Tree planting idea is not just Blarney

THE French businessman who is on a mission to plant 50 million trees around the world by 2014, has travelled to Blarney Castle to take in the estates’s arboretum which boasts a collection of trees that are up to 600 years old.

President of the Yves Rocher Foundation-Institut de France, Jacques Rocher spent time wandering around the gardens prior to visiting the Yves Rocher plant at Kilbarry in Cork where he planted the first of 30,000 Irish ‘Plant for the Planet’ trees.

Copper beach, ornamental pears, Southern Beech, a 600-year-old yew, and a Monteray Pine with a six metre girth are among the trees at the 60-acre Blarney estate that impressed the Breton.