Mike Neary, Bord Bia’s Horticulture Manager
Mike Neary reckons he’s the Bloom person who walks the most around the Phoenix Park. Bord Bia’s horticulture manager, Mike is the man with the knowledge of the overall plan when it comes to Bloom. If there’s something going on as part of Bloom, Mike knows about it.
“I take an overview of the whole event and so everything comes through us” is how he describes his job. This means having a handle on everything from budgets and planning to engage with the public and dealing with complaints.
It’s a year-round job. “It starts after Bloom the previous year. We look at what happened, what worked well, what didn’t work well, what we could do better. That starts the planning for the next year.
“We’ve developed a great system. I won’t say it gets easier but every year, it gets more manageable because we’ve been there before and we know what to do and not to do.
“But every year is different. There has never been a year that we don’t learn something new. You think you’ve seen it all before but no, never.”
When Mike is walking around Bloom during the show, he is keeping an eye on everything. “If problems arise, I want to get them resolved quickly.
There’s also a bit of looking around corners and trying to see what could happen because of the weather or something else. And it’s not just rain: if it’s hot, do we have enough water, do we have sun cream for people who are queuing? Little things that make it work. Every single year, we have a rule to make sure issues which arise in any year don’t occur again.”
What Mike likes at Bloom is the mix of people who come to the Park. “The show provides an enjoyable day out for all the family. You have the gardens, you can go for good food, you have entertainment. It ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of people.
“We’d like to extend the demographic. We know Bloom attracts the established gardening fans and we have a lot of families but it would be great to attract more younger people in and broaden the appeal of the show which is an aspect we are working on”
“The potential to grow the show is there, but we’d be careful. I think it’s big enough and it’s about quality rather than quantity. It’s about incremental change over time. The loyalty of people to Bloom is phenomenal. People who are coming are passionate about food, passionate about the gardens.”
Mike knows that these loyalists are vocal. “They’d be quick to tell you if they think the gardens are not as good as the previous year. Thankfully because of the quality of the show, we get little or no complaints given the numbers we get and long may it continue”
