Show Gardens that care – introduction to the 2026 Show Garden
Kerrie Gardiner, Bord Bia Bloom’s Show Gardens and Horticulture Content Manager, introduces the 2026 Show Gardens.
This year’s 20 spectacular Show Gardens all share a common theme: Care. They illustrate and celebrate our care for the environment, care for our health and wellbeing, care for our communities, care for our food, and care for our own pockets of earth.
With designs ranging from large gardens to small balcony spaces, they demonstrate how gardeners of all levels of expertise can create carefully considered outdoor areas that complement their homes, lifestyles, and life stages.
Citroën Flexible Family Garden, designed by Joshua Fenton and sponsored by Citroën
Families will love Joshua Fenton’s versatile and innovative ‘Citroën Flexible Family Garden’ while novice gardeners with a passion for DIY will appreciate Carleen Osborne’s affordable and easily implementable designs in the ‘I Can Create That Garden with Dublin’s Q102’.
Accomplished gardeners who are downsizing to a balcony space will find plenty of inspiration in Debbie Brophy’s ‘The Master Gardener’s Balcony’. Plant enthusiasts will delight in Tom Bradford’s eclectic ‘Plant Collector’s Balcony’ and those planning a full garden makeover will find a host of clever ideas in Bord Bia’s ‘Celebrity Dream Garden’. Designed by Declan McKenna, it is inspired by television presenter Brendan Courtney’s recent project to redesign his Wicklow garden.
Throughout this year’s collection, you will find plenty of practical and actionable tips to take home. Repak’s ‘Recycled, Reused and Refilled’ Sculptural Garden, designed by James Purdy, demonstrates how to incorporate recycled and reclaimed materials into effective, innovative designs. Kakha Gigauri and Michael O’Connor’s ‘A Moment for Myself’ garden, sponsored by Leaf 2 Leaf Landscapes, illustrates how to create a restorative space that supports your wellbeing; and ‘The Birdwatchers’ Balcony Garden’, sponsored by RTÉ Radio 1 and Mooney Goes Wild, offers guidance on fostering biodiversity and caring for our feathered friends.
Celebrity Dream Garden, inspired by Brendan Courtney, designed by Declan McKenna and sponsored by Bord Bia
Issues that we care about
Once again, the gardens touch on important issues that our sponsors, and our visitors, care about.
Health returns as a leading theme this year. ‘Empowering at Every Step, designed by Robert Moore and sponsored by Marie Keating Foundation in association with AstraZeneca and Gilead, brings visitors on a journey through the cancer landscape in Ireland – raising awareness, encouraging action where possible, highlighting support, and advocating for greater access to screening.
‘Rooted in Resilience’, designed by David Negus and sponsored by Myeloma Ireland, is inspired by the emotional and physical journey of people living with multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood cancer. The ‘Future In Mind’ Garden, designed by Joe Eustace and sponsored by the Mental Health Commission, illustrates Ireland’s transition from institutional mental health care to a trauma-informed, recovery-focused, community-based system
The ‘Future In Mind’ Garden, designed by Joe Eustace and sponsored by the Mental Health Commission
Care for communities
Community – and how we support it on a local and EU-wide scale – is at the heart of two of our large gardens. ‘Fingal Nurturing Communities Through Nature’, designed by the team at Áit Urbanism + Landscape and sponsored by Fingal County Council, embraces the growing movement towards community gardening. It is designed as a welcoming place, where residents can meet their neighbours, build connections, and reconnect with nature.
Sponsored by the European Commission, ‘Shared Roots, Common Shade’ has been designed by Oliver and Liat Schurmann as a mini forest with 27 trees representing each Member State. It coincides with Ireland assuming the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and invites visitors to reflect on how EU investment nurtures resilience, cooperation, and opportunity in Ireland and across Europe. A wishing tree, next to the garden, offers you an opportunity to share your vision for the future of Ireland and the EU.
Fingal Nurturing Communities Through Nature, designed by Áit Urbanism + Landscape and sponsored by Fingal County Council
Care for climate, environment, and farming
Met Éireann joins us as a sponsor for the first time with a commemorative garden to celebrate its milestone year. Designed by Paul Dunne and Padraic Woods, ‘Met Éireann’s 90th Anniversary: Past, Present and Future’ invites visitors to explore our changing climate, while also paying tribute those who monitor, interpret, and communicate Ireland’s atmosphere with such dedication.
Bloom’s 2026 Cultivating Talent winner, Jack Donovan, considers the environment in his fascinating debut garden, ‘Alltar’, which explores the concept of spontaneous vegetation and the resilience of plants that establish in disturbed ground. With a palette of climate-resilient planting, this concept garden highlights how biodiversity can emerge through minimal intervention and thoughtful use of natural materials.
Sponsored by Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, ‘Nature in Balance’ is designed by Linda McKeown and highlights the merits of organic farming that actively protects water, soil and biodiversity while producing healthy, wholesome food that is, by its nature, also low carbon.
And continuing the food and farming theme, Marks & Spencer’s ‘Where Trust Takes Root’ explores the relationship between food, craft and trust within the Irish landscape. Designed by Scott D. Renwick, it features an array of edible and ornamental planting that are woven together to celebrate seasonality, provenance, and the beauty of productive landscapes.
Where Trust Takes Root, designed by Scott D. Renwick and sponsored by Marks & Spencer
Along with a fun appearance from an old friend (all will be revealed soon!), this year’s Super Garden winner (which will be announced on the opening day of Bloom), and our special Bloom Gallery Garden which looks back on the most popular and innovative Show Gardens over the last 20 years, you’ll find plenty to inspire you at this year’s festival.
Our thanks to our generous sponsors, talented designers, and hard-working landscapers and craftspeople who have worked tirelessly over the last year to produce our Show Gardens. We would not be able to deliver such a spectacle without their support, efforts, and creativity. We hope you will enjoy the show!
Read all about this year’s Show Gardens here.
