The prestigious Coollattin Estate in County Wicklow hosted the 2024 Head Gardener Symposium on Friday, 4th October. This event gathered professional gardeners from a variety of settings, including public and private, large and small, as well as historic and modern gardens, to exchange ideas, share expertise, and discuss their experiences.
The scale of the collective wealth of knowledge will be shared with presentations from Mr John Anderson, Keeper of the Gardens, Windsor and Mr David Koning, Head Gardener at Dargle Cottage, Enniskerry. The theme of the symposium this year was Trees.
The magnificent backdrop to the event is the Coollattin Estate, which is currently being carefully brought back to its 19th century magnificence, when it was known for producing some of the finest oak in Europe. When the Houses of Parliament were being rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1834, the architect, Charles Barry, specified oak from Coollattin.
“The sylvicultural and ecological restoration of the Coollattin Estate has continued to gain pace over the years. With one of the most impressive collection of oak trees in the country, the Coollattin Estate boasts over 85 taxa of oak and in excess of 30,000 oak trees. Invasive species such as Laurel and Rhododendron are been gradually removed, 50,000 native Irish trees have been planted on the Estate including 10,000 oak trees and a valuable collection of rare species from around the globe. In addition to a variety of Eucalyptus regnans from Tasmania and South East Australia, Patagonian cypress has also been planted which adds variety to this truly unique collection” said Daragh Little, MD Forestry of Veon, the company leading the establishment of the Coollattin Arboretum and the restoration and management of Coollattin’s extensive ancient broadleaf woodlands.
“Coollattin is now one of Ireland’s great forest treasures and is proudly playing a significant part in restoring Ireland’s arboreal heritage. I am delighted with the initiative to help to produce more native oaks in Ireland by the registration of 74 acres of woodland within the estate as a Seed Collection Stand for Quercus petraea and Quercus robur” said Brian Kingham, the owner of the Estate “and I am delighted to host this year’s Head Gardener Symposium”.
Further details from Paul Brosnan at pbrosnan@veon.ie or Daragh Little at dlittle@veon.ie.