Your guide to Bloom in the Park

Horticulture remains at the heart of the Dublin festival for Peter Dowdall, particularly the show gardens

The gardening “season” comes and goes in a flash. For months we’re waiting for the temperatures to increase and the weather to calm down into what we can recognise as a summer. Then, when it comes, it seems to be gone before we get a chance to appreciate it. The gardening show season seems to pass by even more instantly, Chelsea and Mallow are already gone for 2019 and Bloom in the Phoenix Park is in full swing this weekend, running each day until Monday at 6pm.

This is Ireland’s chance to shine in terms of garden design and when Irish and international garden designers get the chance to showcase their skills in the public realm.

Though this festival in Dublin’s Phoenix Park has developed over the years to encompass food, music, children’s entertainment and more, it is for me, at heart, all about the horticulture. The show gardens are the centrepiece of Bloom and this is where any visitor should take themselves first. You should get to them early too, for as the day goes on, the crowds swell.

I am really looking forward this year to seeing the Vina Doña Paula-sponsored garden “A Matter of Altitude”.

Designed by Dublin-based Alan Rudden, himself no stranger to show gardens and awards, having won not one but four gold medals at Bloom, along with gold and the Best World Garden title at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in 2018.

His latest creation in Dublin this weekend was inspired by a recent visit to Doña Paula’s home in Mendoza, Argentina. Doña Paula wines are special, because their grapes are grown at different altitudes. I’m not a wine drinker so I will have to take their word for that and to illustrate this, Alan has designed a garden on different levels.

The biggest show garden ever at Bloom, it contains a walkway which rises high above the lowest point, which is a semi-covered entertaining and cooking area where you can enjoy an Argentinian “asado” (an outdoor gathering of friends featuring a South American-style barbecue).

This lower area represents the city of Mendoza and the higher pathway, the more rural, open landscape where Doña Paula’s vines are grown. What I don’t know about wine, I do know about biodiversity and the planting in this garden is aimed at increasing biodiversity and encouraging the pollinators to visit, as without beneficial wildlife, there would be no grapes and, dare I say it, no wine.

A perennial (pun very much intended) feature of Bloom is the Charity Gardens in the show garden area.

For the third year running, Enable Ireland is entering a show garden at Bloom inspired by its mission to maximise independence, choice and inclusion for the 7,500 children and adults with disabilities using its services across Ireland. Enable Ireland’s “Diversity” garden is an accessible space, inclusive to people of all abilities and ages, with an open layout and accessible raised planters.

Above all, it is a beautiful garden space to be enjoyed by everyone. “In our ‘Diversity’ garden we are asking you to consider the diversity all around us. To celebrate the uniqueness of each individual, while recognising and respecting our differences,” said Mary Fox, Enable Ireland national director of services. Sponsored by Solus light bulbs, the Enable Ireland “Diversity” garden was designed by the Belfast-based Linda McKeown.

After Bloom, the “Diversity” garden will be re-located to Enable Ireland’s Children’s Services in Cork and enjoyed by all the children and their families who avail of the services there.

President Michael D. Higgins, Patron of Enable Ireland, visits our award-winning #Diversity Show Garden at @bloominthepark #Bloom2019 pic.twitter.com/HbHtI4U0nY

— Enable Ireland (@EnableIreland) May 30, 2019

Another charity availing of the more than 100,000 visitors expected to attend Bloom over the weekend is the Marie Keating Foundation. Its “Breath of Life” garden aims to put a spotlight on lung cancer. The garden is designed by Tünde Perry, another regular participant at Bloom. She has won three silver medals, two silver-gilt medals and two best in category medals over the last six years for her show garden designs.

The garden has been designed to highlight the devastating reality that many lung cancer patients and their families face, due to late presentation and low survival rates, but it also seeks to promote that hope is there with advances in new treatment options and increasing awareness of early signs and symptoms.

Gardens with an important call to environmental action include “Bee Positive”, a pollinator-friendly concept garden designed by Fingal County Council & Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown (ITB); “Aqua Marine”, an under-water garden featuring marine flora and fauna, sponsored by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM); and the E3 (Environment, Engineering and Emerging technologies) garden by TrinityHaus Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, which will incorporate the treatment of wastewater to be re-used for gardening, food production and farming.

The role that plants can play in improving both physical and mental health is explored in several gardens. The Lidl Healthy Mind Healthy Planet garden will demonstrate how mental wellbeing can be improved by stepping into nature, no matter how big or small the green space; while the Grounded in association with Janssen, Aware and See Change garden incorporates ideas that came about through a series of hands-on workshops contributed to by those living with or affected by mental illness. The Healthy Way Garden, jointly sponsored by the HSE’s Healthy Ireland initiative and The Food Dudes programme, explores the steps you can take to achieve a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.

A new feature this year is The Irish Garden magazine Bloom Plant Clinic, which will offer the collective horticultural brains of more than 20 trained, experienced horticulturists and gardeners, including myself, to deal with gardening queries.

The Bord na Móna Growise Garden Expert Stage is in the grand pavilion, which is right next to the nursery and floral pavilion, and is where you will find Ireland’s top horticulturists and designers demonstrating over the weekend. I will be onstage at 11.30am each day giving a talk entitled “Designing with Plants”.