While smaller Irish nurseries propagate their popular plant varieties in tens and hundreds, at FitzGerald Nurseries in Kilkenny the numbers are in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Pat FitzGerald’s nursery, a mile and a half from Jerpoint Abbey, was once the family farm, and has been home to his ancestors since the 1700s.
Now, there are 20 employees here, and another 15 at a laboratory in Enniscorthy. This is high-tech horticulture: the lab is involved in breeding and micropropagation, and in cleansing tired old cultivars of pathogens so that newly invigorated plants may sally forth in their millions. A trials grounds for rigorous testing of new varieties completes the operation. There is nowhere in these islands to match these facilities.
FitzGerald Nurseries sells its MyPlant range in Ireland to big DIY shops, as well as to garden centres. The plants, which are mainly foliage specimens, are chosen for colour, year-round appeal, and for cultivation in containers on patios and balconies, as well as in the garden. They are also all completely foolproof: if you forget to water your potted Cordyline'Sunrise' or Phormium'Black Adder', they will still be there when you remember two weeks later. The latter plant, bred from the fashionable 'Platt's Black', won a major award for Pat FitzGerald at last year's IPM Essen show in Germany – the largest commercial horticultural event on this planet. This year the nursery's Yucca 'Bright Star' took the top prize in the patio plant category.
The Kilkenny business also exports all over Europe (including large numbers of plants to Holland, the cradle of nursery stock), and to Japan, Australia and the US.
www.fitzgerald-nurseries.com; www.myplant.ie