A Walk in the Garden
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Walking past the house and passing the great rhododendron at the end of the lawn, one comes first to the walled garden - probably originally an 18th century orchard - which is divided into compartments by a series of yew and beech hedges. Within the overall scheme, the principal features are: a series of box-hedged ribbon borders, overlooked by a 18th century summer-house set on a mount; a lawn with rose beds and pergola, bounded by beds of late-flowering perennials; twin herbaceous borders divided by flags of Clare limestone; and, offering a contrasting intimary of mood, a water garden and rockery enclosed by fine flowering cherries, magnolias and eucryphias. Among plants grown against the shelter of the walls, schizandra rubriflora and actinidia kolomikta catch the eye.
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Moving further on along the avenue from the walled garden, one comes to the woodland garden, lit up in spring and early summer by the flowers of a multitude of rhododendrons. Abutilon vitifolium, azaras, embothriums, myrtuses and magnolias add to the variety and include many specimens - such as a fine magnolia obovata - of unusual size. In the late summer hoherias, including innumerable self-seeded hoheria sextylosa, are a notable feature; among the many conifers, juniperus recurva Coxii 'Castlewellan' is perhaps the most outstanding.
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A path along the bottom of the rhododendrons leads back to the river garden, which may also be reached by one of half a dozen paths cut into the steeply sloping rock garden and shrubbery between the walled garden and river. The valley floor has here been transformed into a wild water garden on a scale unique in Ireland. As summer advances, clumps of gunnera and other lush foliage plants create an atmosphere of tropical profusion within which flourish colonies of primulas and other native and exotic moisture-loving plants, more or less naturalised.
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Between the lily pond and a shallow well, traditionally associated with the poet Spenser, a large bed of primula florindae is a particular feature. Wooden footbridges give access to an island where the water-side path is edged with the red, pink and white of spiraeas and the mixed orange-yelIows of hemerocallis lilies.
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At the downstream end of the river garden, a grassy slope leads up to the terrace at the rear of the house. At the top of this slope the visitor can turn left and return to the car park via a secretive 18th century path which tunnels through a thicket of Portuguese laurels. Further downstream, past the wild-flower meadow, a further network of hidden paths surrounds a 19th century pen-pond, currently being restored.
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Back to top.
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| Walled Garden gate
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| The River Garden
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| A map of Annes Grove
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