About Our Nursery
The road to anyone’s business can take many diversions before it manifests itself into the end product and ours certainly did Paul’s background is in Commercial horticulture he trained in Warrenstown College and was Head Gardener in the OPW for many years before he set up a design and landscaping company based in North Wicklow. His passion and skill for timber and stone work saw him designing and creating many outstanding gardens which continue to give his clients pleasure today. Orla’s background is in Amenity Horticulture she trained in the Botanic Gardens and spend many years working in the retail and therapy section of horticulture before she set up a garden centre in Kilmacanogue where in 1998 we took the plunge and bought 3 acres in Wexford and began the long and difficult road of building a house and setting up a business with 2 small children.
Our History
We began as a small wholesale nursery as Paul was designing and landscaping at the time as well as building our house. After 2 years we focused on the nursery and began to supply to the garden centres around the country but we were aware of the challenges facing us so we took the decision to begin exhibiting at the RHS shows in England as well it would be another aspect to our business We achieved 12 RHS medals over 3 years while maintaining our business at home . In 2006 we won a gold medal at the Chelsea flower show which was a wonderful achievement for us after many years of driving through England hoping the plants would arrive in show condition for our displays.
Life changed in 2007 with the advent of Bloom which was set up to showcase the best of Irish horticulture. Orla organised the nursery and floral marquee based on the RHS model which works so well and nurseries in Ireland rose to the challenge and delivered wonderful displays for the public. We opened the nursery to the public and the gardens that Paul had designed and laid out around the house were coming to maturity so they gave the public great inspiration on planting schemes.
We added a tearooms to the nursery in 2011 and it ran for 7 years creating a wonderful additional as it was a showcase for art by our wonderful friend Kate Kos who ran art classes throughout the summers and became a destination for people in Gorey area in the summers to enjoy all our home made food produce
Throughout all these years we have worked on many film sets supplying and dressing greens and this work offers us a wonderful insight into the logistic and technical difficulties involved in the film industry.
How Covid Affected us
In early 2020 life as we know it changed but for us it created a wonderful addition to the nursery as Hazel had joined the business in 2019 after achieving not just one degree from the Botanic Gardens but also a degree from UCD and she set about changing our business again into a mail order service for people who were affected by all the lockdowns and restrictions.
Within the space of a few weeks she had an online shop up and running with all our plants listed in each category to make browsing easy, and we were up and running busy packing boxes of plants to send out nationwide. In the past 2 years we have overcome many obstacles with our wonderful staff who have seamlessly transferred from nursery experts to packing experts. Without any shows for nearly 2 years and then a small number at the end of 2021 we have managed to connect with many of our existing customers but also with many new customers who came to appreciate the benefit of gardening with all the restrictions we have had in our lives.
Moving forward to 2022 this brings many of the shows we love attending around the country back on the calendar but the mail order aspect of the business has become an incredibly important part of our business as it offers people the opportunity to purchase plants and have them delivered to their door.
We look forward to the future in the horticultural industry as we all make changes in our use of recyclable products and peat free alternatives but the most important part of it all to us is the plants which continue to be produced in the nursery .
The Kilmurry Range
Here in Kilmurry, we hand select and bred numerous different plants:
Iris chrysographes ‘Kilmurry Black’
Dierama dracomontanum ‘Hannahbelle’
Dierama ‘Kilmurry White’
Agapanthus ‘Kilmurry White’
Agapanthus ‘Kilmurry Blue’
Agapanthus ‘Opal’
Leucanthemum ‘Hazel’s Dream’
This list is ever growing so watch this space
