| Saintfield,
Co. Down
Phone : 028 9751 0131
Rowallane has one of Ireland's premier plant collections . It's maker, Hugh Armitage Moore, who inherited the property in 1903, grew his plants among the yards and fields of his late uncle's farm . This approach worked well and his plants flourished wonderfully so that Roallane today, 90 years since he started it, no longer has the atmosphere of a farm but is a world-class garden . The main garden, the Spring Garden, is most unusual: because its massed plantings of rhododendrons are in the open, rather than in the conventional woodland shade, they flower with great profusion . Hydrangeas, fuchsias and shrub roses are grouped for summer displays while cherries and maples infuse the area with autumn colour . The Rock Garden was made by relieving a huge oucrop of rock of its natural covering of turf and scrub and planting it instead with rare plants from many parts of the world- primulas, meconopsis, heathers and dwarf bubls in particular . The Walled Garden, originally a kitchen garden, is filled with mixed borders of shrubs for spring, and roses and perennials for summer .
Open April - Oct : Mon - Fri 10.30am - 6pm, Sat - Sun : 2 - 6pm ; Nov - March : Mon - Fri 10.30am - 5pm.
Entrance charge (National Trust).
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