Everything comes up roses in this rock-solid gem

Tommy Barker is tickled pink by this Durrus delight

If life give you lemons, you make lemonade. If it throws rocks at you, well, make a rockery. That’s what Corkman Malcolm and Scots woman Phemie Rose did when they met, each having been widowed, in the 1980s. Now, 23 years later, they not only have a rockery, but stone steps, terraces and excavated stone paths wend through their two acres of temperate West Cork gardens, hewn from exposed bedrock and which, now refaced, give a bone structure to a verdant, whirlwind tour of the plant world.

Featuring native species properly rooted and respected, as well as Mediterranean and southern hemisphere sections, themes, plants and rarities, there’s little here at Kilravock Garden that doesn’t look contentedly at home, running the gardening gamut of A to Y be it acers and agaves, through, ferns, palms, restios, rhodos and on to yuccas.