Park life

Phoenix Park will be ablaze with colour and fragrance next week as the annual Bloom garden festival showcases the best horticultural talents from Ireland and further afield. JANE POWERSlooks at what not to miss

IRELAND’S BIG GARDEN FESTIVAL, Bloom, opens its gates in the Phoenix Park next Thursday and runs for five days. Now in its fifth season, its identity is shifting towards an event that offers not just all things horticultural, but many things foodie and crafty, as well. Children go free (up to three with each paying adult), so there is a substantial family element also.

As usual, the main draw for the public is the display gardens, of which there are about two dozen this year. Nine of them fall into the Engaging Spaces classification: a category that allows garden makers to let their imaginations run away with them. This seems to suit some Irish designers better than sticking to a set brief – and it is good to see such a large entry here. (I still mourn the demise of Emo Court’s International Garden Festival, which celebrated experimentalism, but died in disorder after a few weeks in 2007.)

In the Engaging Spaces section, Damian Costello is creating a garden for Focus Ireland called A Place of Belonging – which has been designed and constructed with significant input from the clients of the agency for the homeless. A woven willow nest at its heart acts as a place of security.

Also in this group is Portach, which is based on the idea of that rare habitat, a bog woodland. It is a collaboration between sustainable designers Anu Green and sculptor Peter Little of Hortisculptures.

Anne Hamilton of Fox Garden Design, whose beautifully-constructed, undulating garden was awarded a gold medal and best in her category last year, is back again. The Orb is inspired by Chinese lanterns, and incorporates a number of partially-closed circles that flow into each other. A shelter, constructed from Irish larch, was made in a west Cork boatyard, and its curving ribs pay homage to the Chinese lantern theme.

China, the real thing, is also coming to Bloom this year. The festival’s first international garden, Ire-Su, originated in Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, a city famous for its classical gardens. Nine of the city’s gardens, built between the 11th and 19th centuries, were designated as Unesco World Heritage sites, in 1997 and in 2000. Ire-Su, an enclosed courtyard garden with two pavilions, has been designed by Qin Huang and Libo Han, both of whom are experts in Suzhou classical gardens.

The entire garden – minus the plants – was constructed in China, disassembled, packed into containers and shipped over to Ireland. Five Chinese gardeners flew in especially for the build, and have been hard at work in the Phoenix Park. After Bloom, the garden will be given to the people of Ireland, and will be reconstructed (yet again) in Dublin city.

The oriental garden is one of five large show gardens at this year’s festival. All the others are built by Bloom regulars: Jane McCorkell, Oliver and Liat Schurmann, Tim Austen (who is a judge on RTÉ television’s Super Garden programme), and Frazer McDonogh (who teams up with fern specialist Billy Alexander). All are accomplished makers of show gardens, which means that the event will have a good, magnetic core of design interest.

There are four each of medium and small gardens at Bloom this year. Among them is one designed for the Asthma Society of Ireland by Fiann Ó Nualláin, which – although it may surprise sufferers who are allergic to pollen – will be full of flowers. Blanchardstown’s Institute of Technology’s Out of the Ruins aims to encourage people to get back to our older and more sensible pre-Tiger make-do-and-mend ways, and will use plenty of recycled materials.

A new element this year is the floral stage, run by the Association of Irish Floral Artists (Aoifa). Members of the association will demonstrate that there is much more finesse to presenting flowers than just bunging a few stems in a vase. There will also be exhibits from the country’s top floral artists.

Aoifa’s stage will be in the floral marquee, which houses the nurseries – numbering more than two dozen this year. Irish growers have experienced their second atrocious winter in a row, and some have had terrible losses, as thousands of plants were turned to mush by the prolonged sub-zero temperatures.

Now is the time to buy Irish plants and keep these businesses afloat. And you don’t have to worry about carrying your purchases around all day, as Bosch has sponsored a plant creche where they can be safely looked after.

Food, as I mentioned earlier, is becoming an important element in Bloom – which is a good thing for our brilliant and dedicated artisan producers.

The Bord Bia Food Village is a series of marquees and inflatable domes that will gather all the edibles together in one area. And still on the matter of food, if you’re visiting, do stroll through the Phoenix Park’s Walled Kitchen Garden, which will be open for the entire festival.