Focus Ireland garden announced as designers favourite.
4th June 2011: With the June bank holiday weekend in full swing and the sun continuing to shine, Bord Bia’s Bloom attracted a record number of visitors today. Almost 20,000 people descended on the 70 acre Bloom site in the Phoenix Park to enjoy the wide range of gardening, food and family activities on offer.
Visitors to today’s event included Mairead McGuinness, MEP, John Bruton and Celebrity Chef Catherine Fulvio. Bord Bia will welcome the President of Ireland Mary McAleese and her husband, Senator Martin McAleese to Bloom on Monday morning.
Today, the garden designers themselves were given the opportunity to choose their favourite show garden at Bloom. “A Place of Belonging”, the garden designed by Damien Costello and Focus Ireland customers was selected as the favourite among the designers. Gary Graham, Bloom Show Manager said “Damien Costello and Focus Ireland are first time designers at Bloom and to have their garden chosen as favourite by their peers is true recognition for their great work”.
Bloom 2011 is hosting a number of charitable organisistions such as Focus Ireland and the Asthma Society of Ireland who are engaging with the public through their engaging space show gardens. In addition, Plan Ireland, the Children’s Development Charity, are inviting children to visit their Global Tree of Friendship at the GIY Ireland exhibit and leave messages of hope for children in the developing world. The tree, which already contains hundreds of messages of optimism, will be sent to a school in Africa after the event.
Bloom continues on Sunday and Monday and is open to the public from 10am-6pm. Key features over the coming days include a daily Fashion Show with Brendan Courtney and Sonya Lennon on the Arnotts Style & Entertainment stage, which attracted more than 1,000 spectators today; cookery demonstrations from Celebrity Chefs Neven Maguire and Catherine Fulvio; craft demonstrations and workshops from the Crafts Council of Ireland and children’s entertainment every day.
