FILM ABOUT LIFE OF FLOWER SHOW STAR PREMIERES
A FILM about the life of a visionary Wexford garden designer was premiered locally at the Wexford Omniplex last week.
The movie ‘Dare to be Wild’ is about Mary Reynolds, who found fame at the 2002 Chelsea Flower Show, and tells the story of her journey to make it big in the gardening world’s Olympics.
‘Parts of it are fictionalised, but truth is stranger than fiction. It is a wonderful story and very funny,’ said Mary, who took time out following her Chelsea success to bring up her children and ‘ to try to be a good mum’.
‘I had my children very soon after Chelsea. It is difficult to do both things. I did Super Garden and presented that programme for RTÉ, but kept everything else to a minimum,’ she said.
She described ‘Dare to be Wild’ as an indie movie and a kind of romantic comedy.
Radiant Films International picked up the international rights to the film, which marks Vivienne DeCourcy’s feature film directorial debut.
The movie stars Ella Greenwell as Mary and Tom Hughes, who plays the part of Christy, an envionmentalist she recruits to help her compete at Chelsea.
Mimi Steinbauer, CEO of Radiant Films, calls DeCourcy’s script ‘fun and quirky’ and ‘a great antidote to today’s toils and troubles’.
Mary, who hails from Larkinstown, said she met Vivienne DeCourcy, an Irish-American lawyer, when she designed a garden for her.
Mary, who went to school at Piercestown National School and the Presentation Secondary School in Wexford, was the first Irish winner of a Chelsea Gold Medal for garden design.
‘Dare to be Wild’ had its first Irish screening at the Jameson International Film festival in Dublin in March last year and is due out in Irish and UK cinemas on September 23. Among those are the premiere were her proud parents Seán and Teresa, who live on Forth Mountain.
Mary’s book ‘ The Garden Awak- ening: Designs To Nurture Our Land and Ourselves’ is out now at shops in Ireland and the UK or online at Amazon UK, Waterstones and The Book Depository.
The premiere provides Wexford County Council with an ideal opportunity to acknowledge the work of this passionate, intuitive Wexford environmentalist who uses her landscape design talent to promote the preservation of the wild in that little space we control ourselves – our own gardens.
In recent times Mary Reynolds has collaborated with Wexford County Council in the design of its booklet ‘Access for All, Gardens, Parks and Community Spaces’. Mary was also the inspiration behind the magical landscape design of New Ross Library Park.
Mary Reynolds attended in person at the Wexford premiere at the Wexford Omniplex, alongside family, friends, dignitaries and invited guests.