O for a golden thought in a green shade

Gardening enthusiasts can enjoy green holidays by touring exceptional private gardens in Dublin and Wicklow, writes Fergal Quinn.

With their summer glory fast fading, most of the 12 gardens that make up the Dublin Garden Group are now on down time. But for those who tend them there is little time for resting on their laurels. Peak season is past. Now is for pruning, cutting and seed gathering. Already, the preparations are being made for next year.

The garden holiday is a hugely popular one. According to John Beatty who helps run the group, a wide range of people increasingly from within Ireland go on these garden viewing tours, from people who are passionately interested in gardening to those who are only developing an interest.

Dublin Garden Group organises an itinerary for visiting enthusiasts to view a selection of the most exceptional private gardens in the Dublin and Wicklow areas. "We send them to the best gardens at the right time," he says.There are, it has to be said, excellent gardens to visit most of the year around. From a small suburban town garden like that of Anna Nolan's in Cabinteely, Dublin to the Mount Usher Gardens in Wicklow which is all of 22 acres.

Visitors are shown around by those who know and love the garden best, the owners and gardeners who created them. "Some are more innovative in terms of their architectural layout, while others are real plant-lovers gardens."

Primrose Hill in Lucan, Co Dublin, for instance is world renowned for its snowdrop collection, and opens in January and February, and is then closed until June. The smaller private gardens are often more informative for the genuine small-scale gardening enthusiasts. People want to see the potential possibilities for their own patch.

Alas, Most of the gardens are closed at this time of the year. One major exception though, open through until the end of October is the Mount Usher gardens in Ashford, Co Wicklow.

Begun by Edward Walpole in 1868, the Mount Usher gardens are renowned for the variety and maturity of their trees. Some native and a huge selection of exotics, mostly from the east coast of the US and Asia: Ironwoods, Maples, Chinese Magnolias and Tasmanian Cedars.

It is a Robinsonian garden, with few formal flower beds. Rather, this style of gardening, involves the subtle nudging and nourishing of plants among the trees and copses in a naturalistic way. The fiery reds, browns, goldens and scarlets reflected on the river Vartry which flows through here makes for a beautiful sight in the Autumn.

According to head gardener Maria Valhos, the organically managed garden's strength is its combination of plantsmanship and engineering. "The garden never gets too crowded, one can come here and experience its pleasures on ones own terms."

The owner, Mrs Madelaine Jays, knew little of gardens when she took over the property, but learnedas she went along.

Mount Usher is one of the dwindling number of gardens of this size and quality still privately owned. "A garden in private hands has more atmosphere," says Mrs Jays, "The individual touch is what makes such places special. We want more visitors. A lot of people are unaware of its existence".

"As I've been here, I've seen the forest all around being cut back and cut back. We are under siege on all sides, by motorways, rezoning. In time, this will be a little island of calm and beauty."

The Beattys have been cultivating Knockree in Carrickmines,nestled in the foothills of the Dublin mountains for 40 years. A hillside garden, they have mined a fertile oasis out of the unpromising, dry and rocky soil. Knockree has a diverse array of plants; rhododendrons, the multicoloured hellebores and shrubs like maples eucryphias. "I love to show it," says Shirley Beatty. "The people who come here, I learn from them and they from me."

Gardeners here have a real taste for the rare and unusual. Irish gardening has really taken off in the past 20 years, say the Beattys, a lot due to the influence of Helen Dillon, whose garden in Ranelagh, Dublin, is also on view. "Good gardening is all about combinations," says John Beatty. "You put plants together that complement each other, in practical terms as well as aesthetically."

Vera Huet's Kestrel lodge is situated on just under an acre of good deep rich soil with the Three Rock mountain for a backdrop in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow. It is a precise, compact and exquisitely detailed space. It holds a brilliant variety of grasses, shrubs, even thistles. The blue hydrangeas, the dark purple monardas and sprightly hollyhocks .

A whiff of cocoa near the door turns out to be a chocolate cosmos plant. Lemon verbena, pineapple sage. . . like something out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, it takes great restraint not to take a bite.

"It is a glorious obsession. I love to look at plants," she says with a laugh, "But I've never grown anything useful in my life!"