News & Events

ITB in collaboration with Fingal County Council was awarded a Silver Gilt medal and the Best in Show Award at Bloom 2015. The entry was titled "Beech Park Garden" and the medal was awarded in the small gardens Category.

Congratulations to ITB Lecturer Jane McCorkell, who designed the garden and to Mick Hagan, Eamon Kealy, Pat Brady and Brendan Cregan who put many hours of work into the planting and building of the garden.

Congratulations also to Gemma Carr and John Harrington from Fingal County Council who worked with the team to plan, design and create Beech Park Gardens. Congratulations are also extended to the ITB horticulture students who were involved in the preparation of the plants and in the installation/build at Bloom.

In the floral pavilion, ITB was also awarded a bronze medal in the educational display category - congratulations Rachel Dockrell and Rachel Freeman for the energy they put into this and for organising such a lovely display

Fingal County Council have worked closely with the Department of Horticulture at ITB for the past 4 years providing a training ground for their students in Beech Park Gardens, Clonsilla, Dublin 15. The students have gained invaluable work experience in garden restoration, plant cultivation and plant identification under the guidance of John Harrington, Charge hand Gardener in Fingal County Council who has worked in the horticultural industry for more than forty years.

The walled garden at Beech Park shall be opened to the public as an important local amenity, visitor attraction and tourism asset. The gardens are widely regarded as being internationally significant due to their long association with horticultural excellence and in particular due to the wide range of rare and exotic plants recorded there over many years. During the 1980s, the gardens were included in "The Good Gardens Guide" (with two stars). This is the highest accolade awarded by the guide and reserved for the very best gardens in the British Isles.

Garden designer Jane McCorkell, lecturer in horticulture at ITB and a six times Gold medal of Bloom worked with her students on the design of the Beechpark Garden at Bloom 2015.

Eamon Kealy, lecturer in Horticulture cultivated all the plants for the garden at the new ITB urban horticulture facility.