IGPS at the Clare Garden Festival
Bruno Nicolai had an IGPS stand at the Clare Garden Festival today – as well as presenting a talk to those attending. A great day was had, with lots of requests for an IGPS branch to be set up in the west. If there is anybody interested in helping set up a branch in the […]
IGPS at Fota Plant Fair.
There was a huge attendance at the Plant Fair at Fota Island on Sunday, 17th April, and the IGPS had a presence there, sharing a stand with Blarney Castle Gardens to both promote the upcoming Blarney in Bloom Festival on the 10th of July and to promote the IGPS itself. Bruno Nicolai, Chairperson […]
Helen Dillon wears Lipstick!
“In an Irish Garden” was Helen’s greatest book! It was a collection of garden accounts written by the gardeners themselves, edited by Helen and Sybil Connolly, and it captured the feeling of a generation in Irish gardening which was about to pass. Many of those who featured in the book are no longer with us […]
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. 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 […]
Snowdrop House and Castle
Monday was a pet day in an otherwise generally miserable February. We had blue skies and bright sunshine, a crisp spring day, and we were quickly into the car and off up the M9 to visit snowdrop gardens. Burtown House, near Ballintore, Co. Kildare, is furthest away from us and was our first stop while, […]
Suffering for Snowdrops
The Snowdrop Week at Altamont Gardens has become not only the established snowdrop event of each year here in Ireland but it is, undoubtedly, the best. It has run each year for over ten years and there are many reasons it is so successful. It the first place, it has the wonderful setting of Altamont […]
Heritage Irish Plants – An Update!
Heritage Irish Plants – Plandai Oidhreachta is a collaborative project between the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and the Irish Garden Plant Society which will lead to an exhibition of the works of the artists and the publication of a soft-back book using the paintings to illustrate a collection of articles. The introduction will be […]
Just Give Them Away!
I have been taught a lesson, a hard and harsh gardening lesson, but I have survived it and all will be well. Some years back a friend from Yorkshire, Alan Briggs, was staying with friends of his in Co. Wexford for the New Year and was intrigued to see snowdrops included in various posies around […]
Favourite Books from 2015
I’ve taken a look back over the gardening books I have read in 2015 and selected those I have enjoyed most. It is, I believe, important to say that these are my personal favourites and I don’t aim put them out here as the best books of the year. We all have our likes […]
Paradise and Plenty – A Rothschild Family Garden
Paradise and Plenty – A Rothschild Family Garden by Mary Keen This book provides the ultimate peep over the walls of a closed and private garden and what a delight we are shown. We are shown Eythrope, the private garden of the present Lord Rothschild, one of a family of great English gardeners. Baron […]
Flora of the Silk Road – An Illustrated Guide
The Silk Road is a place of legends, adventures and dreams, hard travelling and great beauty. It connected the west and the east, Rome and China, and along its various routes it carried trade in silk, spices, gold and ivory and introduced the compass, printing and gunpowder from the east along with learning in astronomy, […]
Heritage Irish Plants – Plandaí Oidhreachta
The beauty of the work of the members of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists was the inspiration for this project which features heritage Irish garden plants. The ISBA is quite a new society but has already made a fabulous contribution to Irish art and to our heritage of Irish plants with its initial exhibition, […]
Kneepads and things!
My weekend travels brought me to four very large garden centres. On Saturday we went to Johnstown Garden Centre near Naas now, with the M9, only a little over an hour’s journey from Waterford. We went to meet with friends who use an Irish internet gardening site, Garden.ie. It was a time to press the […]
Algerian Umbrellas are all the fashion at the moment.
Opening an umbrella in the house is considered bad luck but if we are following the suggestion of Vita Sackville West we might be excused. Some flowers defy the logic of the seasons and open their blossoms when all others are in winter rest. No doubt they have their reasons but it does not always […]
Colour for the Gardener
Colour is everyday and commonplace yet somebody with an artist’s eye can help us to truly see it and understand what it is doing. Andrew Lawson wrote “The Gardener’s Book of Colour” in 1996 and Pimpernel Press has recently released a revised and undated edition. The years since it was first published have seen a […]
The Art of Gardening…Chanticleer
It would seem impossible that a garden designed by committee would be considered a “standard bearer of excellence in horticulture worldwide” (Dan Hinkley at www.pacifichorticulture.org ) but it seems such is the case for Chanticleer Gardens, on the outskirts of Wayne, Pennsylvania, as they are extraordinarily successful and deeply loved by the American gardening community. […]
Gertrude Jekyll – A Lady of Many Talents.
Gertrude Jekyll was without doubt the person who most influenced the style of English gardening and gardening worldwide through the 19th and 20th centuries. However, she was much more than a gardener; her talents elsewhere were equally gifted and this book gives a wider view of the person and the breadth of her achievements. Gertrude […]
November
“November” by Thomas Hood No sun–no moon! No morn–no noon! No dawn–no dusk–no proper time of day– No sky–no earthly view– No distance looking blue– No road–no street– No “t’other side the way”– No end to any Row– No indications where the Crescents go– No top to any steeple– No recognitions of familiar people– No […]
Julius Caesar, where did you come from?
Primulas do very well for us in our Irish climate and it is no wonder that we have a long list of cultivars which have arisen and been named here. These are passed around from friend to friend but, unfortunately, can be lost over the years so it is well to take care of them […]
Now’s the time!
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 […]
