Lecture 1 - Formal to Informal: The Roots of Irish Gardening
Few Irish gardens of note exist from before the late 17th 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 benefited from the extraordinary range of plants now arriving from all corners of the globe during the 19th century. Indeed, two of the most influential figures of the late Victorian gardening world bring us into the 20th 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.
