You don’t have to tear out your whole garden to make it wildlife-friendly. Most of us have a mix of native and non-native plants — and that’s fine. Our own garden does too. The foxgloves and ferns grow beside herbs from the Mediterranean, and somehow it all works. The point isn’t to be a purist; it’s to make sure some of what you grow belongs here. Every native plant you add — even one — feeds pollinators, shelters insects, and strengthens Ireland’s natural web of life.

Native plants also look good. They survive our winds and rain without fuss, flower when our insects need them most, and settle quietly into their surroundings. They belong here — and your garden will look better for it.

The season of real gardening

Every winter, while the garden centres slow down and social feeds fill with houseplants, a quieter and more meaningful season begins — bare-root season. It’s not glamorous. It’s the time of year when the ground is soft, the air smells of rain, and the real work of biodiversity begins: planting native trees, hedges and wild plants that will actually feed a blackbird, not just decorate a boundary.

Every year, tens of thousands of plants sold across Ireland as “native” are anything but. Most of them come from large-scale European nurseries — grown in Dutch or Italian soil, bred for speed, size and uniformity, not resilience or ecological fit. We’re told that “a hawthorn is a hawthorn”, but the hawthorn that sprouted in a Dutch field isn’t the same as the one that has sheltered Irish robins for centuries.

This isn’t about purism — it’s about provenance. Plants grown from Irish seed stock, in Irish soil, adapted to Irish weather, perform better. They flower at the right times, host the right insects, and survive our winds and frost. Imported plants often arrive full of hidden problems — new pests, pathogens, or genetics that weaken the diversity of our local populations.

If we’re serious about “rewilding” or “biodiversity,” it has to start here: with where we buy our plants.

The Irish growers doing it right

These are some of the growers and suppliers quietly keeping Ireland’s living heritage alive — the ones that actually deserve the label native.

Clarenbridge Garden Centre — Galway

clarenbridgegardencentre.ie
I can personally recommend these guys. I bought loads of native hedging from them when I couldn’t find it anywhere else. They deliver nationwide, and their staff genuinely know what “native” means — not a generic laurel hedge, but hawthorn, hazel, guelder rose, and the rest of the real thing.

FreeTrees.ie — Nationwide

freetrees.ie
Full disclosure: I’m personally involved here. We’ve given away over 165,000 native Irish trees for free in the past year — all Irish-grown, all native species. It’s a volunteer-run project, but it shows what’s possible when people work together. These aren’t saplings from Europe; they’re seedlings that belong in Irish soil.

Future Forests — West Cork

futureforests.ie
An incredible range of native perennials and bare-root trees, including Irish-grown stock. They’ve been doing it for decades — combining real horticultural knowledge with an environmental conscience. It’s not a flashy site; it’s a real nursery run by real growers.

Nightpark Nursery — County Kildare

nightparknursery.com
A specialist supplier of plug plants by post, selling in trays of 80. They occasionally offer Irish-native species — I’ve bought meadowsweet, primrose and cowslip from them myself. You need to know your botanical names and hunt through their Excel stock list, but the gems are there if you look.

Design By Nature - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. — County Carlow/Laois R93T289

Imported myths vs local truth

Large garden centres will tell you they “can’t source enough Irish plants.” That’s only true if you’re looking for instant, uniform stock — the kind that looks good on pallets. Native growers can’t compete on price or appearance in the short term, but in the long term their plants win on every meaningful measure: survival, resilience, biodiversity value.

Imported cultivars may bloom brightly for a year or two, but they often provide less nectar and host fewer insects. Some even flower at the wrong time for our pollinators. The difference between a hedgerow that buzzes with life and one that’s silent often comes down to where its roots came from.

What gardeners can do differently

1. Ask nurseries where their plants were grown. Provenance matters.
2. Choose Irish species — hawthorn, hazel, willow, birch, rowan, spindle, guelder rose.
3. Avoid imported cultivars labelled “wildlife-friendly.” Most aren’t.
4. Support community schemes like FreeTrees.ie, Crann, or your local biodiversity officer.
5. Buy bare-root whenever you can — less plastic, stronger plants, and better rooting.

“Every euro spent on genuine Irish stock strengthens Ireland’s living landscape. Every imported laurel hedge is a missed opportunity.”

Roots worth keeping

We talk a lot about “rewilding,” but maybe the first act of restoration isn’t letting land go wild — it’s simply buying a tree that belongs here.

This winter, when the soil is soft and the days are short, that’s the kind of quiet action that actually changes the world — one hedge, one plant, one step at a time.