The 31st annual Conference of the Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust will be held in the Westville Hotel, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, on 2-4th October 2025 on the theme of: The World of Bulbs: Their history, propagation and use in the garden throughout the year.
Papers will look at the history of commercial bulb and tuber breeding in Ireland from the 19 th century; how bulb nurseries propagate their varieties and how they produce their stock commercially; historic bulb varieties; bulbs in art; bulbs in the wild; how bulbs were planted in gardens from the 17 th century onwards.
On Wednesday 12th March 2025, Mark Johnston joined us to speak of his 50 years as an independent scholar in the greenspace industry.
The Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust recently held a very successful conference at the Woodenbridge Hotel, Co Wicklow, when over a hundred delegates from Ireland and Great Britain enjoyed a programme of talks about The Role of Water in Historic Garden Design and Management.
Christy gave our Spring Lecture earlier this year, giving us a foretaste of what was to come, and, for those also attending our conference next week, there will be a number of the books available to buy as well as an opportunity to speak to the author.
On Wednesday 12th March 2025, Mark Johnston joined us to speak of his 50 years as an independent scholar in the greenspace industry.
Mark has spent a lifetime working with trees for the benefit of people and their environment. In fifty years as a tree expert, he has worked as a tree surgery contractor, tree officer in local government, consultant in private practice, government advisor and university academic. But that doesn’t begin to describe Mark’s remarkable story. During that time he developed many exciting initiatives that have pioneered new ideas and approaches to urban greening, achieving national and international impact. This includes city-wide projects in London, Dublin, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast and various national programmes. As well as involving countless thousands of urban residents in planting and caring for trees, these projects attracted extensive media coverage from television, radio and newspapers. He also has extensive overseas experience having lectured or advised on projects in the United States, Canada, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe and various European countries. As a result of his work, Mark is recognised as a pioneer in the development of urban forestry not only in Britain and Ireland but also internationally.
Or watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/ebTiRGn-1V0