Mick Horkan is the head gardener responsible for restoring and maintaining the amazing estate which surrounds the Lough Gill Distillery.

With all of the changes occurring at Lough Gill Distillery and Hazelwood demesne, it’s perhaps fitting that we enter another period of change - spring. This is the season that gives us longer days, warmer temperatures and the time that the outside world undergoes a complete transformation, from bleak and brown to vibrant and vivacious.

Although working in such stunning surroundings could never be arduous, working outside through the bitter winter months in the grounds and gardens of Hazelwood does indeed have its challenges. The wet cold days sometimes seem endless, and you do begin to wonder whether winter will ever end. However nature has a way of letting us know that time is passing and the golden days of spring and summer are edging closer. I feel one of the most welcoming signs of this turning of the season is the sighting of something emerging from the earth that wasn’t there yesterday; the first yawn of the spring bulb.

But, the plants and flowers that are slowly bursting into life all around Hazelwood (mostly) haven’t arrived here by chance - we’ve been digging, sowing and tending to them for months, encouraging them to bloom and fill the gardens with colour.

Each year starting in autumn and throughout the winter months we plant a range of varieties of bulbs in the gardens - and, when I say a range, this is no mean feat - in the last six months alone the gardens have become home to 1,100 tulips, 1,200 daffodils and hundreds more, including snowdrops, anemone, cyclamens, hyacinth, crocus, alliums and eremurus. So...just a few!

Not only is there the task of planting each and every bulb, these little wonders all have different growing habits and patterns, likes and dislikes, and it’s my job to make sure they’re all in the best positions for their ideal conditions, with the correct amount of spacing (gardeners knew about social distancing long before the rest of the world!)

Ultimately though, each bulb has the same goal; to flower and thus reproduce. In this act they give the gardens something in return - a huge range of vibrant colour. As time passes, they grow stronger and multiply before slipping back under the soil to await the time to do it all again. When this happens it gives the gardener a chance to lift and divide the fittest, planting them in other parts of the estate, and helping the following year’s garden to bloom even more brilliantly than the year before.

For all the thousands of bulbs that require careful plotting and tending to, there’s one that is quite happy being fiercely independent - and we’re happy to let it thrive, doing what it does best. The bulb in question is our own native wild flowering bluebell, which lies in abundance through the forests of the estate, and requires no input from us gardeners, yet carpets the forest with a dazzling blue hue.

Hidden from sight and forgotten, much like us humans after a cold winter, every spring it drags itself from its slumber, firstly unfolding its leaves then producing a vivid carpet of blue flowers throughout the woodlands.
The peak time to spot the bluebells is April and May, and it’s also during these months that the flowers become alive with visitors - they’re a favourite of the native honey bee and other insect pollinators, who love them for their nectar and pollen.

Other than their pollinating properties and stunning colours, what is it that makes these bluebells so special? Well, the bluebell species which grows here is globally threatened. Not because of plant poachers, but because of hybridisation - other bluebell species such as the Spanish variety when crossed with our species create a hybrid version, and due to this, the native species has become endangered. However, Ireland is considered one of the best international habitats for its survival so it is our great privilege to be home to so many in the forests of Hazelwood.   

As the gardens begin to wake up in time for the season ahead, we look forward to enjoying all that the grounds of Hazelwood have to offer - although it’s no rest for me, to endure they look good all year round, I’m already on to the next task!