Creating a Sustainable Perennial Cut-Flower Garden with Fionnuala Fallon

Join Fionnuala Fallon – gardener, author, and Irish Times gardening columnist – for an engaging and practical workshop focused on creating your own sustainable perennial cut-flower garden. Designed for both beginners and experienced growers, this session explores how to cultivate a beautiful, long-lasting flower garden that’s in harmony with nature.

Returning year after year, perennials provide a reliable source of blooms with less long-term input. Fionnuala will share her expert knowledge on selecting hardy, pollinator-friendly perennials that thrive in Irish conditions and offer exceptional value as cut flowers. Participants will learn how to plan and design a perennial flower patch that provides colour, structure and texture throughout the seasons.

The workshop will explore sustainable gardening practices, including soil health, plant division, mulching and organic pest control. Fionnuala will also discuss the importance of biodiversity and how a perennial cut-flower garden can support pollinators, beneficial insects and wildlife year-round.

You’ll gain practical advice on establishing and maintaining your garden, choosing flowers for extended vase life, and harvesting techniques that encourage regrowth and longevity. Whether you have a large garden or a small space, this session will give you the tools and inspiration to create a thriving, low-impact cut-flower garden that brings lasting beauty indoors and out.

Fionnuala Fallon is the author of From the Ground Up: How Ireland is Growing Its Own and co-founder of The Irish Flower Farmer and Florist Collective. Her approach blends traditional horticultural wisdom with modern ecological awareness, making this workshop an essential experience for anyone passionate about sustainable gardening.

This talk takes place indoors in a comfortable, accessible setting, making it an ideal event to enjoy regardless of the weather.

Fionnuala Fallon is a National Botanic Gardens-trained horticulturist, author and Irish Times gardening columnist as well as a regular contributor to various gardening magazines including The Irish Garden. Together with her photographer husband Richard Johnston, she also runs a small, sustainably-managed cut-flower farm, ‘The Irish Flower Farmer’ in a Victorian walled garden in west Wicklow, which they established in 2015.