Seamus O’Brien
“Kilmacurragh: The Evolution of an 18th Century Irish Garden and its Spectacular Meadows”
Tuesday April 29, 2025
Whatcom Museum • 121 Prospect Street
7:30pm • Doors open at 7
Tickets: $10 Members • $15 General
Get your tickets online here (ticket sales will open soon) or at the lecture.
We are exceptionally excited to welcome you to this engaging lecture by Seamus O’Brien, one of Ireland’s best-known horticulturists and Head Gardener of the National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh, County Wicklow. This garden estate is famous for its conifer and extensive rhododendron collections, and under Seamus’s direction, is being restored.
The recent rejuvenation of the dramatic Kilmacurragh native wildflower meadows is one of the highlights of this talk. Seamus will describe the process and the unique plants employed to create the colorful tapestry of ever changing seasonal wildflowers that includes snowdrops, crocuses, narcissi, and native orchids.
We will also enjoy a glimpse into the evolution of Kilmacurragh with its rich and fascinating history dating back to monastic origins in the 1600s. In the 19th century it became a wild-style ‘Robinson’ garden when the latest discoveries of plants and exotic trees from world expeditions were added. Recently the gardens have undergone a major replanting program using material raised at multiple botanical gardens from worldwide collaborative expeditions.
Seamus has travelled extensively to many areas of the world to study plants in their native habitats. From these expeditions he has published two award winning books: In the Footsteps of Augustine Henry and his Chinese Collectors (2011), and In the Footsteps of Joseph Dalton Hooker: A Sikkim Adventure (2018). He is a regular contributor to Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, The Irish Garden, The Irish Garden Plant Society Newsletter and the International Dendrology Society Year Book.
For additional information and a look at the wildflower meadow garden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlbbtqEl67E
