PHOTO: J. CORDON
CULTIVATING A WIDER PERSPECTIVE
LEFT: RHEUM NOBILE AND N. SMYTH BHUTAN; RIGHT: DARACH LUPTON PRESIDING OVER WILD COLLECTED PLANT CUTTINGS IN THE NURSERY AT THE OMAN BOTANIC GARDEN - 2017;
Two of Ireland's foremost botanical experts, Dr Noeleen Smyth and Dr Darach Lupton share their global plant journeys so that Ireland’s next generation of plant lovers might broaden their perspectives
FROM PIERIS TO PITCAIRN DR NOELEEN SMYTH
I got my first job in horticulture in Doran’s Heather Nursery in Kildare, the colours, exotic names and varieties astounding to my young eyes, but when I really look back the journey into plant obsession and interest started much earlier. My Nan was a plantswoman and had a lovely garden full of beautiful shrubs and flowers. She would root plants in jars of water sitting on the window sill and the smell of southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum) brings me back to those happy days with her and my aunt. Nan brought some sneaky slips or new plants back with her from every journey she made. The garden was adjacent to an area of peat, clay and gravel hills, with slopes sweeping into the once amazing dome of Hodgestown bog. It was on these slopes, meadows and on the margins of the boglands that I had my first experience with wild orchids (Dactylorhiza spp. Plananthera spp. Listeria spp), sundews (Drosera spp.), wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca), flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) and frochan berries (Vaccinium myrtillus). Little did I know that I was getting to see a wide variety of Irish plant habitats in one space. Our school sat next to the horticultural oasis of Coolcarrigan Gardens, and nature walks with our teacher brought me face to face with Pieris ‘Forest Flame’. I still remember being awestruck by the colour. While my school friends and I planted a leylandii hedge at the boundary of our school my friend Yvette and I named ours “Freddy Evergreen”! Well, Freddy Evergreen and his buddies have long since fallen out of horticultural favour, since they started to grow a bit wild and our Freddy has since been felled. The bog
30
pools and humps of Hodgestown bog have become a Bord na Mona peat harvesting station and a brown desert, and my Nan, her garden and the land have since passed on. But Coolcarrigan Gardens and Doran’s Heather Nursery continue to thrive to inspire the next generation. Plants have taken me to every corner of the globe. My first job after qualifying with a Diploma in Horticulture from the National Botanic Gardens was in the exotic Talbot Botanic Gardens at Malahide Castle. Here I was given a glimpse of the southern hemisphere and its wondrous exotic plants. Little did I know that this job paved the way for many plant journeys and explorations to come. I returned to the National Botanic Gardens to work as a gardener and that’s when the opportunity to travel to see plants arose. The Botanic Gardens Education Society organised regular trips to gardens around Dublin in the summer evenings and around the country and even abroad in those days. I got to see Helen Dillon's amazing garden in Ranelagh, the tree ferns in Glanleam Gardens in Valentina and Himalayan blue poppies in Scottish gardens all in the one year. I couldn’t get enough of such diversity, the amazing colours and wondrous sights, with inspirational plants people leading the way. It was also at the Botanic Gardens that the first opportunity to travel on a Glasnevin expedition arose with Brendan Sayers, the glasshouse foreman. Brendan had taken over the orchid collection, I had an interest in orchids, and with an ex-Glasnevin student Brendan O’Donoghue living and working in Belize, the opportunity arose with funding from Botanic Garden Trust Fund and the Merlin Trust to mount an expedition to Belize in Central America to collect orchids. Horticulture, what a profession! I was in heaven with a real job that offered me the
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Winter 2017
