In the garden: Vibrant spring plant named after St Brigid

It’s fair to say that January has been a very mixed bag of weather, as you would expect for the depths of winter. Snow and ice, wind and rain, all mixed in with a good bit of dry and grey weather and some sunny days too. Overall, a typical January really!

Good progress with pruning early in the year will make things more manageable later in the spring, so get the secateurs out and sharpened and get pruning if you haven’t started already, there is still plenty of time.

Today is the first day of a new month, and some would say the first official day of spring, although Met Éireann would argue that spring does not officially start until March 1.

But, according to the ancient pagan Irish calendar, February 1 is the beginning of Imbolc, or the festival of St Brigid, one of Ireland’s three patron saints.

The day symbolises hope, renewal and the feminine. It falls about halfway between the winter solstice (the shortest day) and the spring equinox (when day and night are roughly the same length) when the sun is sitting directly above the equator before heading northward. This year, the spring equinox is taking place on March 20.

Whenever you choose to believe spring begins, nature is moving in the right direction, and it does take this long to start to see a marked difference in day length, no matter how optimistic a person you are!

The last two years has seen the celebration of St Brigid’s day, marked with a very welcome bank holiday the first weekend of February, and this is helping to reinforce the importance of celebrating this time of year as we from one season into the next, full of hope and promise for the growing year ahead.

Two plants in particular were associated with St Brigid in Victorian times, and they are St Brigid’s Anemone and St Brigid’s Christmas Rose. Both of these are associated with Alice Louisa Lawrenson, who resided on Howth Head during the late 1800s and had a great interest in all things gardening.

Louisa was originally from just outside Belfast and her local parish church there was located on the site of a holy well attributed to Brigid, which is where we presume her interest in the saint originated.

Anemone coronaria ‘St Brigid’s Mix’ is a colourful collection of double saucer-shaped flowers which appear later in the springtime to bring some brightly coloured cheer.

They created quite the stir in Victorian times, the vibrant colours like nothing seen before so early in the year. They persist today and are a popularly planted spring flowering corm.

The St Brigid’s Christmas Rose is described as ‘having a mass of unusual deep green foliage with a nest of flowers of spotless white numbering some dozens’.

The cultivar Helleborus ‘St Brigid’ is believed to have been discovered in Co. Kildare, the saint’s home county, in 1850 and it is not widely cultivated today unfortunately.

The Snowdrop Gala took place last week in Co. Carlow, and marked the beginning of a busy month in the gardening calendar at a number of locations in the county. These events early in the year are a welcome reminder that spring is just around the corner.

There were plenty of snowdrops and helleborus and every other sort of winter-flowering plant to be found at Altamont Plants last Saturday, after the talks given by Keith Wiley and Hester Forde at Ballykealey House Hotel that morning.

It has become a popular annual date for the diary with a loyal following of plants people travelling from all over the country to attend.

Altamont is a special spring garden with snowdrops to the fore and so many other spring gems to see walking around the extensive gardens.

Edgworthia, daphne, eranthis, cyclamen, helleborus and lots of other winter treasures are growing here in the most peaceful setting in Carlow.

The arrival of the snowdrop gala gang brings such a buzz of excitement as everyone bustles forward to buy from the specialist snowdrop suppliers present on the day.

There was quite a range of snowdrops on sale in the garden centre also, which has a great reputation for spring-flowering plants and more.

Check out www.carlowtourism.com/snowdrop-month for more details of locations and events throughout the month.

Jimi Blake is hosting some snowdrop tours at his garden in Hunting Brook and there will be an open day in Bellefield House, Co. Offaly, also, the headquarters of the RHSI.

Great to get us out into the garden and on the road again for 2025!

Once the spring bulbs start to push up through the soil, the inevitable tidy-up of the garden before a major growth surge begins does become imminent.

The compost heap is also calling with some sorting out to do before the growing season commences.

Emptying of the well-rotted material will be the first thing to do, and as beds are cleared of weeds and decaying plant material, then fresh compost can be used to mulch the surface providing nourishment and suppressing any weed growth.

Constantly topdressing beds with good organic compost will improve soil structure, fertility, and drainage, and create a more favourable growing environment, making the soil more pleasurable to work with also as the structure improves.

The organic matter will also improve a soil’s water-holding capacity, lessening the need for watering during the summer months.

Perhaps this will be the year to attempt the ‘chop and drop’ technique in part of the garden, which will eliminate a lot of work removing and adding material - choose a small area to start and give it a go!

Happy gardening between weather events this month.