A New Irish primrose for The Whitehouse garden.



Primula Moneygall

 Spring is in the air and some of the more brave wild Irish primroses are peeping through their winter foliage.

On St.Patricks Day 2013 a new primrose will herald springtime in Washington. A special Irish primrose has been named in honour of the maternal ancestral village of USA President Barack Obama. The first plants of the primrose named Primula Moneygall are already growing locally in USA and now waiting for their introduction to the Whitehouse garden. This new Irish primrose variety will be gifted to President and Mrs Obama during their state visit by An Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Mr Enda Kenny and Mrs Fionnuala Kenny on St.Patricks Day 2013.

For millennia in Ireland flowering of the wild primrose has been one of the first natural signs of progression from winter to spring. The humble primrose has given rise to positive and varied primrose folklore. As my old secondary school motto says Hiems Transit (winter has passed) the native primrose gives natures silent testament to this fact.

Primula Moneygall has similar flower colour and habit as our native Irish primrose.‘Moneygall’ along with a number of new Irish primroses now available worldwide has been raised from old Irish varieties through many years of conservation, breeding and selection work by Joe Kennedy and Pat FitzGerald. Primula Moneygall with its natural simplicity and profuse combination of single, poly and hose-in-hose flower formations is a natural Spring treat in garden containers, borders or other planting situations. The Moneygall Primrose is ideal for mass planting in garden, park, village or town planting schemes. This new primrose variety can be planted in Autumn or Spring and will compliment spring flowering bulbs such as crocus and snowdrop.

We hope this selected variety heralds a new spring for us all in 2013 and enhances the joys of spring in the Whitehouse garden for generations to come. Primula Moneygall will be available as an addition to the current range of Irish primroses from Autumn 2013.



Kennedy Irish Primrose display at
Arboretum Garden Center

 Check for the Kennedy Primrose range in your local garden center now they are truly unique.

For further news keep up to date at

www.facebook.com/IrishPrimrose  http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com

Old Irish Primroses go international

Kennedy Irish Primroses Old Irish Primroses abroad.

What a month of activity for a new Irish Plant introduction! Primula Drumcliff and Innisfree are now widely available in USA, Europe and Japan. These are the first two varieties of the Kennedy Irish Primrose range. Following last years St. Patrick’s Day Primrose presentation by Mrs. Fionnuala Kenny to Americas First Lady Mrs. Michelle Obama word is spreading fast about these unique garden Primroses. Drumcliff and Innisfree are the first of many of these old Irish Primroses.

British Gardening greats feature Kennedy Irish Primroses.

On Thursday of last week BBC Gardener’s World visited FitzGerald Nurseries to film a segment featuring the story behind the Kennedy Irish Primroses for Gardeners World programme presented by Carol Klein to air on March 30th. Carol’s piece was set at FitzGerald Nurseries and in the Irish Famine Garden Newmarket Co. Kilkenny where FitzGerald Nurseries has donated and planted a wider range of these old Irish Primroses. The program also focuses on the native Primroses in the Rath (Ringfort) on the family farm immediately beside the nursery where the inspiration for the general Primrose conservation work had been taken.
On March 13th these unique hardy perennial Irish Primroses were written up by Mr. Graham Rice, Editor in Chief of the RHS Encyclopaedia of Perennials on his RHS blog. So high praise indeed coming from such a well respected source and recognition for bringing Primula into its proper standing amongst perennials. Click here to go to RHS Blog piece

American TV and Newspapers feature Kennedy Irish Primroses.

New York
Last week Kennedy Irish Primroses have featured on Martha Stewart Living TV programme on the Hallmark Channel in USA. Plants were included in handout gifts on the show and presented by Lloyd Traven of Peacetree Farm ( in picture on left) as a gift for Martha’s Garden.

Oregon
In Oregon State, Kennedy Irish Primroses have been featured on Gardentime TV as plant pick of the week and plants were supplied by Skagit Gardens of Mount Vernon Washington .
Click here to see video

Washington State
Both Drumcliff and Innisfree were planted alongside our Carex Everest, which is now a top selling plant in USA, outside the famous Irish Landmark pub and streak house in Seattle, FX McRory’s. On Friday this week Pat FitzGerald presents the Kennedy Irish Primrose story to a group at a specially organised Primrose Party in Seattle and meets with Mick McHugh owner of FX McRory’s. Seattle Times columnist Ciscoe Morris has Featured Primula Drumcliff as one of his buys of the week for gardeners in Washington

California

On Tuesday the Primroses feature as a centre piece for a pre show party hosted by gardening author and garden designer Rebecca Sweet during the San Francisco Garden Show week. Kennedy Irish Primroses will be featured at the SFGS by Skagit Gardens of Mount Vernon Washington.

During the following week Kennedy Irish Primroses will be displayed by Pacific Plug and Liner and Skagit Gardens at the California Spring Trials one of the biggest events in the US professional ornamental horticulture industry.

Other Primrose Kennedy Primroses blog pieces

http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com/2011/03/gifting-of-kennedy-irish-primrose.html
http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com/2011/01/announcing-kennedy-irish-primrose.html
http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com/2009/10/famine-garden-at-newmarket-co-kilkenny.html
http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/blogs/graham_rice/archive/2012/03/13/irish-primroses-new-from-cotswold-garden-flowers.aspx
http://onebeanrow.com/2012/03/16/move-over-shamrocks-here-come-the-irish-primroses/

End.

Plant Climate Protection System

PlantInPod

How many of you have lost that precious plant you should have kept in the greenhouse during cold spells?. Or if you have no greenhouse and intended moving your tender container plant to the garage but forgot and one nights frost was one too many. Maybe the container was too large to move, was forgotten or you were away that weekend.

Together with Swedish company, Living Plant, MyPlant® has been working on this problem for a few years . To cut a long story short, after years of research, visits to the testing centre at the University of Agriculture Alnarp, Sweden with more on site testing here in Ireland, a solution for a number of levels of cold tolerances has been developed. Out of this work has come our PlantinPod strategy. The advantages of the shared knowledge of such a wide temperature range and how such temperatures affect various plant species has been invaluable. This cold protection system for plants is not just a product its a group of different elements and knowledge brought together to deliver the PlantInPod system. This simple system is for people who love gardening on the edge of their climate zone or for home owners with a flair for the best plants the world has to offer. PlantInPod brings more opportunity to maintain those plants which you always want to have but fear your climate zone will kill. Now you can stylishly and professionally create the climate zone your plants need in their own safety pod for those periods they will be at risk. With the decorative finish and an light we have also created a night time garden feature giving a magical glow through the frost laden environment.

All plants are sensitive to cold of a certain extreme or other. Some plants immediately die at a temperature below -1 to -3 degrees Celsius while others can tolerate a few short spells of cold. With our PlantInPod system such plants can survive temperatures down to -20 degrees C. The system has a built in control which ensures that the warming starts before the critical damage temperature is reached. This creates a "micro climate" which can give the plant a comfortable temperature of around plus 5 degrees Celcius for the entire cold period. Also with our customisable root insulation material plant roots are protected from over heating against the direct drying and burning summer heat of clay pots. The protection system is efficient for plants permanently in your garden border as well as your container plants.

As we container plant enthusiasts know plants have two main parts that need protection, roots and shoots. No roots no shoots, you can protect the shoots all you like but if those roots get killed its curtains for the shoots. Many perennial plants can survive dessication of the top growth and re-grow but for most plants survival from year to year depends on maintaining the stems, branches and foliage through the winter.
The new PlantInPod system consists of three different parts which can be used independently of each other. In the most severe weather conditions all three parts used together will protect a very wide range of plants in the most extreme weather conditions. As I write this blog piece I know all you experienced plants people out there might be of immense help to give some initial critique. Am I crazy? Is this system going to be of use to you in a meaningful and practical way? Has anyone been looking for this kind of one stop system? Any comments help or advice will be welcome! I am hopeful that this system will also be useful to botanic gardens and other specialist institutions so please feel free to spread the word about this work we have done.

In the first weeks of 2010 I will be doing a follow up blog article before the launch of the PlantInPod system. I am working on some alternative uses I am testing for the soil and air heater. I will post data from our final pre-launch winter testing. The first public and trade viewing of the system will be at IPM Essen 2010 http://www.messe-essen.de/ Our stand number at IPM is Hall 2 Stand 509.

I look forward to any comments you might have or even seeing you at IPM 2010. If you would like to buy a system from us they areavailable in limited numbers fo European delivery. You can Contact me through our FitzGerald nurseries website www.fitzgerald-nurseries.com