Composting Talk at Griffins Garden Centre

This Sunday  May 28th 3pm  Free talk by Margaret Griffin  at Griffins Garden Centre 

In association with Cork County Council and National Composting Awareness , Learn all about Composting and Turning Waste Into Garden Gold.

Top tips to Composting and Recycling water for your garden.

 All welcomed including Gardeners, Businesses,  tidy towns and schools All attending will automatically enter a draw to win one of the compost bins and water butts. Sponsored By Cork County Council



Congratulations to Cork Senior Hurling Team

A plant that is proud of its Cork Colours : Salvia Hot Lips

We all would  love a plant that flowers nearly all year, lovely citrus fragrance and so very easy to grow.

Then we have the perfect plant for you. Salvia Hotlips. This Plant displays the Cork County Colours with pride. Beautiful red and white blooms.  This variety flowers from June right through to November! It's a very easy Salvia to grow and if we get a 'normal' Irish winter, it should flourish again next year. 'Hot Lips' is a wonderful for patios and it's striking red flowers really stand out in a container. It has won numerous awards in UK flower shows and are well worth having as an outstanding addition to your patio garden. A good pruning after flowering will ensure strong bushy regrowth for the next season.  It is suitable for a full sun to part shade position and requires little water once established. Perfect for pots and containers.


This plant is a real winner in all School Gardens and the bees love it . The flowers are attractive to bees. The nectar is at the bottom of the tube of the flower and a bee can reach it by pushing down on the lower petal and crawling inside the flower. Short-tongued bees often find it easier to “cheat”, by biting a hole in the base of the flower to steal the nectar. This is quite literally robbery: the bee takes the nectar without pollinating the flower.




A Blue Garden Bed for all the Bees : Easy maintenace garden 

Bring a touch of Chelsea or Bloom to your gardens. Through out gardens design you will see a lot of designers including Pollinator friendly plants In there garden. Bees have a preference to the colour blue, so you will see a lot of verbena  and Geranium rozanne in bee friendly gardens.

 A Cool Blue Garden Bed

I love a blue herbaceous bed with  verbena underplanted with geranium rozanne. This combination creates a river effect with lovely movement and colours.  This bed will be bursting with blue blooms for may right through till late October.  Place a bench here and it will be a create a real relaxing area

Geranium 'Rozanne'

Geranium 'Rozanne' has been voted one of the top 10 plants of the century and it's grown locally, which is an added bonus. Geraniums are versatile perennials that flower for several months through early summer and are at their best in July.



Verbena Bonariensis rigida

Every gardener is familiar with the willowy Verbena bonariensis, a tall lilac-purple vision beloved by butterflies. But there is a more dazzling, low-growing verbena which produces a three-branched candelabra of deep purple to
magenta flowers.

Named Verbena rigida after its upright habit, this front-of-the-border performer, although only a foot or two in height, can outshine almost everything else, particularly in late autumn sunlight. The hundreds of tiny flowers found on each upright head will provide a purple haze from June until October. This is a plant that gives great garden value.

The flowers are very attractive to butterflies and provide nectar for native bees and many beneficial garden insects. Verbena grows best in very well drained soil and likes a good amount of sunshine. It is a trouble-free plant in regard to insects, as it rarely gets attacked by anything.

Another Verbena that is a great preformer is the verbena lollipop, This grows only to two feet and has a very dense habitat. A Winner for all cottage garden Borders