Guest Blog from Sara Waldburg of Houses, Castles and Gardens.
All
around this island grand houses and castles that open to the public are drawing
back the shutters, sprucing up the tea rooms and memorising histories both fact
and legend from long, long ago! It’s
all about being ready for the first visitors of the season. They are in for a treat this year because property
owners and managers have been planning their events schedule for months now and
finally the websites are starting to fill with an array of activities that
makes you dizzy with anticipation … I want to go to them all but here are just
a few to entice us from hibernation.
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| Powerscourt Gardens. |
Powerscourt Gardens at Enniskerry, Co.
Wicklow is an ideal site to start. Powerscourt has a
range of events stretching as far as June.
Gardeners could be there once a week to learn about growing vegetables
and flowers, taking photographs or joining a guided tour of the magnificent
trees on the estate in the company of tree expert, Michael Carey.
Not to be missed either is Carol Bone’s
demonstration of Spring Flowers taking place in the Pavilion Garden Centre near
the car park. Carol is the Chairperson
of the Association of Irish Floral Artists and her arrangements are
extraordinarily creative, yet, she is able to impart that ‘have a go’ feel as
soon as the demo is over! I discovered
some lovely gardens to visit on the AOIFA website which presumably specialise in
plants suitable for all kinds of flower arrangements.
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| Mount Stewart |
Our
Motorways in Ireland
are so good now that day outings and short weekend breaks are a perfectly
feasible way to get to know parts of this island once considered too much
trouble to be worth the effort. Now some
of the most handsome examples of architecture and landscaped gardens are to be
seen in Northern Ireland.
In early May there will be the Tulip Festival at Glenarm Castle on the Co. Antrim coast and at Mount Stewart
we have already missed an event called ‘Rise & Shine’ when the doors were
opened on the visitor season with demonstrations and handy hints for spring
cleaning in your own home. I can smell
that beeswax polish from here!
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| Kilruddery House & Gardens |
So
where can you get an overview of what is taking place in these glorious
properties throughout this island?
Houses, Castles & Gardens of Ireland has recently redeveloped its
website to
reflect the wonderfully diverse range of activities taking place at properties
such as Lismore Castle, Brigit’s Garden, the Victorian Walled Garden at
Kylemore Abbey and Killruddery House & Gardens to name a few.
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| Lismore Castle |
Of course, these are the better know ones
but other jewels in our crown are the delightful Deepwell, Coolcarrigan and
Primrose Hill which are as much pleasure gardens of today as was the original
intention when garden design took off in the sixteenth century.
