WE SAW SOME pretty amazing gardens at Bloom. Bloom, Ireland’s largest gardening festival, is taking place in Phoenix Park from today until Monday. From the 1916 Rising to our obsession of social media, there’s a wide range of themes and designs in the gardens this year.

After a lot of debating, here are our six picks…

The Savills Garden “Face to Face”

Is your phone practically chained to your hand? Do you find yourself liking, hearting and retweeting your way through life? Then this garden is for you.

We spoke to designer Andrew Christopher Dunne who told us his garden aims to reconnect us with our environment and each other.

Designed by Andrew Christopher Dunne

Out the Other Side: A Garden of Hope

This is a really lovely garden, designed to offer hope to people affected by breast cancer. The purple, red, pink and white flowers represent the difficulties, compassion and hope that breast cancer survivors experience.

The focal point of the garden is The Hammock, which is fashioned from donated bras.

Designed by Tünde Szentesi

Santa Rita Living la Vida 120 Garden 

In this sunny weather, this garden is exactly where you want to be: nice pool, colourful flowers, a bottle of wine and the table already set for dinner.

But sadly no sign of Ricky Martin living la vida loca.

Designed by Alan Rudden

Yi Garden (Friendship Garden)

This is a very peaceful garden, with a big water feature, modeled on traditional elements from Yangzhou City in China.

The designer hopes that the garden could be a bridge of friendship connecting the country with Ireland. The rocks in this garden were even transported all the way from China.

Designed by Meng Pan

GOAL’s Damascus Courtyard – War and Peace 

This is a simple garden with a serious message. There’s a line running through the centre of the garden, with items representing the current crisis in Syria. One side of the garden reflects Syria in peacetime and the other side represents the future.

The garden, when finished at Bloom, will be transported to the reception centre for refugees in Monasterevin, Co Kildare.

Designed by Brian Burke

Bullets and boiled sweets – 1916 Commemoration Garden

For the year that’s in it. This garden represents Dublin during the Rising, in particular the excitement of the poverty-stricken children who braved the crossfire to steal a sweet.

Designer Fiann Ó Nualláin, who has showcased a garden at every Bloom, invites us to ask if the promise of the Proclamation to “cherish all the children of the nation equally” has been fulfilled.

Designed by Fiann Ó Nualláin

Bloom takes place in Dublin’s Phoenix Park from 2 June – 6 June 2016. For more details click here.

Read: Temperatures to remain above normal right up to start of Leaving Cert

Read: 9 beautiful gardens in Ireland you should visit soon

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