Irish gardens, part deux
November 2nd, 2010
You may remember me whining after getting back from a trip earlier this year to Ireland about how unfair it is that the Irish have such a great gardening environment and we’ve got groundhogs, Japanese beetles and 100-degree droughts.
Plants grow in solid rock in Ireland.
Just for that, I’m going back to give them a piece of my mind… and maybe take them some stinkbugs.
Actually, I’m going back on a sequel trip to take another load of central-Pa gardeners to see what Irish soil has to offer. Clue: This is a place where heather grows out of cracks in cliffs and foxglove grows wild in roadside ditches.
This trip will be a 9-day, custom-planned, garden-laden tour of Northern Ireland next June 18-26, once again put together by Kathy Harrigan (of Harrigan Holidays, East Berlin).
Kathy has picked out some of Northern Ireland’s best public gardens as well as other attractions in and around Belfast, the Antrim Coast, Derry, Donegal, Galway and the Connemara region.
We’ll see Belfast’s 14-acre landscaped city park; the 6-acre Ballydaheen Gardens with its cliff stairway leading into sea caves (something you don’t see everyday in Mechanicsburg); the walled-in formal plantings at Benvarden Gardens, and Kylemore Abbey with its historic gardens recently restored by the Benedictine nuns who own it.
Can't wait to see these gardens at Mt. Stewart...
But what I’m looking forward to most is Mt. Stewart House and Gardens, supposedly one of Europe’s greatest gardens. Spread over 78 acres, Mt. Stewart has a staggering array of plant diversity as well as glorious views, topiaries, statuary and palm trees (yes, Ireland can grow palm trees).
If you were at the Ireland-themed Philadelphia Flower Show a few years ago, this garden served as an inspiration for the main exhibit.
One of the nice things about this trip is that enough other attractions are tossed in to head off garden overload. Even soil addicts like myself like to mix it up a little. (This past year’s group especially seemed to like the tour we took of Dublin’s Guinness plant.)
Anyway, the 2011 trip will include stops at the Giant’s Causeway (a really unusual but weirdly beautiful coastal rock formation caused by volcanic flow); the Down Cathedral (burial site of St. Patrick); Magees of Donegal (world-famous tweed), the Down County Museum (living history covering 9,000 years of human habitation there), Connemara Marble (origin of the marble in Harrisburg’s Capitol building), Cnoc Suain (a serene retreat) and the spectacular ocean-side Cliffs of Moher and Burren Perfumery in the Republic of Ireland.
The trip flies into Belfast, Northern Ireland, and returns from Limerick in the Irish Republic.
The cost is $2,990, which includes airfare, seven nights lodging in 3- and 4-star hotels, daily breakfasts, six dinners, transportation throughout Ireland, tour guides and all admissions. You’ll also get to see me drool over all the plants we can’t grow and get made fun of repeatedly by my wife, Sue, who’s also going.
A detailed itinerary is at www.harriganholidays.com.
Or for more information the good old-fashioned way, call Kathy Harrigan at 717-818-3024. Or email Kathy at ksharrigan@verizon.net.
Closer to home, there are still openings for the Dec. 6-9 gardeners trip to Williamsburg, where we’ll spend time with Colonial garden historians, take in a workshop on decorating with plant materials and hear a concert on the rare glass harmonica.
More details on that at https://georgeweigel.net/georges-talks-and-trips or by calling Lowee’s Group Tours at717-657-9658 or 1-888-345-6933.