A gardener’s impressions of Ireland
Late last month saw me and a group of like-minded gardeners touring through Ireland. Whether arriving by air or driving through the countryside, we were, like most visitors, immediately struck by the greenness. It is, after all, the “Emerald Isle.”
Locals told us that they had had “no summer — just rain and cloudy periods.” Fortunately we picked a great time to visit: Beautiful weather with mostly sunny skies and only two days of intermittent showers. In general, Ireland’s mild climate is influenced by the Gulf Stream and hard frosts are infrequent.
The gardens we viewed were surprisingly full of colour for the time of year — annuals, bulbs, perennials, flowering shrubs and just the faint beginnings of autumn shades. Many of the plants are familiar to prairie gardeners, others less so. The site of a Scots pine in close proximity to a tropical palm or tree fern was a bit disconcerting, but we got used to it.
Of the shrubs, the most spectacular were the hydrangeas and fuchsias. Both were enormous by our standards — up to six feet tall by eight feet wide. The hydrangeas were in glorious shades of white, pink, blue and deep red, often with a two-toned effect comprised of recent and older blooms. A blue “lacecap” type hydrangea was among my favourites.
In Canada, our prevailing image of a fuchsia is of cascading branches and masses of multicolour blooms in hanging baskets — a type developed by plant breeders in California and the Netherlands. Not so in Ireland. First introduced from Chile over a century ago, Fuchsia megellanica is a shrub planted in the hedgerows of western Ireland and in full bloom well into the fall. While pollinated by hummingbirds in South America, in Ireland, insects do the job. Fuchsias long ago escaped from the hedgerows and are seen along roads and paths.
Also in evidence in the hedgerows were rose hips, red hawthorn berries (Crataegus monogyna) and the dark blue “sloes” of black thorn (Prunus spinosa) used to flavour sloe gin. Japanese maples, sumac and chestnuts were beginning to colour the autumn with their fall reds, oranges and yellows. And we saw many ginkgos, one of my late colleague, Brian Baldwin’s, favourite trees. Roses were blooming in almost every garden we visited.
The brilliant orange montbretia (Crocosmia x crocosmiflora) was in flower in many of the gardens, from the walled garden of the large formal Powerscourt estate to small cottage gardens. Considered a tender “summer bulb” (actually a corm) in Saskatchewan, it has naturalized widely throughout Ireland and is a familiar sight along country lanes and waterways, blooming from July through September. A monocot related to gladiola and crocus, monbretia is a hybrid of two South African species.
Other late blooming perennials were Heliopsis (false sunflower), catnip, sedums, a variety of ornamental grasses, yarrow, tansy, goldenrod, absolutely enormous clumps of Joe Pye weed (a North American native), Cimicifugia “Brunette,” dwarf fleeceflower (Persicaria affinis), Verbena bonariensis, Russian sage, phlox and monkshood. Delphinums were at the height of their second bloom in Helen Dillon’s Dublin garden.
Dahlias were everywhere just as they had been in Monet’s garden in Giverny in late fall. They were in such variety and so glorious that I’m sorely tempted to go through the planting, lifting, storing and replanting cycle I’ve avoided for decades. Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) was just popping up in beds and in lawns. Among the familiar annuals were nasturtiums and ornamental kales.
And we all had to chuckle when one of the garden owners proudly introduced us to an “exotic” shrub from Siberia of about five feet in height with bright yellow pea-like flowers and small pinnate leaves — our own caragana.
Sara Williams is the author of the newly expanded and revised Creating the Prairie Xeriscape; Gardening, Naturally: A chemical-free handbook for the Prairies; and the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo: A Photographic History. Just home from hosting a garden tour of Ireland, Sara will be offering tours of England and Iceland (with cohost, Melanie Elliott) in 2016. For more information contact Ruth at ruth@worldwideecotours. com.
This column is provided courtesy of the Saskatchewan Perennial Society (www.saskperennial.ca; hortscene@ yahoo.com; www.facebook.com/saskperennial). Check out our Bulletin Board or Calendar for upcoming garden information sessions, workshops and tours: Oct 21, 7:30-Lyndon Penner’s Favourite Perennials, Emmanuel Anglican Church, 607 Dufferin at 12th Street in Saskatoon.