Visit to Moneynabane Gardens, Co. Down – 26th July 2025
Visit to Moneynabane Gardens Saturday 26th of July from 2.00pm to 4.00pm 155 Dundrum Road, Dromara, Co. Down BT25 2JS Moneynabane, the garden of Desmond Dunwoody, is a rural garden on the edge of the Mourne A.O.N.B., has been developed in the past 25 years. An effective use of terracing and winding paths enables visitors […]
Visit to Butterfield House Garden – 19th July 2025
Visit to Butterfield House Garden Saturday 19th of July from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm Butterfield House, Fortchester, Inch, Gorey, Co. Wexford Y25PR82 Noel Gilleece and Eilish Ryan started the garden 25 years ago on a 1.5 acre level field. Laid out in a Victorian style and divided by hedges of different kinds, there are […]
IGPS Summer Lunch & Garden Visits – Altamont and Hardymount, Co Carlow. 28th June 2025
Summer Lunch & Garden Visits Altamont and Hardymount, Co Carlow. Saturday 28th June 2025 10.30am approx. – 1.00pm Altamont Gardens, Tullow, Co Carlow, R93N882 Saturday 28th June 2025 1.30pm – 4.30pm approx.. Hardymount Gardens, Tullow, Co Carlow, R93XN24 Altamont: A wonderful Robinsonian garden created by the late Corona North. Full of rare trees and shrubs […]
Visit to Ballycommane House and Gardens – 14th June 2025
Visit to Ballycommane House and Gardens Saturday 14th of June from 12.00 noon Ballycommane, Durrus, West Cork, P75 A020, Bantry, Ireland Set in 3.5 acres of private lands in a broad valley near the charming coastal village of Durrus. Ballycommane garden offers an array of colour, featuring an abundance of flowers as well as a […]
2025 AGM in Oranmore, Co. Galway – 17-18th May
Members are invited to attend this year’s Irish Garden Plant Society Annual General Meeting based in Oranmore, County Galway on 17th-18th May 2025. Join us for a weekend in the unique landscape of south Galway and County Clare, with visits to nurseries, gardens and The Burren. The venue for our AGM weekend is the […]
IGPS Members’ Open Gardens List 2025
Please find below a list of IGPS members’ gardens which are open to the public in Summer 2025, including photographs and details of opening: Click Here: IGPS List of Members’ Open Gardens 2025 More detailed information the gardens might be found in various publications and online. Our thanks to Rob Evans for compiling this list
Visit to Charleville House and Gardens – Saturday 10th May 2025
Visit to Charleville House and Gardens – Saturday 10th May 2025 at 11am It is a rare treat to visit Charleville House and Gardens, in Enniskerry Co. Wicklow. There has been a big house here since the seventeenth century, though the earlier houses burned down. The present Palladian house dates from 1797 and our tour […]
IGPS Plant Sale at Rowallane Spring Fair – Saturday 3rd May 2025
IGPS Plant Sale at Rowallane Spring Fair – Saturday 3rd May 2025 10am to 4pm There will be an opportunity to buy a wide variety of herbaceous plants, shrubs, ferns and a great selection of scarce Irish heritage plants will be available. Please contact Agnes Peacocke in advance by emailing apeacocke@hotmail.com to donate plants or bring […]
Lecture in Antrim: Lismore Castle with Colm O’Driscoll 20th March 2025 7.30pm
‘Reflections on two years’ gardening in the oldest continuously cultivated garden in Ireland: Lismore Castle’ with Colm O’Driscoll The talk will cover Colm’s approach to managing the gardens and what he and his team are striving to achieve. It will include details of plants, planting trials and the innovations to date that have had the […]
IGPS Zoom Lecture: ‘Treading Gently through the Borders’ with Ben Pope – 26th March 7.30 pm
IGPS Zoom Lecture: ‘Treading Gently through the borders: a detailed look at the softer side of border management’ with Ben Pope This talk will explore both traditional and contemporary methods of herbaceous perennial management, and will leave you confident when deciding how to improve your own borders. Ben Pope, head gardener in a private garden in West Sussex, cares for a large […]
Lecture at NBG Glasnevin: Dr Mary Forrest on ‘Trees in Ireland – some distinguished natives and honoured guests’. 8th March 2025 at 11am
Trees have been a lifelong interest for Dr Mary Forrest from her time studying in the Botanic Gardens, through cataloging tree and shrub collections in Ireland to her many years as a horticultural lecturer in University College Dublin. Though trees native to Ireland number 17 – 20 species, trees introduced over many centuries from […]
Delphinium ‘Weeshy’s Blue’
Brendan Sayers provides an account of a wonderful Delphinium of Irish origin: Delphinium ‘Weeshy’s Blue’ [pronounced wish she] arose as a seedling sown by Anthony Aloysius Doherty at Pretty See Cottage in County Meath approximately 10 years ago. It grew among other delphinum seedlings and it was not until it was a mature clump that its […]
Lecture at NBG Glasnevin: The Wonderful World of Fuchsias with Leonie Meehan 15th February 2025
Leonie Meehan established the Irish Fuchsia Nursery in 2018, with the goal of producing top quality, disease free, robust plants which are suited to the Irish climate. In 2023, she won a gold medal at Bloom in the Nursery category. The Irish Fuchsia Nursery in Gorey, Co. Wexford, which is the only specialist Fuchsia […]
Zoom Talk – Growing your own cut flowers seasonally & sustainably’ with Fionnuala Fallon. Thursday 6th February 7.30pm
IGPS Zoom talk with Fionnuala Fallon, ‘Growing your own cut flowers seasonally & sustainably’ Thursday 6th February at 7.30pm Fionnuala is a National Botanic Gardens-trained horticulturist, garden writer, flower farmer and florist with a deep-rooted love of seasonality and sustainability. She has been the gardening correspondent for The Irish Times since 2011. Together with her […]
Lecture at Glasnevin – Insights into Plant Trials for the Trade – Hydrangeas and Sunflowers by Donall Flanagan – 18th Jan 2024
Dόnall Flanagan is the Nursery Stock/Ornamentals Advisor to Teagasc at Ashtown in the Phoenix Park. He will give us some insights into the process by which named varieties of ornamental plants are chosen and are likely to reach our garden centres. There will be surprises along the way! The talk will be at 2pm on Saturday […]
Zoom Talk – Steve Edney – 16th October 2024, 7.30pm
Steve Edney has been perfecting his art for 30 years. After studying Horticulture at Hadlow College and Arboriculture at Merrist Wood College, he spent several years as a highly respected private gardener, tree surgeon and designer. In 2005, he joined The Salutation to helm its huge restoration project, setting out a 5-year plan of restoration […]
Gardens Open for National Garden Scheme NI
Gardens Open For Charity in Northern Ireland in 2024 The booklet detailing the open gardens can now be viewed at the link below, courtesy of NGS NI. https://ngs.org.uk/app/uploads/2024/02/ni_2024.pdf
Visit to Coolwater Garden – Report
On Saturday the 20th of April 2024, twenty members and friends from Clare, Cork, and Tipperary, Dublin, Meath and Wexford were visited this stunning garden near Limerick. Coolwater is an artistically designed garden on only half an acre and steps to the beat of a different drum. No lawns and borders to be found in […]
A New Snowdrop – Galanthus ‘Patrick Tobin’
A very special snowdrop, which has recently been named for IGPS member, former IGPS Chair (2012-2016) and regular contributor to our newsletter, Paddy Tobin. Galanthus plicatus ‘Patrick Tobin’. It is a form of Galanthus plicatus which arose naturally as a seedling in the renowned Primrose Hill Gardens and was selected by Robin Hall, who decided […]
New Irish Heritage Plant Collection at Holywood College
New Irish Heritage Plant Collection at Holywood College (L-R – Billy McCone, Joanna Loane, Nichola Monk and Helen McAneney) “Joanna Loane is adding to SERC’s Holywood Campus garden, with native Irish plants and Irish Cultivars” Aspiring to start an Irish Heritage Plant collection at the South Eastern Regional College (SERC) campus garden in Holywood, Co. […]
