The Gardens Trust Wednesday webinar series this Autumn will focus on head gardeners working at historic sites. This is the first lecture of the second set of five talks, exploring how individual head gardeners are balancing the heritage of their site, the wishes of its owner(s) and their own interests and experience. We’ll hear about the role from both seasoned head gardeners and those more recently appointed. Learn about the challenges they face, including climate change, as well as the joys of horticulture and heritage. you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.
On Wednesday, November 8, the featured speaker will be Seamus O’Brien. Kilmacurragh is a 17th century estate in County Wicklow and for several centuries was seat of the Acton family. In this talk, head gardener Seamus O’Brien traces the evolution of the estate and gardens from its monastic origins to the creation of a Dutch park in 1697, which was swept away in the 19th century to create the present wild-style Robinsonian garden. The plant collection at Kilmacurragh was augmented by successive Keepers of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin in Dublin. Following the Acton family’s bankruptcy after the Great War, the gardens and famous Queen Anne house fell derelict until 1996 when the estate was purchased by the Irish State to be managed as a satellite of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. Seamus will talk about his experiences managing Kilmacurragh today as one of the largest restoration projects in Britain and Ireland, and his work re-stocking the garden though expeditions to various parts of the world.
Seamus O’Brien has been Head Gardener at the National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh, since 2006. He trained at Glasnevin and holds an International Diploma in Botanic Gardens Management from Kew. He has studied plants in their native habitats in China, Nepal, Tibet, California, Bhutan, Myanmar, Chile, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and India, and has published two award-winning books inspired by these expeditions. He lectures internationally and is a member of the RHS Woody Plant Committee and a judge of the RHS Early Spring Shows. In 2018 Seamus was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland’s Gold Medal of Honour, in 2021 he was made a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club (New York) and in 2022 he was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s (UK) Loder Rhododendron Cup.
