Oliver Schurmann – ‘Prairie Style Gardening in an Irish Climate’
A Report from Adam Whitbourn on Oliver Schurmann’s IGPS Munster lecture ‘Prairie Style Gardening in an Irish Climate’on Tue 1st March.
Photo: LtoR – Oliver Schurmann (Mount Venus Nursery), Martin Edwardes (IGPS Munster Committee), Adam Whitbourn (IGPS Munster Committee)
Oliver gave an extremely interesting and informative lecture. His passion and knowledge of plants and great eye for design were evident throughout. He described his formative days of training in Germany where he first saw the prairie style of planting which influenced his development as a horticulturalist. He talked about the idea of bringing plant communities into the garden and used various examples of natural meadows and prairies from Ireland and abroad. He made many plant suggestions both as effective combinations and single specimens and took us through some gardens that he had designed and planted. I went away with a long wish list of plants which I will try to source at Oliver’s own Mount Venus Nursery in Rathfarnam, Dublin.
