MOUNT VENUS: DESIGNER’S BACKYARD MARKS OLIVER SCHURMANN’S RETURN TO BLOOM. HAVING CREATED SOME OF THE EVENT’S MOST MEMORABLE GARDEN EXPECTATIONS WILL BE HIGH. KEY INDUSTRY EVENT OF THE TRADE CALENDAR.
READY TO With May just around the corner, Bloom Show Garden Manager, Kerrie Gardiner explains how a number of new initiatives will help to make this year’s event the best yet
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oining the Bloom team last year was a fantastic feeling. The opportunity to work on such an important event in the Irish horticultural calendar is a real honour. I work closely with the Bord Bia team and there’s a real feeling that Bloom 2016 will be really special! One of the most satisfying things for me has been working with the team to develop new ideas as to how we might go about making the show even better than previous years. Here are some of the ideas we’ve come up with and are in the process of rolling out for Bloom 2016.
WORKSHOPS: In preparation for 2016 we have run a series of workshops for both show garden designers and nursery and floral pavilion exhibitors. In addition to our annual designer’s workshop held in the autumn we had a very well attended ‘How to plant
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your show garden’ workshop in February with key speakers including Bloom’s show garden head judge, Andrew Wilson and Bloom’s multi gold medal and best in category winner Jane McCorkell. Both speakers shared their own experience of designing and building show gardens, sharing tips which ranged from logistics and strategy - the importance of planning, large orders of plant stock, etc. – to the finer details such as factoring in time to allow plants to bed into the finished garden before the show opens. The planting workshop was a great success with lots of positive feedback from designers.
MENTORING: We’ve launched a mentoring programme whereby experienced garden designers from previous festivals will support new designers during their preparations for the
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Spring 2016
