During the summertime it is particularly a pleasure to drive down to the homestead down in West Cork. After spending many hours in the car, travelling on the wide motorways from Dublin, the narrow winding, pothole infested roads of the countryside are a welcome sight. The roads are about half the width they normally are in the winter as all the plant life competes for space. Although the roads are narrower, they do look fantastic as the glow with colour. And none glows with a

Well without trying to upset anybody, I have to admit that Gunnera is one of my favourite perennial plants. This might be upsetting for some as there are people out there with a very strong opinion about them, but I will talk about that later on in the post. First I want to talk about the plant itself. Gunnera is believed by some to be poisons, I even remember hearing this when I was young. So far I can not find anything to back that up, and it is not listed in the RHS toxic