BEDDING plants are one of those things that divides the gardening community sharply down the middle: you either loathe 'em or love 'em. On one side of the line (nicely picked out in blue lobelia and white alyssum) you have the loathers shouting: "Vulgar! Regimented! Artificial!" And on the other side you have the devotees: "Charming! Cheerful! Great colour!"
Yes, sir! Those brash, oval rugs of busy lizzies, begonias, geraniums and marigolds are guaranteed to set the senses stirring strongly. And nowhere are they more audaciously vibrant than in our public parks, thanks to our corporations and councils, who certainly know how to go for maximum impact.
As an ardent convert to bedding-plantism, I am warmed and thrilled by the display in my own municipal common space - the People's Park in Dun Laoghaire. How can anyone not be cheered by the sight of thousands of plants flowering their crazy heads off in happy unison? These are the brass bands of horticulture, blazing away with unabashed exuberance and blaring high spirits. How can a heart not be uplifted by such a good-humoured, dazzling show? This is floral teamwork at its best - with each little entity doing its mighty utmost in the creation of a magnificent, unified performance.
The work that goes into making these displays is huge, methodical, and - appropriately enough - it involves a well-knit team of gardeners and parks people. Leading Dun Laoghaire's team is parks superintendent, Denis Shannon, while most of the planning and planting in the People's Park is looked after by Tom Byrne, assistant foreman gardener, and Liam Murphy, his right-hand man. Tom and Liam are in complete consensus about how the park should look: "It's the biggest flower tub in Dun Laoghaire," says Liam. "It is," agrees Tom. "It's a big container. I don't believe that you can overdo flowers at all, there's no way you can."
Abundant proof of this conviction is the park's Victorian lodge, its dignified, red-brick facade almost invisible behind energetic explosions of flower colour. Ingenious hanging bags sprout busy lizzies in lipstick-like frosted pink, pouting scarlet and iridescent carmine; dangling baskets hold hundredweights of pink geraniums, fire-engine-red tuberous begonias, blue lobelia and yellow bidens; fat pots contain standard fuchsias hung with clusters of bells. It's bright, it's gaudy, it's noisy - and it's utterly gobsmackingly gorgeous. For this sort of display, it is essential that every plant is bursting with rude health and vigour, so every single container is fed weekly. "It has to be once a week, " stresses Tom. "If you don't feed, you don't get the results." On the other hand, the 12 beds that make flamboyant floral carpets around the park are never fed, unless they are looking peaky - and then, according to Liam, only "a light sprinkle of 0-10-20, nothing with nitrogen".
The 15,000 plants are spaced about six or eight inches apart, the "closer the better", in soil that has been rejuvenated with organic matter every two years. And because the summer bedding must perform from the beginning of June (when it takes a crew of five people a week to plant the park) until mid-October, only certain varieties are suitable.
Busy lizzies are tremendously obliging: "hot weather, cool weather, damp weather, shady conditions - they will even grow under a canopy," says Tom. "And geraniums are absolutely fantastic, if you have a drought period they will perform better." Other sterling doers are nicotiana, French marigolds (not the African variety which sops up the nighttime dew like a sponge), cosmos and begonias.
Almost everything is grown from seed, with the geraniums the first to be sown, in January, in the Corporation's nursery in Loughlinstown. Tom Byrne and his family live at the nursery; they also go to the seaside town of Southport - hub of summer bedding - for their holidays. Here Tom picks up ideas for the People's Park, a difficult space, sloping northeast and at the mercy of salt-laden gales from the sea - "not like Merrion Square which is nearly semi-tropical".
Evidence of Dun Laoghaire's treacherous weather can be found just across the road from the People's Park. A stretch of bedding at Queen's Road, next to the sea: 3,000, lovely, hopeful marigolds, every last one of them fallen victim to the storms that hit the coast a few weeks ago. Only frayed, browned stumps remain. It's a terrible picture.
But Tom Byrne has ideas for this inhospitable patch: in Southport he saw a similar strip of seafront all magnificently laid out in a mile-long herbaceous border. Dun Laoghaire promenaders: watch that space.
Diary Date: Monday - Saturday, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m., until 11th July: an exhibition by well-known Irish artists of outdoor sculpture suitable for domestic gardens, takes place at "Gallan", Mangerton Road, Muckross, Killarney (in the gardens of gallery-owner Frank Lewis). Prices range from £375 to £5,000. Tel: 06434843.