YOU KNOW an event in Ireland has truly established itself when the politicians start swarming to it like wasps around a jam jar and on that basis alone Bloom, Ireland’s gardening, food and family festival, has arrived.
Now in its fifth year, Bloom, which is organised by Bord Bia, yesterday attracted well over 12,000 first-day visitors and, of course, politicians, on an extended site in the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre where the 27 show gardens were bathed in sunshine.
Nearly the first visitor yesterday was Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney who had to hurry back for a Cabinet meeting but made a quick tour of the site and expressed delight at what he had seen and the important role of Irish food. He was particularly taken with the new, extended Food Village where the best of Irish product was on display.
He was replaced in mid-afternoon by another Cork politician, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who made a leisurely tour of the gardens, the food hall and craft exhibitions.
He arrived not long after the departure of Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Shane McEntee who was heard to express delight at the number of people he had met on the grounds.
News broke just after midday in an e-mail which told the media, the president of the Labour Party, Michael D Higgins, “along with An Bord Bia CEO Aidan Cotter, will attend the Bloom Festival” today from 10.30am to 12.30pm.
Michael D’s early arrival in the Park, quite a long time ahead of the presidential election, did not go unnoticed because another person who would like to live nearby, Maireád McGuinness, MEP, announced she will be coming here tomorrow.
Politics aside, Bloom, which once aspired to being a kind of “Celtic Chelsea”, has after five years grown up and become a major garden festival in its own right attracting international attention.
One of the senior gardening judges, Mark Gregory, who has been a gardening judge for many years at the London event, compared it favourably to the Chelsea event and spoke of the high level of creativity he had seen while judging the gardens.
“There is not an awful lot of money around anymore and people have to be creative and I have seen it here in the use of recycled and other materials . . . and I see future Chelsea winners here,” he said.
Gary Graham, Bloom show manager, accepted Bloom had come of age and was now an international show with a growing reputation. He said the arrival of the first international showgarden at Bloom, the Ire-Su Chinese garden was clear evidence of this.
This garden was designed and constructed by the Suzhou Garden Bureau, which is responsible for the management of nine Unesco-listed World Heritage site gardens in eastern China. It i a unique and rare classical design dating back to the Song dynasty.
The Chinese ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Liu Biwei, was in tremendous form when the garden was formally opened by him at noon yesterday.
“There are growing relations between our countries and we are very aware of your culture. We know your Riverdance, Enya and U2 and we want to develop cultural and other links with Ireland,” he said.
Bloom continues today from 10am to 6pm and runs until Monday evening, by which time an expected 60,000 visitors will have been on the site.
GROWING REPUTATIONS: PHOENIX PARK MEDAL WINNERS
FIVE GOLD medals were awarded at the Bloom Garden Festival yesterday with the overall large garden category award going to The Water’s Edge designed by Oliver and Liat Schurmann.
GOLD MEDAL WINNERS
* The Water’s Edge, Oliver and Liat Schurmann, Mount Venus Nurseries, Dublin.
* Ire-Su garden, Qin Huang and Libo Han, Suzhou Garden Bureau, China.
* Think Blue garden, Jane McCorkell, Kilsallaghan, Meath.
* Medium garden: The Hidden Cube Style garden, Gary Hanaphy and Colm Quinn.
* Small garden:Portach, Hortisculptures and Anu Green Bloom.
OVERALL WINNERS
* Large gardenThe Water's Edge;
* Medium gardenThe Hidden Cube Style garden;
* Riverrun– Dublin Unesco City of Literature garden;
* Engaging spacePortach;
* NurseriesPaul and Orla Woods, Kilmurray Nurseries, Gorey, Co Wexford.