In Bloom: Fantasy chocolate rivers, edible plants and reclaimed materials feature at garden festival

From a fantasy chocolate river with edible plants to a garden that is designed largely from reclaimed materials, Bloom festival aims to inspire gardeners this weekend at the Phoenix Park.

The flowers, food and family festival expects to welcome over 100,000 visitors across the weekend, with 22 show gardens and feature gardens alongside a series of 85 demos, talks and live entertainment from Thursday.

[ Bloom 2023: Opening times, ticket costs, the gardens to see and more ]

The Bord Gáis Energy Theatre’s show garden, inspired by the new production of Broadway and the West End’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – The Musical, will be sure to catch eyes with its floating hat and purple chocolate river.

Tom Leavy, who has worked with Bord Bia’s Bloom for the past five seasons, designed and built the World of Pure Imagination garden, his first solo project for the festival.

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Leavy said he was a “big fan” of Roald Dahl books and he started to create his design just before Christmas.

“I wanted to make an echo and give a nod to the chocolate room in the original Charlie film and the book. And this is a fantasy world,” he said.

Every plant in the garden is either edible or medicinal, and the design is “very sustainable,” according to Leavy, “to link in and tie back in with the sweets and chocolate, so this is a sweet shop for a modern era.”

“Aesthetically you can grow food and even on a smaller scale you can incorporate food into your backyard or into your garden, that’s something, if there is one thing I’d like people to take away from the garden, this is it, that you can have food production that’s sustainable,” Leavy added.

Tusla Child and Family Agency launched their first sponsored garden at Bord Bia Bloom, alongside Tusla foster carers and care experienced young people.

Their garden is entitled the Raising Amazing Garden and was designed by Linda McKeown with input from foster carers and young people.

Kate Duggan, Tusla interim chief executive, said that foster carers are instrumental to the work of Tusla and it was a chance to “celebrate” young people.

“The child is central to the work we do in Tusla, and it’s fitting that the Raising Amazing Garden reflects this. Ireland is among world leaders in foster care, and we want to continue that tradition and encourage anyone who is interested in becoming a foster carer to get in touch with us.”

Gráinne Wosser, a Kildare based foster parent will be at Tusla’s show garden throughout the weekend to highlight the positive impact becoming a foster parent has had on her life.

“Bottom line is children are, as we speak, desperately seeking homes and we are in a crisis, there’s no two ways about it, so it’s really about opening up people’s eyes,” Ms Wosser, who has had 15 foster children come through her doors, including three long term foster children, said.

She also highlighted the many different types of foster care, between long term, short term, respite, bridging, day fostering, emergency foster care, and the wide range of foster parents Tusla are now taking on.

Tusla have said that foster parents can come from any background and any walk of life.

“Many of our foster carers are single, same sex relationships, separated, divorced, different cultures, different diversities, and that probably reflects our children in care who come from all different backgrounds,” Tusla’s national lead said.

Another show garden, the Rise Garden, was designed by young people aged between 12 and 18 on Oberstown Children Detention Campus.

The garden is designed to evoke powerful emotions and meanings that resonate with visitors on a deep level, an Oberstown representative said.

After Bloom, the entire garden will be repurposed as a remembrance garden on-site at Oberstown Detention campus as an amenity for staff and young people.

The Oberstown spokesman John Smith, who worked on the garden, said that most of the items in the garden were created in Oberstown from reclaimed doors, from reclaimed units.

“The three murals that are on the tower represent losing your freedom when you come into Oberstown when you’re detained, then through support of the staff, the second mural (shows) things get better, and then you learn to stand on your own two feet,” Smith said.

The path running through the garden also represents their journey, starting rough, but getting smoother – but not completely smooth, and the windows in the garden represent windows of opportunity, while the glass panels represent reflection.

In its 17th year, the festival will also host nine ‘postcard gardens’ created by community groups from all over the country and 14 environmental and conservationist groups.

Bord Bia’s Bloom takes place over five days from June 1st to June 5th in the Phoenix Park.