A long drive to visit two island gardens near Sneem on the coast.
The first is the gloriously and utterly derelict Rossdohan on an island peninsula. The garden was abandoned 30 years ago but is a magical shambles in which you could make a science fiction film with dinosaurs. The bus gets stuck in a ditch on the way in but we manage (just) to push it out. The garden is grazed by cattle which at least means we can penetrate the jungle. Seamus Galvin is our guide to the treasures that few have ever seen. The house was lived in for 25 years in the late 19th century then burnt in the troubles and later rebuilt but now abandoned again. Now apparently owned by a German who never visits and may be locked up. The last owners’ son comes to do labelling and lives in the bothy which is also gloriously derelict as you will see.
Pittosporum bicolor in flower.
Myrica californica – a rare evergreen.
Picea parviflora – no seed still in the cones.
Rossdohan House as a ruin.
Below the veranda and on the sea the best Rhododendron sinogrande we saw on the whole trip.
Fresh cow shit on the veranda.
Acacia melanoxylon is totally hardy here.
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Abies alba
Olearia argyrophylla
Another inlet.
Cyathea dealbata growing away and little frost damage.
Another landing point.
Acacia melanoxylon is a huge suckering tree growing in a swamp. Clethra arborea everywhere self sown and suckering too.
A huge Eucalyptus globulus towers over tree ferns.
Saprophytic ferns grow on the tree trunks – perhaps a polypodium leaf?
Tree ferns abound amid the rocky outcrops in full shade.
The record UK and Irish Cyathea medullaris – 30ft tall. Impossible to picture.
Pinus montezumae without the blue tinged needles as seen at Blarney Castle.
Abandoned urns date from 1878.
Drimys winteri being killed by Phytophthora ramorum. Others nearby still untouched.
Seamus in the heavy rain as we all were.
Huge Fuchsia exorticatica with peeling bark but few flowers.
Olearia arborescens just about to flower.
Derelict cottages and farm.
So secret and private was our next island visit that we are not allowed to say where it is.
This lichen grows profusely on many tree trunks in this wet and windy landscape. Atlantic lungwort apparently.
This, unbelievably, is Pseudopanax ferox in maturity with its mature trifoliate leaves. It has seeded itself here and there 100 to 200 yards away.
This is trachstemum (?) which is wonderful groundcover for full shade.
A new plant to me – Blephylocalyx crookshankii.
Beautiful blue bell shaped flowers but horrid prickles too. Rhapithamnus spinosus.
Pitavia (?) I think – new to me.
A huge mature clump of Cephalotaxus harringtonia with many trunks layered from the original central tree.
Pinus contorta as the first line of defence in the windbreak.
Apples and pears trained up a rock face in the central valley.
Chamaecyparisus lawsoniana imbricata ‘Pendula’ – a marvellous weeping tree.
The two Acer ‘Senkaki’ above the kitchen garden came from Burncoose 25 years or so ago.
Astelia grandis has proved hardier than other species.
Halocarpus bidwillii
Nothofagus cunninghamii with peculiar new growth.
Hakea saligna (protea family) with flower and seeds.
Acacia mucronatus in flower.
Alchemilla pectinata from Mexico. A seriously wild spreading garden thug or gorilla. One to sell in the nursery.
Hymanophyllus ferns (and another one) growing on tree fern trunks and supposedly imported with them from Tasmania. I have now seen so many tree ferns that I am heartily sick of them!
A rocky waterfall and skunk cabbage smelling foul.
First bluebells out.
Fittingly Rhododendron ‘Shamrock’ at the end of a three hour tour – exhausted!
