Could Easter flowers be better than chocolate?
Our Bláthanna an Cháisc, all of our NEW news & lovely Grás for Easter.
Happy Happy Easter folks, here’s to a wonderful weekend ahead for us all. We just wanted to say hi as we had a wee Substack break. The previous 6 weeks were crazy between events, a busy siopa and a collision of many Hallmark days. After the Easter holidays, we will be back bi-weekly with indepth interviews, many floral stories and online flower masterclasses to hopefully make your day magic & delight you in blooms. Please let us know any stories you would like us to cover and we would only be thrilled.
Until then, please enjoy this week’s stories, glimmers & news - and hopefully you will manage some outdoor minutes as the tree buds burst into bloom & blossom, daffodils & fritillaria dance in gentle winds, spirea displays it’s delicate white petals & it’s finally warm enough to get out in your favourite green space & plan your pollination pretties for the next few months. X
& OUR SIOPA STORIES FOR EASTER
- all the latest in news & grooves from our flower store in Cornelscourt
OUR EASTER HOURS
We are open every day this weekend EXCEPT EASTER SUNDAY - in fact the whole of Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt is closed…so we would love any preorders for delivery on Friday sooner if you can. Our siopa is full of cute ideas, blooms & pretty plants to help you celebrate Easter with joy. And then on Sunday, we will be eating chocolate & having family & friends time before coming back to our flowers on Easter Monday.
OUR NEW DELIVERY INFORMATION
We are delighted to announce that you can now order our flowers through the Dunnes Stores Grocery site as well as the current site we are using. Orders can be placed for delivery or collection and we will be expanding on this service over the coming months. Yay! You will find us on both the Home Page and in Our Brands once you choosed Cornelscourt as your delivery store. Here’s to us winging more of our blooms around the fair city of ours.
ORDER MORE OF OUR FLOWERS HERE
UPDATES ON OUR FANTASTIC TEAM…
Our gorgeous manager Rachel has taken maternity leave & we can’t wait to share happy baby news to you so soon.
Our Katie turned 30 and Ruth & Veronica have special birthdays this month too. Wow!
A BELATED THANKS VERY MUCH
A million thanks to all of you for making our Mother’s Day and our recent Hallmark Days so successful and joyful. We have just about recovered from the craziness of the past 6 weeks hence our lack of mailouts but we so appreciate all of your orders and purchases. X
BLÁTHANNA GRÁ
- a gathering of all we loved this week as we work our days amidst seasonal blooms :
IN THE GARDEN : Festival of Gardens & Nature this April
Garden designer Catherine FitzGerald has teamed up with Minnie Preston of Ballintubbert Gardens & House to create a two-day festival of talks, workshops, organic cooking, garden tours, foraging classes and more. It is all about discovering the latest ideas for creating an ecologically sustainable and beautiful garden.
The festival brings together a hugely diverse group of speakers from the worlds of contemporary garden design, horticulture, historic gardens, and nature conservation including Emily Thompson, Shane Connolly & The Land Gardeners plus our friend Jimi Blake…all very exciting!
The event will take place in the beautiful Arts and Crafts style gardens of Ballintubbert House, birthplace of poet Cecil Day Lewis and former home of the actor John Hurt.
Subjects include: Meadows, the creation of natural swimming ponds, sustainable floral design, biodynamic vegetable growing, the healing effect of horticulture, the power of scent, and the joy of colour in the garden. The emphasis will be the importance of gardening with nature rather than against it. The programme will include informal conversations as well as more structured talks accompanied by images and a useful “Gardener’s Question Time” style panel will answer audience’s gardening dilemmas on Sunday morning.
There will be guided garden tours and floristry; foraging workshops; stalls will be selling plants and tempting quality garden related goods – from pots to gardening apparel, books and tools to the newly launched C.Atherley sweet geranium products from Cath Kidston. There will be artisanal food trucks, quality organic coffee and sweet treats.
We can’t wait to go!
FESTIVAL DETAILS
20 - 21st April 2024 Saturday 10am - 7pm; Sunday: 10am - 5pm
VENUE: Ballintubbert Gardens & House, Athy, Co. Laois. R14 E954
TICKETS: €100 for Saturday ticket; €65 Sunday Ticket; €150 for a weekend ticket
IN WORDS : Susie Dent, Lexicographer & her daily curious words
For word lovers, Susie Dent is so interesting and positive - She posts a regular ‘Word of the Day’ on X and Instagram & makes us smile as she increases joy in our daily lexicon. Some of her recent curious words which are so Springlike are :
‘Erumpent’ - Of buds & blossom, bursting forth with vigour
‘Thunderplumped’ - Soaked to the skin in seconds thanks to a sudden heavy downpour’
‘Quiddling’ - Spending time on trivial things as a way of avoiding the important ones
Follow Susie Dent each day to make your mornings magical HERE
IN LIFE : A major sibling shout out here :
My brother Vincent is a talented documentary maker & some of his work was used in last nights RTE 1 ‘Rising Tides: Ireland’s Future in a Warmer World’ if you would like to see it on the Player.
Vincent’s documentary ‘A Greenland Story’ is also available to watch on all Aer Lingus flights too. Bravo brother!
Beautiful work and cameras belonging to my talented photography sister, Yvette were used in the award winning Pat Collins film ‘That They May Face The Rising Sun’ adapted from the John McGahern novel. Yvette spent time on set showing the cast how to use cameras and worked with the director & set designer placing her framed pieces in various shots & aiding the film’s authenticity. X
IN MUSIC : Nick Cave - La Vie en Rose
NATURE WALKS
- Podcasts are a comfort, an entertainment, an education & a joy. There is nothing better than being out (well not this week in the sleet) with Ella, our beagle listening to people you admire & learning something … always a great start to each day.
As Spring starts to shine, this is the time that we all look outside to our gardens be they a balcony, a few pots or an outside space. I currently am enjoying various episodes from Sarah Raven’s podcast - there is a proliferation of information out there which can bamboozle even the most flower familiar of us. However, each episode demystifies and simplifies flower & plant choices & growing methods, worth a listen if you are in summer & autumn garden planting planning :
UNTIL NEXT WEEK FRIENDS - OUR WEEKLY GLIMMER :
We are obsessed with this cuteness by Lucy Vail Floristry :
“A joyful celebration of spring underneath DeGournay sunny chinoiserie, featuring a flock of lambs alongside the season’s first daffodiles, tulips & anemones”
Happy Easter everyone X