook, providing a comprehensive listing of the most desirable locations, each temptingly described and illustrated and in these days […]

The Mystery of Crocosmia ‘Malahide’   Nicola and Peter Milligan   In the September issue of the IGPS Newsletter we wrote :-   “One Irish cultivar has created an air of ‘mystery’ – perhaps ‘mystery’ is too strong a term but read on and see what you think. It appears that the well known Irish […]

Then and Then and Now!  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  April 15, 2021 Great Dixter, Then & Now is the title and I suppose “Then, Then and Now” would have been too cumbersome a title for this small volume but it would have reflected the contents more accurately for this is a pictorial tour of the garden illustrated with present-day […]

Florapedia  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  April 15, 2021 Carol Gracie – you may remember her from those two fabulous books of hers, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast and Summer Wildflowers of the Northeast – has just written the perfect book for that impossible-to-satisfy gardening nerd in your life. This is a book which has across the board – I suppose I […]

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 […]

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 […]

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  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, […]

Sissinghurst, The Dream Garden  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  October 24, 2020 With this book Sissinghurst has received what it so deservedly merits, an author whose writings do it justice, for reading Tim Richardson’s book has been an enjoyment comparable to visiting Harold Nicholson’s and Vita Sackville-West’s garden. Both are simply superb. The garden’s creators are no longer with […]

Thinking The Plant  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  November 17, 2020 This rather odd title – for so it struck me – is proved by the golden thread of the artist’s insightful and revealing commentary on her work which runs through the narrative. 21 January, 1997: “I have been in intense and exhausting contemplation with leaves and stems, light […]

Flowers – Wild and Garden!  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  July 31, 2020 Lavish praise, a very generous book review, can be counter-productive for there is within us all that little streak of cynicism which says it may be too good to be true. This is my predicament with Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast, A Natural History by Carol Gracie for I […]

Dining on the Long Acre – The Wild Food Plants of Ireland  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  July 14, 2020 Reading Tom Curtis and Paul Whelan’s book, The Wild Food Plants of Ireland, has brought another layer, a greater depth of interest, to my wildflower wanderings along our road in recent days. The damsons on the boundary ditch of the […]

The Pollinator Victory Garden…A Review.  Paddy Tobin  Book Review  February 10, 2020 Small changes in our gardening can make an enormous difference to our world – The “Act locally, think globally” concept could never be applied so effectively! We can each, in our individual gardens, make small changes which will be beneficial to our environment, to the pollinators […]