The Palm and Succulent garden, which is positioned to the front of the house, was begun in 2007, as prior to then there were few examples from the Palm and Succulent plant families. This area was covered in Rhododendron ponticum with a small lawn. With the extensive rainfall in Kells, the removal of the heavy peaty soil was imperative to give these plants a chance of survival from the extreme wet. To date there has been 500 tonnes of rock imported from a local quarry along with rock from the base of where the waterfall now is, to augment the existing rock bed and rock faces to produce the necessary environment.
In July 2007 the largest palm tree in Ireland was imported from Chile and planted in the new bed. It is a Jubaea chilensis and weighed 11 tonnes (including the rootball of 1.5 metres square). It has a clear trunk of 7.5 metres. It is now showing signs of new growth with green leaves emerging from the centre.
The dedicated horticulturalist may recognise Yuccas, Dasylirions, Aeoniums, Xanthorrhoea, Agaves, Aloes, Puya, Aeoniums, Furcraea, Ocahgavea and Fasicularia among the collection number of other mature Palms.
To locate most of these plants go to the plant database.
Footnote: The harsh winters of January and December 2010 unfortunately killed many of the recent planting in this area. The Yuccas did the best under the unexpected freezing conditions. We hope to start, slowly, repopulating this area over the coming years.
