Jane Powers offers suggestions for outings this year
Who knows what this year will bring in the garden? Will there be late frosts? An early spring? And will we have a summer at all? Will autumn be fruitful? I wish I knew. I do know, however, that outside the garden walls there will be rich pickings - among the horticultural happenings, seminars, courses and trips abroad for Irish gardeners.
February is a fecund month. The National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin (01-8570909) proffers two talks: on the 4th, at 3.15 p.m., Seamus O'Brien discusses the Gardens team's most recent trip to China; and on February 8th, at 8 p.m. Northern plantsman Harold MacBride presents "Plants to get excited about: anemones, clematis, pulsatillas and ranunculus". (This date is changed from the 15th because MacBride is due to get a lifetime achievement award in Buckingham Palace.) The above species - as any plant-lover will notice - are members of the buttercup family. The event is being arranged by that clan's champions, the Ranunculaceae Society (www.buttercupsonline.com).
February 5th brings one of the highlights of the season, the Garden and Landscape Designers' Association's annual international seminar at University College Dublin. This year's title is "Finding the Designer's Anam Cara (Spirit Friend)". Searching for their spiritual helpers are Steve Martino from Arizona, whose designs combine clean-lined, sharp architecture with dry-climate gardening; and New Zealander Kim Jarrett, one of the designers of the theatrical and meticulously detailed "100% Pure New Zealand Ora" garden, which took a gold medal at Chelsea last year. Speakers from Europe are Swedish landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell, whose spare and minimal designs use native plants and local materials; and Belgian Raf Seghers, who specialises in green roofs, natural swimming ponds and water purification through plants. (€125 for non-members of GLDA. Booking: GLDA, 73 Deerpark Road, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin, 01-2781824, www.glda.ie.
One designer who will miss the above event is Diarmuid Gavin - as he's holding his own seminars in Queen's University Belfast on that day, and on February 6th. The one-day sessions cover "Gardening through the ages" and "Designing your garden through a contemporary approach". There's a chance to catch him in Dublin on the 19th and 20th of February, in UCD, where the same subjects are dealt with, but in a two-day seminar. (€140 for Belfast, €245 for Dublin. Details from GLS Enterprises, 086-8183347)
The MyHome.ie Spring House and Garden Show is once again at the RDS in March (17th-20th). Visitors can vote for the best design from among the seven show gardens, or seek advice from Gerry Daly and other garden gurus in the Interactive Garden Design Forum, before stocking up on plants from the nursery stalls.
The rambling Rare and Special Plants Fair is five years old this May. On the 8th of the month it pitches up in Co Longford at Castle Forbes, Newtownforbes, when as many as 100 nurseries and plant-sellers may set up stall. Longford Tourism has devoted the entire weekend (May 5th-8th) to horticultural matters, with workshops, demonstrations, and garden openings. Avid garden snoopers can gain entry to the very private gardens at Castle Forbes, but only by pre-booked tour. (Details and booking, Longford Tourism, 043-42577)
May is also the month for the world's most exclusive, most excessive, most entertaining (in fact, most everything), garden event. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs from the 24th to the 28th. Ireland is represented yet again by Diarmuid Gavin, who brings five pod-living-spaces to his show-garden, and by newcomer Elma Fenton, with her eco-friendly "Moat and Castle" garden and its chic swimming pond. This country also has a presence at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (July 6th-11th) with Mount Venus Nursery's "Walk on Water" (details for all RHS shows: www.rhs.org.uk).
What happens in June is anyone's guess. Amid rumours to the contrary, Garden Heaven's organiser tells me that the show is going ahead on the 23rd-26th, with display gardens, design clinics, plant stalls and horticultural sundries. Further unconfirmed reports say that a new show will hit Dublin this June. It is to be supported, I'm told, by Ireland's ubiquitous designer, and will be called the "Diarmuid Gavin City, Urban and Suburban Garden Exhibition". It will focus on design (with "one or two" of Diarmuid's recent Chelsea gardens on display) and the whole thing is to be "chic, modern and different". Being a cautious individual, I'm not betting on either event, but I - and a crowd of other gardeners - long for a really good garden show in Ireland.
For those who wish to see how they organise this kind of happening across the water, Travel Quest, the gardeners' tour operator, offers a one-day trip to Chelsea, as well as itineraries taking in the RHS Tatton Park Show in Cheshire, and the BBC Gardeners' World Live Show in Birmingham. Further destinations include gardens in Cornwall, Paris, Japan, Warsaw and China, among others. All trips are led by Frances or Iain MacDonald, the accomplished Co Wexford gardeners. (Travel Quest Garden Tours, The Bay Garden, Camolin, Co Wexford, 054-83349; www.thebaygarden.com)
Gardeners who are keen on honing their skills may be interested in plantsman Jimi Blake's intermediate course of six one-and-a-half hour sessions over six weeks in two venues. It starts January 19th in St Kevin's Hall in Blessington, and January 20th in Airfield House in Dundrum. Jimi also holds a series of day-courses at his own home in Blessington, on subjects such as ornamental grasses, woodland gardening and "the coolest and newest plants". (Hunting Brook, Lamb Hill, Blessington, Co Wicklow; 087-2856601; www.huntingbrook.com)
Finally, the Organic Centre in Leitrim continues to branch out, offering courses not just at their HQ in Rossinver, but also in Dublin, and in counties Clare and Kerry (details from the Organic Centre, 071-9854338, www.theorganiccentre.ie). New subjects this year include polytunnel-growing, ecolandscaping for new sites, and home composting and waste reduction. The latter course may profit those who are eager to keep down their bin charges (and here's an advance tip from me: this magazine may be either composted or recycled, when you are finished with it).