The impact on Ireland’s food of key societal and historical changes, over the past 8,000 years, will be illustrated by one of the show gardens at the five-day Bloom festival, which begins at the Phoenix Park in Dublin today.

Dublin garden designer Alan Rudden has done Ireland and Chile proud with his gold-medal success at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

You can learn a lot from garden shows, but Peter Dowdall reckons you need time to sit back and reflect too.

The Egyptian Enchantment. A Lottie Lipton Adventure by Dan Metcalf (Bloomsbury, €6.40)

Rose Martin suggests a return ticket stocking-filler to see one of the glories of the Tudor Age and a house of two sides, Hampton Court Palace.

Rugby World Cup Group A Tonight: Twickenham, 8pm

Claim son may have been killed by Westminster paedophile ring

Presenter Carol Klein’s passion and enthusiasm has endeared her to gardeners everywhere.

IRISH horticulture is in rude health at the moment. We are still coming down from the excitement and buzz of Bloom and Mallow shows and there are more to come.

Cirrus Des Aigles turned in a masterclass from the front to gamely account for Olympic Glory in the Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp yesterday.

A development group is hoping to get €4m funding to do up three unique gardens at a stately home in North Cork.

Diarmuid Gavin has missed out on designing a garden for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show — but is planning the biggest ever garden at Hampton Court.

Tour de France winner and four-time Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins was “looking forward to getting back on the bike” as he continued to recover from injuries sustained in a road accident.

Tour de France winner and four-time Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins will this weekend continue his recovery from injuries sustained when he was knocked down by a car on Wednesday night.

Bradley Wiggins’ first class performance has got the stamp of approval – with the Royal Mail producing a commemorative stamp in his honour.

British cycling chief Dave Brailsford has led the clamour for Bradley Wiggins to be knighted after the Tour de France winner became the most decorated Briton in Olympic history.

Rail services to one of the key Olympic stations were delayed today, while there were also hold-ups at another major London terminus.

Tour de France winner and Olympics medal hopeful Bradley Wiggins has had his official training kit stolen from the Team GB cycling team hotel.

Tour de France winner and Olympics medal hopeful Bradley Wiggins has had his official training kit stolen from the Team GB cycling team hotel.

Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins is to seek further success in the first week of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

World time-trial champion Tony Martin has withdrawn from the remainder of the Tour de France, his Omega Pharma-QuickStep team have announced.

There was something almost cruel about the way the fixtures fell.

If your most recent line of form reads runner-up behind Nathaniel, then you’re entitled to believe a Group 3 is well within compass.

With 72 Royal Ascot winners already under his belt, Henry Cecil could be forgiven for taking his foot off the gas as the years roll on but the legendary trainer has one of his strongest ever teams this year.

Naqshabban puts his unbeaten record on the line as he aims to seal a Royal Ascot place with an eye-catching run in the Novase Bloodstock Insurance Fairway Stakes at Newmarket tomorrow.

Henry Cecil’s Frankel produced a barely believable performance as he made every yard of the running in the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket under Tom Queally.

Harry Dunlop is looking forward to running Green Moon at Royal Ascot after the progressive colt completed a hat-trick in great style at Newmarket.

Henry Cecil expects to have "eight or nine" runners at Ascot next week as the Warren Place maestro aims to add to his staggering tally of 70 winners at the Royal meeting.

Calming Influence stepped into the Royal Ascot picture with a very promising victory in the coral.co.uk King Charles II Stakes at Newmarket.

Kissing The Camera flashed past the post to take the NGK Spark Plugs EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes at Newmarket.

Michael Jarvis will bid to enhance his impressive Royal Ascot record when he sends out a strong team next week.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair won the support of the new member states for his restructuring of the EU budget which Ireland and France fear will interfere with the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

ISRAELI Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said yesterday Iran intends to destroy the Jewish state, and the international community must rally quickly to stop it.

European leaders today condemned in the “strongest terms” a call by Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair returned to the European Parliament in Strasbourg today, four months after delivering an ambitious speech that kicked off Britain’s EU presidency – and immediately faced a group of MEPs demanding more transparency in EU lawmaking.

THE latest insight into the workings of 10 Downing Street during Tony Blair’s reign come from assistant spin doctor, Lance Price, who has one particularly chilling claim.

Denise Van Outen is to appear in her first solo concert this summer.