Dublin in Bloom

On a beautiful sunny Saturday I headed to a corner of Dublin’s Phoenix Park for my first visit to the annual Bloom Festival. It’s a celebration of gardens, gardening, and the great outdoors.

The weather was gorgeous and the aisles were packed with people. There was something for everyone. Of course the main attractions are the show gardens, designed by some of the top gardener designers. Here’s a few of my favorites, including one by an obvious corporate sponsor (no festival can survive without them) which included a lovely water feature.

You Talk, I’ll Listen – Gold Medal Winner – Andrew Christopher Dunne

Limerick Culture Garden – Silver Medal – Ailish Drake

Potato to Packet (Tayto Garden) – Silver Medal Winner – David Everard

Mr. Tayto

Entertainment was on hand as well – everything from RTE Lyric to a floral mariachi band.

Vendors ran the gamut from handmade arts and crafts, commercial products, and of course gardening gadgets of all types and styles. My personal favorite was the Husqvarna auto mover – no hands or cords required. Just set it down and let it go – now that’s my idea of mowing the law.

Husqvarna auto-mower

Few gardens are complete without a sculpture, and there were plenty of options from the funky chicken to the Angel of Love (willow sculpture by Breda Marron – yours for a mere €15k – since my lotto tickets haven’t paid off, I’ll have to pass, but it was lovely).

Angel of Love – Breda Marron

Funky Chicken

There were flowers galore including some unusual varieties along with gorgeous white and purple fuchsias (unfortunately, my photo didn’t come out well enough to show the colour).  This one looked like something out of Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss.

Not to be outdone, this gorgeous clematis is growing in my back garden.

My own back garden

Although I thought the entrance fee of €20 was a bit dear (you can get advance tickets a bit cheaper), it was a wonderful outing and I look forward to going again next year.

 

PS – Apologies for the length of time between posts – I was ill for nearly a month, but am finally getting back to as normal as possible for me 🙂

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