“Ireland, in breadth, and for wholesomeness and serenity of climate, far surpasses Britain; for the snow scarcely ever lies there above three days: no man makes hay in the summer for winter provision, or builds stables for his beasts of burden.” – The Venerable Bede, monk and scholar
Ireland lies at the same latitude as Alberta, Canada and Siberia, Russia. But because of the North Atlantic Drift, the tail end of the Gulf Stream, the climate is moist and mild with few extremes of temperature. The range of plant life is sub-tropical to sub-arctic and growth is rampant.
Gardening for pleasure or beauty has not been an option for the Irish people for many centuries. Ireland was colonized by the Anglo-Normans in 1170. Ornamental gardening and largescale food production were the preserve of the Anglo occupiers and the Irish struggled to feed themselves.
William Robinson began his career working on large estates in his native Ireland, but moved to England where he developed ideas that freed English gardens from the stiffness of Victorian style. His books, The Wild Garden of 1870 and The English Flower Garden of 1883, led to the cottage garden style of densely planted and natural-looking beds. He wrote, “The gardener must follow the true artist, however modestly, in his respect for things as they are, to delight in natural form in flower and tree, if we are to be free from barren geometry…” For his new cottage garden style Robinson introduced many new plants, including goldenrod and asters from New England.
In the late years of last century, with its increasing wealth and freedom, serious gardeners have appeared in Ireland. Helen Dillon, June Blake, and Jimi Blake have created gardens of a beauty connected to place and design. Jane Powers and Fionnuala Fallow are knowledgeable and creative garden writers.
I have visited a number of Irish gardens, but I enjoy just as much wandering across the countryside and admiring a different landscape and the plants of a milder climate. Four of the plants that I associate with the west of Ireland are escapees from cultivation.
Along the roadsides are hedges of Fuchsia magellanica, a native of South America, with pink and purple blooms. This plant was introduced in the middle of the twentieth century and is now a part of the Irish landscape. Jane Powers wrote, “If you are a child, there are three obvious things to do with fuchsia flowers. One, gently pop open the inflated buds to reveal the petals inside. Two, remove the stigma and six of the eight stamens to make a pin-headed ballerina doll; and three, send her to the guillotine and suck the sweet nectar from her neck.” Fuchsias are also called ‘lady’s eardrops’ or in Irish, ‘deora de’, meaning ‘God’s teardrops.’
Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora, is a hybrid of a South African bulb. In New England we grow its cousin, C. ‘Lucifer’ with red-orange blooms. The Irish crocosmia is a more gentle yellow-orange. On the Connemara peninsula, I saw it colonizing fields and the locals consider it an invading pest.
Gunnera tinctorial, or Chilean rhubarb, is an impressive plant grown both as an ornamental and edible. It is twice as large as our rhubarb and produces leaves four feet wide and a huge, sprawling flower stalk. I love its massiveness. The locals try to eradicate it.
Rhododendron ponticum was introduced in the 1700s and has become hugely invasive in western Ireland. In our climate rhododendrons grow to maybe eight feet and look horrible in the winter when their leaves shrivel from the cold. In Ireland rhododendrons form dense colonies rising over twenty feet, crowding out other plants.
Another plant that I admire in west Irish gardens is the tree fern, Dicksonia antarctica, from New Zealand. These giant ferns, twenty feet tall, are holdovers from prehistoric times and thrive in the temperate, moist environment of coastal Ireland.
I am in Ireland as I write this article and it is a beautiful morning-so I am going to take a walk to Henry’s Café for a cup of coffee and a warm scone with jam and clotted cream. Maybe someone will recognize my Irish name and respond as at other times:
“Welcome home lad.”
October 2018