Blarney Castle and Private Conifer Garden
September 5 : 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
€10.00
Mary Anne Coleman’s garden
PGG visit to Blarney Castle and Private Conifer Garden
Blarney Castle
Blarney Castle and its gardens comprise 70 acres set among the Cork countryside. Located six miles from Cork city the gardens have been in existence since the 1750s. The rock close was one of the first areas to be developed; the gardens could be described as Robinsonian in style. Over the last number of years new areas such as the Himalayan Valley and the Vietnamese gardens have been added which are packed with interesting plants many collected and grown from seeds from trips to those parts of the world. One such plant, Aesculus wangii, planted throughout the estate is on the red list of endangered species due to loss of habitat in its native Vietnam.
Other interesting areas of the gardens just to list a few are: the poison garden, the Jurassic fern garden, the bog garden, the herbaceous borders (a sight to see all summer long), the camellia walk providing colour throughout the winter. As you can imagine these gardens have something of interest all year round. There is also a lake with lots of wildlife to view: swans, crested grebes, herons, cormorants. And if that’s Blarney Castle and Private Conifer Garden not enough wildlife tucked away in the apple orchard are bee hives galore.
Lunch can be purchased in a number of locations in Blarney.
Private Conifer Garden
Part two of this day is a visit to the garden of PGG member Mary Anne Coleman, just over 25 minutes away. Mary Anne has kindly opened the gates to her private garden with a wonderful collection of conifers.
Mary Anne writes:
We have a large, mature garden with a collection of conifers including Pinus Montezuma and Noblis wollemi to mention a couple. We were lucky to have several garden centres selling conifers at an early stage in our garden design. We do all the landscaping and designing ourselves with help from our sons.
Even though conifers hold their own shape, form and colour we also planted Acers, Rhododendrons and Ferns. It is a much loved garden by our family and we would like to share it with enthusiastic PGG members.
Programme
Full details on timings will be added soon.
Directions
Full details will be added soon.
Cost
€10 per person.
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