This June bank holiday weekend, AVOCA will be unveiling a 300-year anniversary show garden at Dublin’s Bloom Festival. Aptly named ‘Looms & Blooms’, this remarkable garden will serve as a tribute to celebrate the 300-year anniversary of AVOCA’s Wicklow Mill, Ireland’s oldest working weaving mill.
The garden, designed by award-winning designer and seasoned Bloom participant Kevin Dennis, will be a celebration of AVOCA’s heritage. The experiential garden invites visitors to embark on a journey through the brand’s captivating history over the last 300 years. The show garden promises to capture the imagination, transporting visitors to a realm where contemporary design and heritage collide.
Visitors can expect the garden to reflect the beauty of Wicklow, through various elements. Paying homage to AVOCA’s roots, the garden features a contemporary design curated by Kevin. While each part of the garden design nods to AVOCA’s rich history, the lifestyle garden design will have a modern feel.
The garden is inspired by the hills and plant life of Wicklow, also referred to as ‘The Garden of Ireland’, featuring lush green ferns, a tall Acer Davidii and Prunus Serrula trees along the front of the garden with stunning copper bark. Yew is an evergreen confer featured in many of the AVOCA locations and is present in the garden in a tall hedge block.
The three Wynne sisters, founders of AVOCA, grew plants in their walled garden to produce dye and introduce the colour with a design flair to their wool products. Planting beds in this garden will have a selection of flowering perennials to produce various colours, mimicking AVOCA’s fabric designs and throw patterns over the 300-years.
The water feature in the centre of the garden is a key design element. The Mill was powered by water and multiple channels of water mirror the lines of a loom that has existed for 300-years. The soothing sound of water is historically familiar to The Mill as a reminder to the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers joining to form the Avoca River.
Copper pipes run along the sculpture and represent the lines of the loom. Copper is used in the water feature to draw a connection to the early copper mines in Avoca, which was once one of the largest copper mines in Europe. Copper is also used in the abstract wall art, adding to the design of on the structural stone wall.
The steel pergola will draw inspiration from the weaving loom by creating a pattern of vertical and horizontal lines, the loom is fundamental to the core values of AVOCA.
At Bord Bia Bloom, attendees can explore the show garden and witness the intricate tapestry of Avoca’s history come to life. To further enhance the experience for visitors, AVOCA will have weavers demonstrate weaving on a loom next to the show garden.
Maoliosa Connell, Director of Marketing, Creative and Buying at AVOCA said: ‘We’re delighted to sponsor a show garden at Bord Bia Bloom Festival this year. A love of gardening is in our blood and our brand. From our garden rooms to our colourful nurseries and gardens in AVOCA Kilmacanogue, Dunboyne, Powerscourt and Mount Usher Gardens. Our show garden ‘Looms & Blooms’ not only celebrates AVOCA’s remarkable 300-year journey of The Mill but also showcases the connection between nature and artistry. It’s an exciting opportunity for us to share the colourful world of AVOCA with Bloom Festival attendees, inviting them to experience AVOCA in a whole new and immersive way’.
Speaking about his partnership with Avoca, Kevin Dennis, Founder and Designer of Cityscape Gardener, said: ‘I have always been inspired by AVOCA as a premium Irish brand with high-quality products and rich brand heritage. When I heard that AVOCA were looking for a designer to celebrate the 300-year anniversary of The Mill at Bloom, I jumped at the opportunity, and I got straight to work on the concept for the design.
‘Drawing inspiration from my fond memories of driving around Wicklow and exploring Avoca in my late teens, the landscape stood out to me. I believe that the garden I have designed beautifully intertwines modern design, Wicklow’s nature and AVOCA’s 300-year history’.
The festival takes place from the 1st of June to the 5th of June in the Phoenix Park, Dublin 15. AVOCA invites visitors to join them in celebrating this milestone at Ireland’s largest gardening and lifestyle festival.
Further information regarding AVOCA’s garden at Bord Bia Bloom Festival can be found at https://www.bordbiabloom.com/looms-blooms-Avoca-garden
