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A look at Bloom 2012

Updated: Mar 1, 2020

So Bloom in the park is on in Dublin at the moment, Ireland’s largest gardening, food and family event that takes place every June bank holiday weekend. (This year from Thursday 31st May – Monday 4th June). Last year 90,000 visitors visited the 70 acre site at the Visitor’s Centre in the Phoenix Park, Dublin with similar numbers expected this year. I was there in the glorious sunshine yesterday and an again in the soggy rain today, and the atmosphere was great. Here is a look at some of the gardens that caught my eye over the past two days. 

Ar Gháirdín Cuil was created to celebrate two things; Ireland’s craft heritage and what a nation of skilled people can achieve by working closely together on shared goals.It is a collaborative garden which brings together the skills, knowledge and experience of two vocational colleges. The Senior College Dun Laoghaire and the Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education (with sculptures by artists Brian O’ Loughlin.


I have shared my love for red in the landscape before in a previous blog post, so it would come as no surprise that this garden caught my attention. 


This garden is the work of garden duo Jack Harte & Frank McGeeney of Wild Metal. Jack Harte is responsable for the wounderful red metal sculptures in the garden, and makes colourful and unique metal sculptures and ornaments for both public and private open spaces while Frank McGeeney uses his skills in both landscape archutecture and farming to creat the green oaises that suroundes the wounderful art.


The “Reflection” garden is designed by Deirdre Pender to provide a source of quiet contemplation and refuge from busy everyday living. It draws on the ancient connection of hazel trees and water in Celtic mythology, in particular the sacred stand of hazel trees that hung over the Well of Wisdom in the Otherworld.


This garden is designed by Jason Stubbs prymairally to provide a romantic, enclosed space for wedding parties to have their photographs taken. To acheave this unique backdrop to the garden he  commissioned three vibrantly coloured wrought-iron floral globes. These globes, the largest of which will measure three meters high, rises from swathes of flowering perennials, grouped around strong evergreen shrubs. Jason Stubbs, studied Horticulture and Garden Design with the Royal Horticultural Society and Diarmuid Gavin. Shortly after the programme he was offered a design post within Diarmuid Gavin Designs in Notting Hill London. 


This lovely garden is a recreation of the garden that won Leonie Cornelius the title of RTE’s Garden show Super Garden. The theme of the garden is elegance and beauty using reclaimed materials where nature and architecture come together to create a harmonious whole. A customised space that shows how materials that most people would throw out can be used to create something new and extraordinary. More Great Gardens. As this post is getting very long, here is just a quick look at a few more of the gardens at bloom. 

Bloom is such a huge event there are too many gardens for one blog post, but there are lots more photos and lots more great gardens to be found in my flick album below. Click on the slideshow below to see them all.

You can also find out more about these gardens and the event on the Bloom website http://bloominthepark.com/ or better still, go and have a look for yourself.

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