Speech at the Official Opening of Bloom 2014
Phoenix Park, Dublin, 29th May 2014
Is cúis áthais dom, go deimhin, an hochtù féile bhliantúil de chuid Bloom a oscailt go hoifigiúil. Cé gur seóladh Bloom in 2007, go príomha mar mheán chun an ghairneoireacht thaitneamhachta a chur chun cinn, agus chun sárthaispeántas plandaí gairdín, dearadh gairdín agus thionscal an stoic phlandlainne a sholáthar, tá sé tar éis méadú as cuimse thar na blianta. Is é Bloom príomhthaispeántas Bhord Bia do thomhaltóirí agus tá sé ar cheann de na buaicphointí ar fhéilire sóisialta na hÉireann.
[It gives me great pleasure to officially open this eighth Bloom festival. Whilst Bloom was launched in 2007 primarily as a promotional vehicle for amenity horticulture and to provide a showcase for garden plants, garden design, and the nursery stock industry, it has expanded hugely over the years. Bloom is now Bórd Bia’s main consumer show and it has become one of the highlights in Ireland’s summer calendar.]
It is for me an honour to be the Patron of this beautiful festival of scents, colours and flavours that announces the delights of summer. Indeed the timing of Bloom coincides with that time of year when a large variety of locally grown produce is coming in season and becoming available throughout the country: strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, fennel, chives, broccoli, peas, broad beans, new potatoes and many more.
Over the last seven years Bloom has become firmly established as an important and beloved rendez-vous, not just for professional horticulturists and landscape designers, but also for amateur gardeners and all those who wish to enjoy, discover or simply admire Ireland’s wide variety of flowers and plants, fruits and vegetables, and food and drink products.
Bloom 2014 presents a display of 28 show gardens, with a special space being allocated to several concept gardens created by some of Ireland’s most talented designers, as well as postcard gardens which were crafted by passionate members of garden clubs and societies across the country; the Floral and Nursery Marquee brims over with a wonderful selection from the finest Irish nurseries and florists; and the festival offers a profusion of tasty food to be enjoyed indoors, in the picnic area, or to be taken home.
The beautiful settings afforded by the Phoenix Park have undoubtedly contributed to making Bloom such a success. As a resident of this magnificent 1,752 acre park, one of the largest of its sort within any European capital city, I fully appreciate the value of this elegant and peaceful open space, dotted with magnificent trees, offering numerous secluded corners of tranquillity and home to so many wild animals. I would like to avail of this occasion to salute the work of the Office of Public Works in managing this National Historic Park.
Bloom is not just a festival of the senses. It provides a unique opportunity for gardeners, horticulturists and landscape designers across Ireland to meet and publicise their produce, creations and skills. It is an occasion for visitors to acquire new plants, harvest new ideas, and gather the advice of professionals as to, for example, which soil is suitable for their endeavours, or what particular plant association is likely to reduce disease problems within the garden.
Bloom also encourages each and every one of us to play our part in making our living habits and our environment more sustainable. Indeed appropriate landscape management can – through a sensible selection of plants and trees, an informed use of hedges and ditches – contribute to supporting wildlife and enhancing bio-diversity in our immediate surroundings. Similarly, a suitable command of natural surfaces can allow soakage and minimise run off in the event of heavy rain, thereby reducing the risk of erosion and flooding.
I am therefore delighted to see represented, in the Conservation Area, organisations such as An Taisce, the Native Woodland Trust, BirdWatch Ireland, or the Irish Wildlife Trust, who invite us, this year, to explore the rich ecosystem of the pond, with its many inhabitants – including newts, one of Ireland’s native amphibians. I have no doubt that visitors to the Conservation Area will be enticed to see with different eyes our indigenous flora – the discreet but powerful charm of heather, ferns, bog cotton and mosses – and perhaps even to make space for them in their gardens. I also welcome the participation of the Federation of Irish Beekeepers Associations: gardeners know the debt of gratitude they owe to the pollinating labour of bees, and the essential part these play in the maintenance of ecosystems.
This annual gathering also offers a good opportunity to engage with farmers and artisan food and drink producers, and to learn more about what is involved in producing what we consume. Indeed, if one follows the food back to its source – if you follow the nutrients, the minerals, the trace elements – you will end up in a vegetable garden or in a field of barley or potatoes. We should never forget the very basic fact that both garden and agricultural produce reflect the soil in which plants are grown or on which animals graze, and that we, in turn, are a reflection of what we eat.
Many of you have experienced the sense of pride and fulfilment that one derives from being more than a mere consumer, a producer of the food we eat and share with others. I am delighted to note the increasing public interest in kitchen gardens. We have a beautiful example of such a garden in the Visitors Centre’s Victorian Walled Garden. The ‘walled garden’, as a source of fruit, vegetables and cut flowers, has, for centuries, been an essential part of the economy of every well-run estate, convent, or monastery. I am pleased to say that Áras an Uachtaráin has its own walled garden which, with the work and care of those who tend it, makes its contribution to providing for official occasions hosted by the Áras.
Local product development and availability are, I believe, as crucial to our health as they are to the vitality of our rural communities. It is also essential that we instill in our children a taste for good food. This is of course inseparable from an understanding of the way food is made, of the seasonal dimension of horticultural production, and of the transformations carried out along the whole supply chain.
Such a focus is all the more important as our population is now predominantly urban, and as urban ways of life have become the norm, even for many households in rural areas.
In that respect, I would like to commend Bórd Bia for so efficiently and, as I have experienced, enthusiastically, promoting Irish agriculture and horticulture at home and abroad, for the emphasis they place on quality assurance and sustainability and for the overall educative mission they provide for the general public. Bórd Bia’s Origin Green programme and the importance of food sustainability to our future formed an important element of my recent State Visit to the United Kingdom, where I saw at first hand the operational cooperation between Bórd Bia and their British counterparts in developing innovative animal husbandry and food production methods.
This 2014 edition of Bloom also seeks to use gardening as a vehicle for raising visitors’ awareness on social and cultural issues, alongside health and well-being. I very much welcome the involvement of organisations such as Barrettstown, Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin, The Samaritans, The Jack & Jill Foundation, and others, in the festival.
All of you present here know the great restorative benefits that gardening yields; how it can contribute to the healing process of those who are ill, or help those who feel estranged recover a sense of purpose. Caring for the living organisms that plants and flowers are, attending to the nurturing and renewal of the land, these are activities that do good to both the body and the soul.
May I leave you with a few words about another fundamental feature of the garden, namely its connections with our conceptions of beauty and pleasure – of paradise even. It is not just the gardener who enjoys the delights of his creation, but all those living in the house, neighbours, visitors and passers-by. The garden offers itself to the human gaze, as a living tableau, one that is meant to contrast with the surrounding nature.
The concept of the garden, in both its history and its etymology, suggests an enclosed space, one that is separated from the untamed wildness of nature. Thus, as in artistic endeavour, the gardener seeks to delimit a bounded space, a sort of templum, within which is concentrated and exalted a human imprint, an exercise in human imagination. In the Middle Ages, for example, European gardens were enclosed within walls and clearly cut off from the wider landscape. They were meant to be contemplated from the interior and they harboured a multitude of symbols alluding to a lost Eden. Conceptions of heaven are also at the heart of the magnificent Arabic gardens, with their fountains and shady archways. As for the so-called zen gardens, they do represent a miniature version of the outside landscape, but one that is highly idealised – a “dried landscape”, made up of stones, racked gravel and white sand.
Yet the garden is not a mere work of art, artifice, or representation. It is a space within which the living nature, artistic aspirations and the imagination meet. The art of gardening is the art of combining the diversity of all these elements, and the various styles of gardens we create are as many expressions of that combination.
May I wish you the most enjoyable of times, over the course of the next five days, in this enchanting world of gardens and gardeners.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.