6o 



IRISH GARDENING 



Mucklagh. 



Seven miles from Aughrim, along a contiinially 

 ascending road, brings one to the mountain home 

 of The O'Mahony, about (),()00 feet above the sea 

 level, among the beautiful Wicklow mountains. 

 My visit was made when the gorse was in fvill 

 flower, and such a wealth of colour that one might 

 well ask : Is there any exotic shrub to equal the 

 Irish Whin ? No wonder the great Swedish 

 botanist Linnaeus on first seeing a common of 

 gorse in Britain fell down in worship. Headlands 

 and roadsides were a mass of yellow, and now and 

 again the eye is attracted by a particularly deep 

 golden bush, or may be a lemon yellow form, 

 which would be well worth selecting for the 

 garden. A small 

 belt of s pr uc e. 

 where both hawk 

 and magpie nest, 

 gives some shelter 

 to the house on 

 one side, while at 

 the back are 

 young planta- 

 tions of Scotch 

 and Corsican pine 

 making excellent 

 growth ; right up 

 the mountain side 

 t h is b e 1 1 r u n s 

 mixed with larch, 

 and with a stretch 

 of Pinus montana 

 at the highest 

 point. 



Near the shelter 

 of the house 

 many choice 

 shrubs thrive in 

 a surprising 

 manner, and. 

 owing to absence 

 of lime, the Erica 

 and Khododen- 

 dron family are 

 quite at home. 

 The bronze foli- 

 aged form of our 

 native ling. Erica 



vulgaris cuprea, massed boldly, is handsome and 

 bright throughout the year. CJood forms of 

 Erica cinerea and others had been collected on 

 the mountain sides. 



Although tender in many of our gardens, 

 Rhododendron ciliatum seemed quite hai)py at 

 Mucklagh in a sheltered corner, while in a sunken 

 dell by a stream side many flne hybrids and 

 species were thriving luxuriantly. Some of 

 the leaves of a young plant of iihododendron 

 Falconeri measured 18 inches in length. 



(iriselinia littoralis is an evergreen shrub with 

 light green foliage, which The O' Mahony has found 

 to withstand the strong winds, and is most useful 

 in giving shelter to more tender subjects, so it 

 is being increased rapidly ; cuttings a foot long, 

 I)lanted in early autumn, were already making 

 roots. Tlie O'Mahony also has a novel way of 

 striking it in bottles of water. Hows of perrier 

 water bottles were standing in one of the windows 

 of the house with cuttings rooted and unrooted. 



The rock garden is of a good size, but newly 



A Bulgarian Fountain at Mucklagh, C'ounty Wicklow, 



built. In front of the house is a retaining wall 

 gay with many trailing plants, and an intf-resting 

 fountain shown 'u our illustL^ation is made from 

 the stone of a Baltinglass jail door, Turkish 

 marble, and a Bulgarian fovmtain head. 



On the right I>ithospermum prostratum makes 

 a beautiful mas^ of blue, while hanging over the 

 fountain are showers of golden yellow i)roduced 

 by Alyssum saxatile and Erysinuim rupestre. 

 The source of the water which feedo the fountain 

 and supplies the house is rather interesting. 

 When working in the i)lantation above the house 

 The O'Mahony struck a rock, and he said : " I 

 felt like Moses when a clear si)ring of water 

 gushed forth." The water fr-)m this spring feeds 

 a small stream which meanders through the 

 rockery. Along the sides of the bank weie line 



flowering groups 

 of the water 

 loving Primroses, 

 as P. ja])onica. 

 jjulverulenta, but 

 the most interest- 

 ing of all was 

 the rare P.deorum 

 in flower, which 

 The O'Mahony 

 had brouglit bpck 

 from Bulgaria. 

 A 1 1 h o u g h n o t 

 always found by 

 water, yet this 

 rare Primula 

 seems always to 

 flower more freely 

 by the side of or 

 near a stream. 

 Success liad re- 

 w a r d e d The 

 O' M a h o n y' s 

 efforts when he 

 planted it by the 

 stream side with 

 the roots l)elow 

 the level of run- 

 ning water. The 

 viscid flower stem 

 was 7 inches high, 

 bearing beautiful 

 deep violet purple 

 flowers t h r e e - 

 quarters of an inch across, the tube measures the 

 same, with a calyx half the length of the tube. 

 The leaves are 3 to i inches long, by h in. to 1 in. 

 broad, often covered with a whitish substance. 



There is an exce])tionally line examjjle of a 

 wall garden, which was built some years ago by 

 The O'Maliony, and in iijinng is tlie brightest 

 spot in the garden. This wall garden is about 

 6 feet high and 15 yards long. It was built witli 

 stones gathered on the mountain side, about a 

 foot in front of an existing wall^ and when building 

 the space was tightly packed with mortar rubble 

 mixed with a small quantity of soil. At the 

 base of the wall is a small rockery border. On 

 the wall the Dianthus family make nice short 

 growtlis and cover themselves with flower. 

 Erysinuim ru]>estre, Erinus alpinus and some of 

 the mossy Saxifrages were all gay with yellow, 

 mauve, and white flowers, and showed how 

 thoroughly at home they were by seeding tliem- 

 selves freely on the wall, llouseleeks and 

 Sedums are to be seen side by side with svu:h 



