Carpe diem!
Beauty and perfection can be fleeting in the garden and it is well to make the most of that occasion when it comes.
Mount Usher Gardens in Co. Wicklow has just started that period of intense beauty and it is time to get in the car and go visit. The annual display of autumn colour, reflected in the river to give double effect, has just begun and will continue to improve for the next few weeks.
The first of the trees to put on its autumn display is Nyssa Sylvatica and this is quickly followed by, Cercis canadensis, Parrotia persica, Liquidamber styraciflua and a range of butter yellow maples. Together these put on a fireworks display in yellows, oranges and reds while an interplanting of Japanese maples in maroons and burgandies bind the whole display together.
This annual display must surely be one of the best designed plantings in the country. It is one of those garden designs that I look at and marvel at the vision, creativity, intelligence and foresight of the people who made it. How could they envision how their planting would look fifty to one hundred years after their work was begun?
Now, year after year, we can go and enjoy this beauty so get your boots on and make the journey to enjoy this garden which looks so wonderful at this moment.
Paddy Tobin
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