39th Alpine Weekend

The speakers at this year’s event will be:

• Ian Christie
• Martin Hajman
• Maurice Parkinson

Lecture Programme

Saturday 15th November

11.00 Martin Hajman ‘Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden – Rock Landscape and Plant Collections above the polar circle’
14.00 Maurice Parkinson ‘Ballyrobert Gardens – The Story Behind the Garden’
16.00 Ian Christie ‘Ian Christie’s Garden – New Directions’ (via Zoom)

Sunday 17th November

09.30 Martin Hajman ‘Spring in Turkey – Travelling for early flowers’
11.00 Ian Christie ‘Meconopsis and other woodland plants’ (via Zoom)

Speakers:

Ian Christie
Ian is one of Scotland‟s foremost nurserymen and alpine growers, and is an experienced lecturer with a practical approach to gardening. He has been president of the SRGC and does a lot of work for the club by way of talks and practical demonstrations. He’s been an alpine plant grower for 35 years, with extensive experience of rock and alpine garden construction, specialist crevice gardens and raised beds. His rare plants include Trilliums, Snowdrops, Lilies, Nomocharis, and one of the largest Meconopsis collections.

Martin Hajman
Martin Hajman is the head gardener at Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden, part of the Arctic University of Norway, which is the world’s most northerly Botanic Garden.
Before assuming this post, Martin was the head gardener and curator of Průhonice Garden in the Czech Republic, a UNESCO site. While working at Průhonice, Martin was part of the founding of the Czech Hardy Plant Society. He was also an active member of the Prague Rock Garden Club where he learned from the best about rock gardening, its practices and plants. Martin is an avid plant collector whose passion for plants spans all seasons. He has also been involved in Botanical trips in Europe, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Syria, Jordan, as well as South Africa and Tibet.
Martin recently gave the E.B Anderson Memorial Lecture at the Alpine Garden Society Weekend Conference in the UK.

Maurice Parkinson
Educated at Greenmount College, Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, Writtle College, and the University of Ulster, Maurice has extensive experience in horticulture, from Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, to being Director of Parks with Belfast City Council and latterly as the creator and owner of Ballyrobert Gardens, a uniquely designed Ulster Garden rated by the Guardian as one of the Top Ten Secret Gardens in the UK. He has been designing gardens and landscapes for many years and is a regular contributor to radio and TV.
Maurice and Joy Parkinson have over the past twenty years designed and constructed this very unique Ulster Garden on what was previously a small farm steeped in local and national history.

What To Expect

Since its outset, the Alpine Weekend has always been held in the headquarters of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association, An Grianán, a location which is really handy for alpinists both North and South, if a little hard to find on one’s first visit. Google Maps and satnav nowadays take care of that problem. It’s a very comfortable and friendly venue, with all the facilities we need for accommodation, dining, and lectures and, of course, a bar. The sea is very close by, so many of us venture down for a walk on the strand in the mornings before the day’s events get underway.

The aim of the Weekend is for those of us with a passion for alpine plants to learn more about them, from the invited experts of course, but also from each other. There is much informal sharing of knowledge, and very often of seeds and plants too. The lecture topics are carefully chosen to give variety, covering both the cultivation of alpines and also their occurrence in their natural habitats.

We assemble late on Friday afternoon for high tea, followed by an informal session where members share their alpine experiences of the past year with slides of plants and gardens. It’s a great way of socialising and renewing acquaintance.

After a leisurely breakfast on Saturday morning, we have time to view the specialist trade plant sales before the official programme begins. We hold three lectures on the first day, interspersed with refreshments of lunch and tea (and more visits to the plant sales). Then after dinner the evening’s entertainment begins, generally a table quiz followed by an auction of plants contributed by members. Then, exhausted, we retire to the bar.

Between the two lectures on Sunday we hold the members’ plant sale, an eclectic mix of plants, garden, alpine or even vegetable, contributed by members and whose sale contributes to the running of the Society’s activities. There’s also a discussion forum for members to get advice on all aspects of alpine cultivation from the (many) expert growers attending.

Finally we meet for tea, and the all-important raffle, before dispersing into the, by now, gathering gloom.

Directions to An Grianán

From the South:
Travel on the M1 motorway and exit at junction 10 immediately after crossing the Boyne Cable Bridge.
Take third exit off roundabout heading for Monasterboice / Drogheda.

From the North:
Travel on the M1 motorway and exit at junction 10 immediately before crossing the Boyne Cable Bridge.
Take first exit off roundabout heading for Monasterboice / Drogheda.

All routes:
At next roundabout take second exit heading for Monasterboice
At next roundabout take first exit onto the old Belfast road heading north.
After 4km approx (immediately after Pope John Paul’s monument) turn right into the filter lane at sign for Termonfeckin.
( this is after two lanes merge into one climbing the hill. )
Drive approx 6k directly to a dangerous partially blind crossroads. Straight through .
Drive 5km approx and take Left turn at T junction.
Right turn after 100m.
Drive directly into Termonfeckin to a T junction facing Church.
Left turn and after 100m, right turn at lights for An Grianan.

Note that we were unable to hold the Alpine Weekend in 2020 or 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.