The gardening press in England is often criticised for being parochial. The Scots I meet never miss an opportunity to remind me of this but you could argue that Irish gardens and gardeners are more at the margins of our consciousness. Geographical distance is a major factor, of course, but against that must be set a common pre-20th-century gardening heritage — among the moneyed classes, at least — as well as a common language, temperate maritime climate and, in the case of Northern Ireland, citizenship.
Indeed, if it were not for the impact made by an irrepressible trio of contemporary horticulturists, I suspect that Irish gardening would be largely ignored by English gardeners. These three are Helen Dillon, whose garden in Dublin has been made famous and enviable by her many lively books and articles, Diarmuid Gavin, who plies his garden-design trade in England but retains strong links with Ireland, and the late and much-lamented Ulster landscaper, garden broadcaster and writer, John Cushnie.
General ignorance was the reason why I found it so salutary to read E. Charles Nelson’s recently published book, An Irishman’s Cuttings — Tales of Irish Gardens and Gardeners, Plants and Plant Hunters (Collins Press, £26.99). Composed of articles that originally appeared in the Irish Garden magazine, this absorbing, if slightly donnish, book describes a variety of colourful Irish gardeners, who have been prominent at some time in the past 250 years. Many of the names were shamefully unfamiliar to me, but not the plants that they have introduced into cultivation: Galanthus ‘Straffan’, Viola ‘Molly Sanderson’, Hypericum ‘Rowallane Hybrid’, Sisyrinchium ‘Aunt May’, and Escallonia ‘Slieve Donard’, for example. Some of these gardeners, once encountered, are not easy to forget, if only because they have names straight out of Somerville and Ross; I particularly took to the Earl of Clanbrassil of Tollymore, after whom a slow-growing form of the Christmas tree, Picea abies ‘Clanbrassiliana’, is named.
The influence of Irish plant-hunters and explorers has been as notable: Dr Augustine Henry, who sent back from China the first seeds of the incomparably lovely Handkerchief Tree, Davidia involucrata; Dr Thomas Coulter who discovered the glorious white and yellow poppy, Romneya coulteri, in California; Lord Macartney, who was George III’s ambassador to the Chinese Qianlong Emperor in 1793 and brought back Rosa bracteata (a parent of the rose ‘Mermaid’); and Lady Ross-of-Bladensburg, of Rostrevor in County Down, who introduced Rosa mutabalis, that extraordinary rose, whose single flowers change in colour by the day.
There are some aspects of horticulture that the Irish seem to do particularly well, and which are the envy of thoughtful gardeners in England: daffodil and rose breeding, for example, as well as subtropical gardening. The south-west and west of Ireland benefit particularly from the Gulf Stream so, for example, Killarney gardens like Ilnacullin, Fota and Muckross House burgeon with lush, rare, frost-tender plants. More familiar to English people, but still mighty impressive, are the formal or semi-formal gardens which surround large country houses, such as Mount Stewart, Bantry House, Castle Ward and Powerscourt. The influence of William Robinson (despite the fact he left Ireland as a young man to seek his fortune in England and in doing so for ever changed the way English gardens are made) is felt strongly in gardens like Mount Usher, Anne’s Grove, Rowallane and Altamont. And there are plenty of serious collectors’ gardens to interest the plantsman, such as Talbot Botanic Gardens, Mount Congreve, the National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin (where Dr Nelson worked as horticultural taxonomist for some years) and the Belfast Botanic Gardens.
Garden tours from England have become more popular in recent years, and visitor numbers have increased, but there yet remain noteworthy Irish gardens, north and south, which are not as commercially geared up for visitors as we have come to expect in England. Such an approach has much to recommend it, provided it does not threaten the garden’s survival.
At the beginning of his book, Dr Nelson muses on the expression ‘Irishman’s cutting’, a phrase used to describe a plant which has already developed supplementary roots, so that part of it can be dug up and re-planted without fear of failure. Was its coining in Victorian times an intended insult or affectionate compliment? His conclusion is the latter, since such easy plant gifts foster gardening friendships. In truth, we should all be doing that, by turning our gaze more often westwards across the Irish Sea.
Comments