Few Irish gardens of note exist from before the late seventeenth century - formal and French in inspiration, Kilruddery survives in magnificent isolation. Gardening in the English style reached Ireland with the majestic landscape sweep of the Duke of Leinster’s ‘Demesne’ at Carton, followed by more wild, romantic and ‘picturesque’ landscapes inspired by the local scenery as at Powerscourt. As in neighbouring Britain, Irish gardeners benefitted from the extraordinary range of plants now arriving from all corners of the globe during the nineteenth century. Indeed, two of the most influential figures of the late Victorian gardening world bring us into the twentieth century: William Robinson who was Irish and for many the father of the ‘Arts & Crafts’ gardening style, and Augustine Henry, the great plant hunter, Scottish by birth, but Irish by adoption, to whom we owe so much.

Early twentieth century gardening in Ireland often reflected the polarised nature of Irish society after World War I. Some ‘grandee’ gardens were on a massive scale, such as the iconic Mount Stewart in Co Down where Edith Londonderry’s garden elevated both personal and political references into high gardening art. Garnish Island in Bantry Bay was, it seems, a private refuge from the wild forces shaping the emergence of modern Ireland. Eventual economic stability transformed most aspects of Irish life, and horticulture has benefitted hugely as old gardens have been restored and a wealth of new gardens created, none more so than in Helen Dillon’s two marvellous gardens in Dublin, her first now a fading, if glorious memory, her new garden proof that her inspiration is undimmed. While some recent influential gardens have been lost, a new, younger generation of gardeners continue to work wonders – particularly the brother and sister pair of Jimi and June Blake, at Hunting Brook and Tinode in Co Wicklow.