Inaugurated in 1795, and opened to the public in 1805, the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin is a city treasure. This was the first botanic garden in Ireland. Now that spring is here, the Gardens are in their full glory, with tulips, cherry blossoms and narcissi, but even in winter you can find a surprising amount of colour. The red circular berries of the Irish strawberry tree, for example, show flower and fruit at the same time.
symbolic
During Italy’s unification in the 19th century, the strawberry tree, with its white flowers, green leaves and red fruit, was considered a symbol of the new nation’s flag. While it does grow wild in Ireland, this colourful plant could have been introduced 6,000 years ago by prehistoric colonizers.
Red is also the bark of the evergreen Taxus baccata. You might remember the yew as a powerful poison from Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries. It is often found in cemeteries and is a symbol of immortality. Today, powerful cancer drugs are produced from it. Mediterranean visitors will also recognize the ancient cork trees, which are unusual in Ireland.
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Entry to the Gardens is free of charge. Every day, guided tours reveal the stories and secrets behind flowers, trees, vegetables and edible plants. Discover tiny bonsai, huge Californian redwoods, and “the world’s loneliest plant”, a rare species of cycad where only the male plant survives.
Elegant Victorian greenhouses give refuge to fragile orchids and rare flowers, but also to plants that we use every day, like coffee, cocoa and potato. Everything is explained in simple English and with plenty of fun facts.
the dark side
It was here at the Gardens that in the mid-19th century the fungus responsible for the Potato Famine was identified. The curator of the Gardens at the time rightly predicted disaster. As the famine continued, agriculturalists also tried to find a cure here. At that point, new plants from all over the world were already arriving, including tropical plants too sensitive for the Irish climate. This is why the greenhouses were constructed.
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Of course there is Irish flora here as well. The Bog Garden, for example, recreates this iconic Irish landscape. The beds around a recreated Irish house reveal ancient agriculture. Visitors should also look out for a large hawthorn bush hung with ribbons and objects. This is a Fairy Tree. It is an ancient Irish ritual to hang ribbons on hawthorn bushes, usually next to holy wells or other monuments (see interview).
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A Floral Paradise
If the British capital, London, has Kew Gardens, then the Irish capital, Dublin, has the National Botanic Gardens. And, as guide and information officer Angela Quinn explains, it is a popular place:
Angela Quinn (Irish accent): People absolutely love the Botanic Gardens, it’s a bit of an institution. And I think because it’s been here since 1795, everybody knows of its existence. One or two people will admit to the fact that they have never been here, but most people know of it. And it’s called “the Bots”, so in an affectionate way it’s called “the Bots”. I think that most people who are fond of gardening would have come here to look at plants that they want to maybe pick for their garden. So it’s quite a good idea to come to, say, the Rose Garden, if you want to buy a rose, and you see what it looks like when it’s mature. Or the vegetable garden, to see how you can actually grow vegetables and fruit in a sustainable manner, without using lots of artificial fertilizers and stuff.
The fairy tree
Ireland is a land of myth and legend and so perhaps it isn’t surprising that the Botanic Gardens are also home to the fairy tree:
Angela Quinn: So the fairy tree is the hawthorn. And the hawthorn is the May bush, or Craetaegus monogyna would be the Latin. And I think it goes back to holy wells, where you had a well that people attributed certain powers to. So that drinking the water there would actually do you good. So I’ve a feeling that a lot of the time the fairy trees, or the hawthorn trees, were grown at these wells. And then people would have... when they became cured or whatever, say they had a sore leg or something, they might leave their crutch behind, they might leave a bandage behind. And in the case of the little child’s soothers, I think it’s to do to with the child moving on from using a soother to possibly doing without it. And so the fairies are minding their soother for them.
The lonely plant
You will probably have heard of the Lonely Planet guides, but have you heard of the lonely plant? This is the nickname of the cycad, which happens to be Angela Quinn’s favourite plant:
Angela Quinn: I like it because... well, it’s called “the loneliest plant in the world”. It’s one hundred years old, and I just feel that it’s a plant that’s under threat of extinction. Very few are left now in the wild. And there’s a few in botanic gardens like ourselves, but because of the fact that there’s only male trees alive. I feel sorry for it, really, and I just feel that I would love for my great-grandchildren to be able to come and know that plants like that still existed, and it makes me sad to think that that mightn’t be the case.