You need to look beyond the DIY store for rare and special plants, writes Jane Powers
Where does one buy plants? Obviously, the handiest place to get them is at the garden centre, or in the supermarket, or at the DIY store. There you will find fine, healthy plants that will nicely fill up the spaces in your garden. But let me be honest here: if you stick to the above outlets you're going to be missing out on an awful lot of interesting things to grow. It's a bit like buying all your wine and cheese and other edibles in the supermarket: it will all be grand stuff, but you'll rarely come across the specialities made by artisan producers, often in small batches and by hand.
Plants are just the same. Those that you see in mainstream shops are certainly garden-worthy, but their existence is also owing to the fact that they are trouble-free to propagate in quantity, they look good in their pots, have long shelf lives, and are easy to transport. These factors are important considerations for the big trade nurseries that mass-produce most of this country's horticultural sales stock.
You need to look further afield to find the rare, the special and the curious - lovingly grown by people whose minds are more on the delicate veining of a leaf and the poignant turn of a petal than on marketing manuals and selling techniques.
Their plants might be varieties that don't look particularly well sitting in pots (tall asters and phloxes, and some ornamental grasses, for instance), so they're not likely to be found on the "looking good lists" with which most commercial wholesalers furnish retailers. (But once they get their feet into the ground, they thrive and turn into something gorgeous, in the same way that an erstwhile gangly adolescent metamorphoses into a fine young thing.) Or they might be plants that don't travel terribly well, or that are fiendishly difficult to propagate. Such desirables find their way into small independent garden centres, or are raised in family-run nurseries where the owners are keen plant lovers - and where working in horticulture is the best way of feeding their acquisition habit.
One Dublin garden centre that is well known to plantspeople is Murphy and Wood (Johnstown Road, Cabinteely; 01-2854844). Among its covetable species are the Californian tree poppy (Romneya coulteri), with its startling fried-egg flowers; the South African shrub Polygala myrtifolia, which bears purple pea-like flowers from spring until autumn; and the New Zealand Celmisia spectabilis. This last is grown as much for its silvery foliage as for its white and yellow daisies. I'm not much of a celmisia fan, as they tend to look a little grubby if they're not grown really well. But most good gardeners love them - probably because they grow them better than I do.
Another interesting garden centre, this time in west Cork, is Deelish (Skibbereen; 028-21374; www.deelish.ie), the parent of Unicorn Nurseries, which is devoted to unusual trees and shrubs, particularly those that do well in coastal areas. Among the many plants raised by the Chase family (who own the business) and by expert propagator Holly Barnes are the soft-yellow-flowered bottlebrush, Callistemon pallidus; the evergreen Photinia davidiana, with pendant red berries and flushed autumn foliage; and the honey-scented Euphorbia mellifera.
Small nurseries are dotted around the country, sometimes opening for just a few months in the year, or a couple of days a week. All are run by the kind of zealots who are sowing seeds at dawn, potting on plantlets all day, watering after dusk, and wandering out for a last mooch before bedtime. Occasionally, they'd rather keep a plant than sell it to you.
One of the better known - and which has just opened to the public - is Paul and Orla Woods's Kilmurry Nursery in Gorey, Co Wexford (053-9480223; www.kilmurrynursery.com). The couple, whose displays have won several Royal Horticultural Society medals in Britain, specialise in perennials and grasses. Their list is huge, but among my favourites are the stately, red-spired Lobelia tupa; the frilly, white ragged robin, Lychnis flos-cuculi 'White Robin', and (if only I had the space) a whole host of bearded irises.
Not too far away is Susan Carrick's and Gerry Harford's Camolin Potting Shed (www.camolinpottingshed.com; 053-9383629), where along with grasses and perennials (many of them recent introductions), hostas are a speciality. There are more grasses and perennials in June Blake's Co Wicklow nursery (Tinode, Blessington; 087-2770399), and pretty shade-lovers such as epimediums and Saruma henryi, with heart-shaped leaves, and buttery-yellow flowers that appear singly from spring until autumn. Saruma was first collected in China by Irishman Augustine Henry, at the end of the 19th century, but it was another century before it was introduced into cultivation. The name, as any plant anorak will tell you, is an anagram of the related Asarum.
Oliver and Liat Schurmann's Mount Venus Nursery (The Walled Garden, Tibradden, Mutton Lane, Dublin 16; 01-4933813) draws garden enthusiasts from far and wide. Woodland plants, ferns and groundcover are among the nursery's stock, as well as the airy-looking perennials and ornamental grasses that are essential for today's chic naturalistic style of planting.
Most of the above nurseries are within an hour or two's driving distance from Dublin. But there are specialist plant producers all over the island. In the north, Timpany Nursery specialises in alpines and pretty little primulas such as the candy-coloured auriculas (77 Magheratimpany Road, Ballynahinch, Co Down, BT24 8PA; 048-97562812; www.alpines.freeserve.co.uk). And there are more little gems at Peninsula Primulas ( 72 Ballyeasborough Road, Kircubbin, Co Down, BT22 1AD; 048-42772193).
Galway offers the Blue Poppy (Oranhill, Bushypark; 091-526237; and each Saturday at Galway city market), which has alpines and perennials, including, of course a good blue poppy (Meconopsis 'Lingholm'). Co Cork is home to Peppermint Farm (Toughraheen, Bantry; 028-31869; www.peppermintfarm.com) where Doris and Achim Hoffman grow organic herb plants, and make delightful herbal tea infusions.
There are plenty of other small nurseries run by people who live and love plants - too many, alas, to mention here. But almost all offer something that you won't get in the mainstream garden centres. Some are tucked away in gardens that are open to the public, such as Robert Miller's in Altamont, Co Carlow (087-9822135), and Rosamund Henley's in Annes Grove in Co Cork (086-8291467) - so do seek out the "plants for sale" signs when you're out and about garden visiting.
And if you feel like making a pilgrimage to Cork next weekend (or if you're lucky enough to live there already), at least two dozen small nurseries will be gathered together at Fota House. Go early, and sharpen your elbows beforehand.
Diary date
The seventh annual Rare and Special Plant Fair takes place on Sunday, May 13th (10.30am-4pm), at Fota House and Gardens, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork; admission €6 (021-4815543; www.rareandspecialplantfair.com)