The Irish National Stud and Gardens, Kildare, in association with ISNA, holds its first plant fair on Saturday, August 10, from 11am to 4pm. Admission €5, which will allow reduced entry into the Japanese Gardens.

Don’t forget the West Cork Garden Trail which offers the best of 15 gardens in sublime locations for the viewing public. Opening times are available on www.westcorkgardentrain.com 

Peter Dowdall muses on the harbinger bloom, the delicate-looking, but tough-as-old-boots, Galanthus.

Helen Dillon, the renowned plantswomen, writer, lecturer and broadcaster will give a lecture on gardening to the Cork Literary and Scientific Society on Thursday, January 29, at 8pm in the Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place. 

GARDENERS in the far south need no reminding that the widespread forms of early-flowering Cherry are an exquisite uplift often in early February and sometimes (in mild winters), a little sooner.