On November 22 2016 the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and the Irish Garden Plant Society had the great honour of welcoming Martyn Rix to the National Botanic Gardens. Martyn had generously accepted the invitation to come to launch Heritage Irish Plants – Plandaí Oidhreachta. As the time for speeches approached, the crowd of attentive […]
Irish Garden Plant Society
Roy Lancaster: My Life with Plants
Roy Lancaster’s first interest in flowers was in the wild flower of the countryside around Bolton where he was born in 1937. He began work with the Bolton Parks Department, spent two years in Malaya as a national serviceman, two years at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens as a gardening student and 18 years with the […]
The Breathing Burren – A Review
The Breathing Burren by Gordon D’Arcy It is wonderful to pick up a book and have the immediate reaction “Oh, this is beautiful” – comfortable in the hand, attractive in size, print and illustration – and there is an immediate longing to read. This is how it was when Gordon D’Arcy’s “The Breathing Burren” arrived […]
Members’ Garden Visit: Victor and Roz
Normally, when I am sent photographs of a garden visit by society members I post a small selection on the “Latest News” section of our website with a short comment to report on the occasion, generally no more than a few sentences as this is what fits best in that location. However, Maeve Bell, Chairperson […]
‘New and Exciting Herbaceous Perennials from around the World’ with Jimi Blake’
‘New and Exciting Herbaceous Perennials from around the World’ with Jimi Blake’, in association with Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council. The Northern Area Committee’s Spring Lecture, ‘New and Exciting Herbaceous Perennials from around the World’ with Jimi Blake’, in association with Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, was an entertaining and inspiring guide through Jimi’s favourite […]
Heritage Irish Plants – Plandaí Oidhreachta: Place a Pre-publication order now! €25
The Irish Society of Botanical Artists and The Irish Garden Plant Society have joined forces in a project titled Plandaí Oidhreachta, which celebrates our Heritage Plants. It highlights the wealth of good Irish Garden Plants and celebrates the beauty of botanical illustration. In late 2016, the end product of the collaboration will be an exhibition […]
Memories in the Trees
Kennedy Park had been a place for us to bring the children when they were young; it had plenty of room for them to walk freely, the pathways suited prams and buggies; it had ducks; there was no traffic and it was very safe. However, as they grew, our visits became more and more infrequent […]
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 […]