Into two beautiful, old, magical Dublin gardens
Great gardens are not just beautiful but have other special qualities, such as the ability to relax and heal and rejuvenate. Others have the ability to transport you to another place and time and give a powerful sense of transcendence and other-worldliness.
We travelled to the outskirts of Dublin today to visit two unique, beautiful and much loved gardens that...
In Dublin fair city where the gardens are so pretty
Dublin is not a huge city. It takes no time at all to walk from St. Stephen's Green to Grafton Street to the River Liffey and O'Connell Street and into the Temple Bar area. Trinity College is close by and St. Patrick's Church and Christ Church are easy to find.
From our hotel, The Long Hall, one of Dublin's most famous...
From Waterford to the glorious garden of Mount Usher
Waterford, which is said to be Ireland’s oldest town, dating back to the time when it was a Viking settlement, was a delight.
We toured the famous crystal factory and saw some amazing crystal pieces. We wandered the town and found some fantastic little pubs and great eateries.
Waterford is a very cute, calm, mid-size town with population of 50,000-plus. It...
Goodbye Wales, hello Ireland: Back to delightful Dublin
People ask me how does it feel to do back-to-back tours when you end up going to the same places twice and seeing the same things one more time.
My response is always the same: Fantastic.
But the biggest challenge is not comparing one moment with another. It doesn't work. You have to accept each day, each moment, as a unique...
Into Bodnant Garden
Bodnant Garden in Tal-y-Cafn, near Colwyn Bay, Conwy, is one of Wales's most famous gardens and one of the most well-known world-wide for the number of excellent plants that have been bred there and successfully introduced to horticulture.
We arrived around lunchtime, after a short trip down from the Lake District. When we arrived, the sun was shining, the sky...
Into fantastic Powis Castle garden
Today, we travelled from Portmeirion to the town of Welshpool on the Wales-England border to visit the famous garden of the 13th century, Powis Castle.
Powis is not a castle like others we have seen at Harlech and Criccieth; it is more of a grand country mansion that acted as a medieval fortress and has castle-like walls and turrets. Unlike...
Into Levens and the Lakes
Before leaving Manchester for the Lake District, we stopped to see the superb art of 20th century painter L.S. Lowry at the Lowry Museum at Salford Quays.
This spectacular complex, opened in 2000 by the Queen, was part of a major transformation of the former derelict dock lands.
Lowry painted dramatic landscapes of factories and mills with smoking chimneys and treeless...
Upcoming England-Wales-Ireland Tour
Next month, I will be leading two back-to-back garden tours to England, North Wales, Ireland and then to the Chelsea Flower Show in London.
Each day of these tours I will be posting stories and photographs here. You can follow along with us as we move. And you will get to see and hear about some of the fabulous gardens...
Into Altamont, one of Ireland’s great garden treasures.
Altamont is one of Ireland's loveliest gardens, largely due to the work of Corona North who continued the work of improving the garden started by her father.
Before we stepped foot in the main garden, we were dazzled by the Corona North border, which was stunning with a jumble of blue flowering perennials - geraniums, delphiums, nepeta as well as...
Ode to Gelert and Powis revisited
From Llandudno, we again headed down to the village of Beddgelert to visit the grave of the dog, Gelert, who lost his life defending the children of Prince Llewellyn against a huge wolf.
When I was 10, I visited this site with my Dad who told me to be like Gelert - loyal and quick to defend but not like...
Two lovely gardens are Ireland’s dynamic duo
Killruddery, a large estate outside of Dublin, has been in the Brabazon family for the past 400 years.
We arrived early Sunday morning and immediately headed to the border with the superb stand of echium.
There must have been more than 30 tall, thick, giant specimens, some at least 16 feet high, scattered throughout the border.
None of us had seen this...
Last day in Dublin: Book of Kells, Guinness and literary pubs
Our last days in Dublin were spent making a few important visits - one to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College, another to tour the Guinness factory and a few key sights around the cit.
We ended our time in Dublin with a magical literary pub crawl that involved being guided through the streets to quality pubs by...
Last days in Ireland spent in great gardens, Dublin delights
Our last few days in Ireland were spent, first, going down to Wexford and Waterford and seeing some lovely gardens on the way there and back, and then finishing up in Dublin with last minute shopping for gifts and, on the final night, a literary pub tour.
From Wexford, we visited Waterford to see the famous crystal factory and then...
Golden memories of great Welsh garden Powis Castle
In May, I will be taking a group to North Wales to see some of the loveliest gardens there.
One of them is Powis Castle garden, just outside Welshpool.
I have been there twice before. The first time, I walked down the terraces from the house (castle) with its red brick walls and to the Orangery where I saw a magnificent...
Who knew Irish gardens could be this exotic and eclectic
When I went to see gardens in Ireland a few weeks ago, I really expected to see pretty much the same kind of plant material we have in our gardens here in Vancouver.
I knew there would be rhododendrons and azaleas, Japanese maples and hydrangeas and so on.
What I was not expecting to see in Irish gardens was such an...
My garden tours are a big hit
Over the past eight years, I have led 20 garden tours around the world. My first tour was a cruise around Italy and to Croatia, starting in Rome and visiting Florence and Sicily and Venice and seeing some spectacular gardens on the way - Villa d'Este outside Rome, Boboli garden in Florence, Villa Cimbrone in Ravello and the botanical...
What was missing at Chelsea this year . . . spectacular potatoes!
At the Chelsea Flower Show last month, I spent quite a bit of time searching for something rather unusual - a fabulous potato exhibit I saw there in the Grand Pavilion back in 2015.
I looked and looked, searched and searched, but this amazing potato exhibit was no where to be found.
