SUMMER GARDENS:Some 30 show gardens, 36 nurseries, a health and wellness arena and food market - Bloom 2008 is back in town, writes Jane Powers.
BLOOM, IRELAND'S home-grown garden show, is in full swing in the Phoenix Park. The organiser, Bord Bia, expects to attract 60,000 visitors, in this, its second year (last year the event saw 50,000 garden lovers, despite the weepingly wet weather).
This time round, the show has a more "planty" feel, with many of the show gardens more densely planted than last year. But such lushness has not been easy to achieve. Orla Woods, whose Kilmurry Nursery (which she owns with husband Paul) supplied six of the big gardens with plants, says: "It was the hardest year ever. It started cold, and the plants did nothing, and then it got warm, and everything jumped. But then, it was cold again, and then warm again." In other words, hundreds of plants were in the polytunnels one day, and out the next, in attempts to hurry them up, or hold them back. Of course, the Woods duo, being experienced nursery people (they won a gold medal at Chelsea a couple of years ago), managed to bring their precious crops to perfection. But it's interesting to learn that all those towering verbascum spires, blowsy oriental poppies, star-bursting agapanthus and other flawless perennials at the show gardens were not easily raised.
Many of the gardens also feature edibles, with vegetables, salad gardens and fruit bushes. Paul Martin's Pfizer Health and Wellness Garden has an outdoor dining room and kitchen (playing host to various culinary luminaries including Jenny Bristow and Rory O'Connell), and is furnished with a herb wall and grape vines. Mature mulberries cast some shade. He has eschewed the lawn (an energy and water glutton in the garden), and is using Irish sandstone paving, as well as Irish oak - both of which carry a smaller carbon footprint than imported materials.
In Sandscape, Gerard Mullen uses environmentally friendly rammed earth walls to back his space, which is a recreation of a coastal garden. And in one of the tiny gardens, Lurene Tallon's potting shed is built of logs, and topped with a green roof, making it a home for garden creatures, as well as for tools and compost. Ideas of sustainability have at last percolated into Irish show gardens.
In all, there are 30 show gardens: large, medium and small, and ranging from boldly minimal to luxuriant and lavish. There's no room to name them all here, but another that must be mentioned is Tim Austen's "Inspiration from Mount Usher" (one of Ireland's most beautiful gardens, which features elsewhere in this Magazine).
The floral pavilion is billet to about three dozen nurseries, while new this year are a health and wellness arena and a craft trail. Cookery demonstrations, an Irish artisan food market, a children's play area, and an outdoor entertainment stage make this more than just a flower festival.
Bloom continues at the Phoenix Park until Monday, June 2nd. Today, Dundrum Town Centre is sponsoring Ladies Day, with a €5,000 shopping voucher for the winner. Tickets for Bloom start at €18 for adults. Family discounts available. Free shuttle buses from Heuston Station. www.bloominthepark.com