bloom 2010

fryup

so is it worth going to?? are the Qs terrible??

lucylu

We drove up today to Phoenix park from via the city centre route (Islandbridge) and the traffic entering the red Car park was very slow.It took us 40 minutes to park the car at 11.45 from entering Phoenix Park.
We prebooked our tickets and walked straight in with no queues.

We left at 4.30 and it was 6.00 pm before we got to newlands cross then add 1 hour journey home.It took 45 mins to leave the Phoenix Park the way we came in.
The 1st pavillion hosts the majority of the plants and also the floral displays.
Outside the plant creche is a great service run by teenagers who will wheelbarrow your plants for you to your car.

The floral highlight for me was the Leamore Nursery display ( I think) they has two fanstatic paeony roses " Red Charm" & "Paula Fay". they were sold out when I got back to it!
There is excellent value in Bulbs especially lillies 15 bulbs for €20 or 9 for €10 depending where you go!

I was glad to see the introduction of Irish gardening products such as Neutrog - Irish Garden Fertilizers made in Clones and Irish Organic weedkiller owk.ie made in athenry.

my favourite garden was the Rain Garden by Jane McCorkell

Love Irish Food were well represented with food samples galore were to be tasted.
There was a queue for the food tent Bistro bloom so we got quiches from the Food Market Marquees and lots of goodies to bring home

Take a stroll around the walled garden also, this would be a nice spot to have your lunch/picnic.
Apart from the 5 hours driving on a hot day- we had a fantastic day and a boot filled with new plants

foxinsox

I went to Bloom yesterday, I enjoyed the day but it was very hot and the heat in the marquees/tents was unbearable.

It did seem to be busier than the last few years, as Lucylu already said the traffic into the car park was horrible, nearly melted in the car just waiting to get in to park. We drove past Hueston Station at 11am and got out of the car at 11:50am slightly hot and bothered!

There seems to be defnitely a difference in the show gardens this year, much less of the over the top "loadsa money" type gardens. There seemed to be a return to greener and more natural gardens with native planting.

There did seem to be something missing, I can't put my finger on it, but I just didn't feel as "wowed" as I have other years. The gardens were nice but nothing spectacular or anything that we haven't seen before.

There were a lot more stalls selling non-gardening related things this year I thought.

As mentioned above there are taps to fill water bottles so bring your own, it will save you queueing. Everybody seems to decide to eat at 1pm so go a little earlier or bring your own lunch!

I had free tickets so enjoyed the day and got a free tree from Irish Wildlife Trust and sampled some fine freebie food!


My favourite garden was:

Nemeton by Talamh Landscapes


Forgot to mention: If any of you are looking for Gardening books, there is a guy in the second tent sellling books, the prices are fantastic, some of them up to €15 cheaper than the shops.

philstar

question - are the car parks close to the venue or do i have to walk for miles??

sector_000

Anyone know if the 2-for-1 discount is in today's Irish Times?? :rolleyes:

micks

sector_000 wrote: »

Anyone know if the 2-for-1 discount is in today's Irish Times?? :rolleyes:

from thread in BA http://www.mrmiddleton.com/images/stories/topmodules/bloom-2010-mm-offer-ticket.pdf?ml=4&mlt=vx01&tmpl=

mct1

We went yesterday and really enjoyed the day. We drove up from Wexford and arrived at 11.30. It took us 20 minutes to get parked but there was NO queue at all to buy tickets (at the same time and day last year there was a 30 minute queue so clearly they've got more sussed).

Agree that the show gardens lacked something from the previous year - I suspect it was money! But we saw plenty that gave us ideas for our own garden; no one outright favourite - and definitely not the one that looked like a memorial (mystified as to how it got a gold medal).

We bought tons of fabulous Irish goat's cheese from the food tent. Was tempted by the offer of 110 aliums for €25, but couldn't think of anywhere to put them! Met a few familiar faces and left at 4pm - home by 6, then out to a barbie.

All in all a great day and well worth €25 for the 2 of us (Irish Times offer) and the journey.

pullandbang

For anyone interested is browsing lots of photos from Bloom, then have a look here on Pix.ie

unkel

Was there this afternoon. Knew the weather was going to be bad, but we came waterproofed Just as well as it rained non-stop for all the time we were there

Getting there (and getting back out) was fine I parked in the green car park very near the entrance just before 3PM, despite the marshals trying to send me the wrong way :rolleyes:

Couldn't believe how busy it was. Did not even attempt to go into the main marquee until after 4PM (3 small kids and buggy)

Was disappointed there wasn't a Kealy's show stand like last year when they gave away all the fruit & veg for free at the end of the show, but I was delighted to buy some lovely stuff cheaply, including coriander and basil plants for a euro each. At the buy one get one free rate with children free, it cost us a total of €25 admission for the 5 of us, which is ok

Will probably go again next year...