Irish Primrose at Bloom 2013



American Garden Writer Association member and regional
director Ginger Aarons at Bloom receiving her Innisfree.

Bloom 2013 The Gathering of Gardeners.

What a year for this show, one hundred and ten thousand visitors passed through and enjoyed Bloom this year in splendid sunshine. Despite years of recession, doom and gloom the show is blossoming into one of Irelands leading summer attractions.  What a wonderful location for this national event for the people by the people and in the peoples park! Despite the tremendous crowds attending each day there was minimal disturbance and no more than expected traffic delays encountered. This is truly a wonderful public occasion and a combination of right time, right place right spirit, long may it continue.

Go mbeire muid beo ar an am seo aris!

This year it was my great honour to have grown thousands of Irish Primrose Innisfree as gifts to thousands of visitors who visited Bloom from outside of Ireland.  The Gathering of Gardeners was promoted through various garden and media publications in Ireland and UK, such as Gardens Illustrated, BBC Gardeners World Magazine, Cara and other publications in print and online. Together with An Bord Bia and the Gathering we presented "A Gift from Ireland" at Bloom.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKlEUCEpzh8

This unique Irish Primrose is part of our now well travelled dark leaved Kennedy Irish Primrose range which itself is part of our wider Irish Primrose collection.  We were delighted with the reception this primrose and the other varieties in the range has got not just in Ireland but around the world. For more on that you can click here and see whats been happening during the year gone by.  Just scroll trhough the dozens of pictures to get a real feel for these gems of the spring garden. I have loaded pictures of their progress through the early part of this year.  www.irishprimrose.com

Quote from opening of Bloom 2013 by President Michael D Higgins.

Bloom 2013 has been dubbed ‘the gathering of gardeners’ and many additional international visitors are expected at the show. Working with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, Bord Bia has reached out to UK gardening families and the Irish online community of Bloom fans, which now amounts to 20,000 gardeners. They have been encouraged to use Bloom as the ideal event for a gathering of friends and family. To ensure that the international visitors have a memorable experience Bord Bia have commissioned an Irish plant breeder to supply a Bloom memento, a new Irish Primrose called ‘Innisfree’. All those who travel from abroad will receive this as a free gift. These unique plants will be accompanied by a book mark plant label printed with Yeats’ poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’.

Children from Thomastown Presenting gifts to
President and Mrs Higgins.

Earlier in the week on Wednesday just a day before the Bloom official opening we had the honour of having President and Mrs Higgins at our parish school in Thomastown Co Kilkenny. President Higgins unveiled a special work of art in the school grounds. We had the great honour of having one of our most recent and yet to be named Irish Primrose selections presented to Mrs Sabina Higgins and a glass decantor made by our neighbours Jerpoint Glass.



Close up of our most recent Irish Primrose selection

This new jack-in-the-green Primrose has yet to be named and flowers are green white and gold in keeping with our national colours. This new variety will be released in Spring 2014 with the Irish Primrose full Spring collection

 

Pat meeting President and Mrs Higgins

So all in all its been another eventful week for our Irish Primroses which are gaining worldwide attention for their striking and unique flower / foliage colour contrasts combined with hardy and resiliant old world charm.

End.