Now that we live in an era of instant gardening - where it is possible to buy anything from a fully-planted hanging basket to a semi-mature woodland - the prospect of growing shrubs and trees from cuttings just seems too darn slow sometimes. So, when you come upon an avenue of rhododendrons, grown from cuttings about 150 years ago, you stop dead in your tracks in admiration for the far-sighted person who put them there.
The Broad Walk at Kilmacurragh House in Co Wicklow is that avenue, and Janet Acton, then in her twenties, was that person. The crimson-flowered Rhododendron arboreum shrubs - now full-sized trees - were all rooted from cuttings (no mean feat: rhodos are usually propagated from seed or by layering) and interspersed with slim Irish yews. A century-and-a-half later, the tunnel of trees is a stirring sight in springtime, when all along its length the clusters of carmine flowers are mirrored by a wash of fallen blossom coursing along the ground. Janet Acton and her younger brother Thomas set about making the great garden in the gently undulating acres around the elegant Queen Anne house near Rathdrum, built by an earlier Thomas Acton in 1697. The acid soil and the sheltered position made it ideal for rhododendrons and the exotic conifers and other trees that were being introduced into Europe at that time. Dozens of these "new" species were planted, including fine specimens of the Tasmanian Cedars - Athrotaxis cupressoides and A. laxifolia - and the aromatic Chilean Laurel, Laurelia sempervirens. The latest Himalayan rhododendrons were there also, forming one of the best collections of the time.
Thomas Acton became friends with David Moore and his son, Frederick, consecutive curators of the National Botanic Gardens, and he was pleased to give space at Kilmacurragh to the acid-loving and near-tender plants that refused to grow in the limey and chill soil of Glasnevin. The association lasted through three-quarters of a century, during which time Kilmacurragh acted as the informal calcifuge and coniferous branch of the Botanic Gardens. But all good things come to an end - or a lengthy interruption, at least. After the death of Thomas Acton in 1908, a depressing string of events led to the romantic, Arcadian garden falling into a sad dereliction - and to the finely-proportioned, beautiful house losing its roof in a fire.
Now the still-handsome, near-ruin is home only to raucous rooks who wheel blackly through the empty roof space. The gardens - achingly romantic as ever, especially when the mist coming off the nearby sea is diffused by spring sunshine - are in a sorry shape. Years of seemingly genteel decay were rudely accelerated when the storms of last Christmas Eve ripped through the estate, uprooting 17 large trees and numerous shrubs. Down crashed the biggest ash in the country, the two Athrotaxis and several of the rhododendrons in the Broad Walk - which toppled like dominoes in front of the wrecking wind.
But another force has been at work in Kilmacurragh: recently a small force, but one that's wholly good and positive. During the past year, as if by magic, areas of bramble, holly and laurel scrub have been quietly cleared away; and as if by more magic, snowdrops, crocuses, bluebells and ferns have pushed up from the liberated ground. Noble trees, like the Laurelia and a grey-limbed, spreading Zelkova have been given room to breathe and emerge gracefully, no longer fighting their corner in the wildness. Magical as these silent changes seem - and in this haunted, haunting place anything is possible - they are, of course, the work of real flesh and blood, and expertly-wielded tools. They are the start of a new chapter in the sometimes turbulent history of this wonderful garden. Just two years ago, the National Botanic Gardens became the new owners of Kilmacurragh, and a year later, Paul Norton was appointed head gardener.
At the moment Paul is not only head gardener, but under-gardener and in-between gardener as well - in a lonesome staff of one. And it is he - with mattock, lopper, bushman's saw and spade - who has been freeing the finer trees from the rampant undergrowth to create careful, sensitive vistas.
The Botanic Gardens plans, in time (and with an increased staff) to fully restore and preserve the garden, and to expand the collection of rhododendrons and conifers. The project is just a small thing now, but - like tiny cuttings that become giant rhododendrons - it's got the right substance to make it work.
Diary Dates: Today, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Royal Hospital Donnybrook, May Day Bazaar, including specialist plant stall, in aid of Irish Lifeboats.
Today until 24th May, 11 a.m. - 4.30 p.m, Herbarium/Library, Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin: exhibition of paintings by Deborah Lambkin of vireya rhododendrons from the new collection in the Garden's Turner glasshouses.
Tomorrow, 2-6 p.m., garden open at Glenasmole Lodge, Glenasmole, Co Dublin (rhododendrons in woodland setting), in aid of Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross. Admission £3.