[Day] 10 [Date] Sat, May 25 [Description] 
SHIRLEY BEATTY’S GARDEN & RATHMICHAEL LODGE This morning visit the garden of Shirley Beatty. A Regency villa, built in the 1830s, which provides the perfect backdrop for a small rear garden, extending to 30 m. Current planting started in 2009 and the garden now consists of herbaceous borders, leading through, under an archway, to a small vegetable garden and plant area. The borders are filled with a wide selection of rare and unusual plants, which Shirley has collected over her 50 years gardening experience and travels. The last garden to be visited is Rathmichael Lodge, a charming rambling house, situated between the mountains and the sea, has an enchanting 2.5ha old-world garden. It reflects the characters of Corinne and Richard Hewat and exudes atmosphere, fragrance and colour due, in part, to the over one hundred roses that grow there. Old roses and modern hybrids, climbers and shrubs - they revel in the benign climate of this garden and they proliferate on walls, through apple trees, around an ancient orchard and mingle in abundant borders with other rare and interesting plants. A particularly inspiring sight is Rosa 'Parade' growing on the back wall of the ochre-coloured house. The remainder of the afternoon is at leisure in Dublin for some free time to shop or for those of you who did not get enough of the Botanical Gardens another visit might be in order. This evening join your fellow gardeners in the hotel dining room for a farewell dinner. There will be plenty of time to discuss all of the beautiful gardens you have seen in Ireland. There are still so many more to see that a trip back might be just what you need. DINNER & OVERNIGHT: BURLINGTON HOTEL, DUBLIN