Garden Design Event

We're delighted to have Jane McCorkell this Saturday at Ardcarne Garden Centre Boyle to talk about her winning design tips and the plants she likes to use in the garden. Admission is Free but booking is advised to reserve a place. See below for details. 

It’s a great time to take a few moments to see what perhaps needs a re-design in your own garden. Gardens can change considerably over a few years and often benefit from bit of re-design. Most importantly, make time every day to sit back with a cuppa and a contented sigh to enjoy this most wonderful time of the year.

Hope to see you soon

PS Check out the exclusive range of Bloom Flower Show stationary at Ardcarne Garden Centre Boyle (see below)

Booking advisable

There are few plants which say ‘romance’ as eloquently as the peony. Its impossibly huge flowers open papery-delicate, rumpled petals in early summer to reveal rich, saturated colours from primrose yellow to rich plum purple.

Choose from gorgeous herbaceous peonies like ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ or ‘Bowl of Beauty’(illustrated); or for stately glamour try tree peonies such as P. delavayi which has maroon flowers with yellow stamen. New to us this year are the hybrids between herbaceous and tree paeonies, known collectively as Itoh paeonies. These appear quite similar to perennial paeoines but flower for longer. Look out for the yellow 'Bartzella' or pink 'Cora Louise'.

All peonies need rich, free-draining soil in full sun. Don’t plant too deep – the crown should be no more than 5cm below soil level – and add plant supports to hold up those enormous flowers. 

For a number of years local photographer David Knight and owner of Willow Design & Publishing, has been photographing the gardens of Bloom and has produced a stunning range of Notecards, Greeting cards, Journals and Calendars for the festival.

We are delighted to offer an exclusive collection of these at Ardcarne Garden Centre Boyle - all at fantastic value prices.

Hurry - they are going fast!

Tackle perennial weeds like bindweed, couch grass and ground elder at this time of year, as the moment your back is turned they’ll take over your garden and swamp your precious plants.


These pernicious, fast-growing weeds are every gardener's nightmare, but it's a rare patch that doesn't have at least a few of them muscling their way through the ground here and there. Most of the time perennial weeds are quite liveable with – even those considered particularly difficult to get rid of, such as marestail – as long as you don't let them get out of hand.


Act the moment you see them using a weedkiller such as RoundUp.This is a translocated weedkiller drawn right down into the weed's root system and you'll need to be super careful not to get it on ornamental plants growing nearby. If you only have a few perennial weeds in a bed or border paint them with Roundup gel which comes in a handy applicator.

You’ll find all you need to control your weeds in our garden centre here at Ardcarne and Roscommon Town, along with knowledgeable staff who can help you choose the right combination of methods to suit you.

Job of the week: Thin lettuces

Lettuces are easy to sow outdoors, straight into the soil where they are to grow. But once seedlings are up above ground they quickly start jostling each other for space, even if you’ve sown them quite thinly. Give them the room they need by gently pulling or pinching out surplus seedlings to leave the remaining ones at about 10cm apart.