Gardening in Ireland

By Diane Oliver, KC Master Gardener 1999

“Nobody has ever asked me to go there,” our Irish driver, Seamus, dolefully told my mother and me, when we requested to see the gardens at Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry, County Wicklow.  My mother, my husband Sam and I had just landed in Dublin, Ireland, on a rainy May morning.   After a brief nap, we were ready to hit the gardens or, in Sam’s case, the golf course. 

My mother and I had decided to go to Ireland because of our very distant Irish roots (Mom was a Powers, explaining the desire to go to Powerscourt) and visit several gardens while we were in the Emerald Isle.  Sam, not to be left out, decided he would go along to golf while we were enjoying the grounds. 

What gardens to visit?  I had read and heard about Helen Dillon’s garden on the outskirts of Dublin, which I read was only open on Sunday, April through June.  She was one of Ireland’s leading plantswomen (www.dillongarden.com). That was our starting point.  I ordered Glorious Gardens of Ireland by Melanie Eclare, which is mainly eye candy for those of us who want an English style garden, but live in the U.S.  I also got some ideas from the Good Gardens Guide edited by Peter King, which is a comprehensive listing of over 1,400 gardens in the British Isles. 

However, the easiest to follow was a Dorling Kindersley book Eyewitness: Travel Guide Ireland.  In it, we found Powerscourt Estate gardens, which are centered around lovely Triton Lake.  As you walk down the steps towards the lake, you pass the Italian Garden that is laid out on terraces cut in the 1730’s, and then enter through a pair of statues of winged horses.  Our favorite, however, was the surprising Japanese Garden, complete with bridges and a pagoda.  Filled with Chinese conifers and a bamboo bog, this garden rambled up and down with waterfalls cascading under the little bridges.

It was time to move on to Helen Dillon’s garden at 45 Sandford Road in Dublin, which is an extraordinary   example of a small, urban patch of land transformed into a glorious collage of plants.  It was difficult for   Seamus to find, as he was not used to transporting two women to houses and gardens, but locate it he finally did!  I had seen pictures of her beautiful borders crammed full of perennials, but, for us, the Himalayan blue poppies, Meconopsis betonicifolia, were spectacular.  A true blue with yellow eyes, they were every bit as breathtaking as the catalog pictures.  The most recent March edition of The English Garden has a nice interview with Ms. Dillon and pictures of her garden.  You can visit her website at www.dillongarden.com.  The trip to her garden was well worth Seamus’s growing frustration with us, so we let him take us to a pub to appease him. 

“Oh, we have to pick up Sam from the golf course,” my mother said as she looked at her watch in the pub.  On our way, we asked Seamus to drop us off at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, established in 1795.  I remember the rose gardens being very formal and striking.  Showcased was the Thomas Moore rose, Rosa chinensis ‘Old Blush China’ or ‘The last rose of summer’, as in the ballad.  Along the path, Mom found a broken Rose of Tralee, just like the Celtic song, which she kept as a memento. 

After breakfast the next day at Ballyseede Castle Hotel, Tralee, County Kerry, the schedule kept us hopping. The wind was blowing fiercely at 50 mph, but Sam was looking forward to golfing at Old Head Golf Course in Kinsale, County Cork.  Mom and I had decided to visit Bantry House and Gardens on Bantry Bay approximately 175 miles from Dublin (www.bantryhouse.com).  Bantry House has been the home of the former Earls of Bantry since 1739.   The house overlooks Bantry Bay and from the terraces above the house, up 100 steps, is one of the most magnificent views I have seen.   You can see the layout of the gardens and house, Whiddy Island and, beyond, the Caba Mountains.  I saw some white forget-me-nots, Myosotis  alpestris, that I had not seen and have not been able to find locally

Our last garden to visit was quite off the beaten path.  It was called Butterstreamoin on the outskirts of Trim, County Meath, 28 miles northwest of Dublin. (http://www.trimtown.com/butterstream.htm)  The owner Jim Reynolds has created a maze-like series of garden compartments from an old farm.  The copper beech hedges, Fagus sylvatica, were stunning as were the shady woodland gardens with astilbes and hostas growing beneath roses.  A viewing tower, copied after a local pigeon tower, provides a panorama of the beautiful grounds below in their brilliance of bloom.  (Check first before going, one website listed Butterstreamoin now closed.)

These are just several of the “Glorious Gardens of Ireland” that I was fortunate to visit and I hope I have made you want to take the trip to the Emerald Isle and see them for yourselves.  If not, maybe you can go for the golf.