ANDREW WILSON
Andrew Wilson is an award winning garden designer, lecturer and writer based in Surrey, England. Although trained originally as a landscape architect he now specialises in creating contemporary gardens in London and the South East of the UK as Andrew Wilson Associates. He also teaches garden design and landscape architecture in a variety of universities and private colleges and runs a part time programme in garden design at Merrist Wood College near Guildford. Andrew lectures internationally and is a former Vice Principal of the Inchbald School of Design, London but now runs The Tutor Group, a responsive teaching organisation for garden designers, landscape architects and contractors. He is currently External Examiner to the garden design degree programme at Falmouth College, Cornwall.
He writes a regular column for Gardens Illustrated and contributes to the RHS journal The Garden and The Garden Design Journal. He has written a series of books, the most recent of which are Influential Gardeners, The Book of Garden Plans and the Book of Plans for Small Gardens all with Mitchell Beazley. He is currently writing a book for the RHS with Dorling Kindersley.
Andrew is Chief Assessor for the RHS for show gardens and has been assessing and judging for over 14 years, mainly at Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows. He is a member of the RHS Gardens Panel and sits on the selection committee for Concept Gardens at for the Hampton Court Flower Show. He is a former Chairman and currently a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers, the UK’s professional body for garden design
KAREN FOLEY
Karen Foley is a landscape architect with a background in education and practice in Ireland and the UK. She served as Vice President (Education) of EFLA (the European Foundation for Landscape Architecture) 2005-2007. She is currently Head of Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering at University College Dublin and teaches design studio and landscape planning. Her research interests examine attitudes towards the changing appearance of Irish rural space.
MARK GREGORY
Mark is a highly respected and successful contractor based in Surrey in the South East of England, with over 30 years of Quality Landscaping experience. He now concentrates on high end private gardens and Quality Commercial landscapes he also specialises in the construction of show gardens for The RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court, Flower shows, with almost 80 medal winning Show gardens to his name, just short of 40 at Chelsea alone. He is ambitious and driven in his work; attention to detail and technical expertise are his trade mark, regularly achieving awards and plaudits from his industry.
PAUL MAHER
Paul Maher started his career in Trinity College Botanic Garden Dublin and after a short period there joined the staff of the National Botanic Gardens in 1974, where he is currently the Curator. During a three-year career break in 1987 concentrated on developing a garden design practice in the greater Dublin area.
Paul was a participant in one of the first Irish Garden Festivals in 1988 where he won the ‘The Most Marketable Garden Award’ After the end of the career break he returned to the National Botanic Gardens where he continued with the development of his career in a broad range of departments.
He has established himself on the garden lecture circuit, which sees him visiting many parts of the country lecturing on various topics of horticulture. He has participated in plant collecting expeditions to China and Chile collecting on behalf of the National Botanic Gardens. He has exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show with the Irish Garden Plant Society as the designer of two educational exhibits which both won Silver Gilt medals.
GUEST JUDGE – FEARGUS MCGARVEY
Feargus McGarvey is our Guest Judge for the Gardens at Bloom this year. ‘It’s a great honour to be asked, and I’m looking forward to Bloom 2012 , to seeing the gardens at first hand and hearing what the designs are all about’
Feargus is an award winning Landscape Architect and Garden Designer who has worked on projects across Ireland, from gardens for a private castle in Co Cork to the new Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre in Co Antrim, which will open next year. His international experience includes projects in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, China and Saudi Arabia. He is based in Dublin and Co Offaly, is an Associate Director with Mitchell and Associates www.mitchell.ie and a former President of the Irish Landscape Institute.
Source: Bloom in the Park – 2012 Show Gardens – Meet the Judges
