A Beautiful Obsession
Jimi Blake’s World of Plants at Hunting Brook Gardens
Jimi Blake and Noel Kingsbury
Jimi Blake has spent the last 25 years collecting stand-out plants which he grows in dynamic and innovative ways at the fabulous Hunting Brook Gardens. Exotics with extraordinary shaped leaves set off fine collections of salvias and dahlias in this bold, experimental garden. Hunting Brook is always on the move and even regular visitors find fresh surprises around every corner. Yet from the open borders to the woodland and valley there is a grounded quality to the garden that reflects Jimi’s close ties with the land and respect for the spirit of the place.
Jimi Blake trained at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin and was Head Gardener at Airfield. He runs classes and workshops at the garden and lectures all over the world.
Noel Kingsbury is a well-known designer, commentator and writer on plants, gardens, landscape and the environment. He has a doctorate in horticultural ecology from Sheffield University, teaches online classes, lectures and travels widely.
A Beautiful Obsession, Jimi Blake & Noel Kingsbury
PB £17.99│ISBN: 978-1-7399039-6-1│ 4th July 2024
If you’re in the UK, buy from Bookshop.org and support independent bookshops
“The story of one man’s
love affair with plants,
this is a personal
account of bold plant
selection and creative
gardening in a world that
never stands still.”
Benjamin William Pope, Gardens Illustrated
“On a hill near Blessington,
County Wicklow sits
Hunting Brook Gardens,
a wondrous place of
tropical delights that is the
subject of a new book, A
Beautiful Obsession.”
Donal O’Donoghue, RTÉ Guide
“Jimi’s sheer passion for plants shines through this book.”
Ruth Chivers, Sunday Telegraph
“Blake is what could be described as gardening royalty. Ever since he worked his special magic as a young graduate of the Botanic Gardens at Airfield in Dublin all those years ago, he’s been acquiring a growing international reputation as a maverick designer and brilliant propagator with a wizardly touch when it comes to unexpected, outlandishly beautiful plant combinations.”
Fionnuala Fallon, The Irish Times
“Much more than a coffee table book…insights and inspiration with every turn of the page.”
John Manley, The Irish News
“In his seventeen years at Huntingbrook Garden, Jimi Blake has cut a dash through the traditional herbaceous border, the shrub border, the woodland garden and is leading the way in Irish horticulture with his innovative approach to gardening, with his new plant trials and introductions but, most of all, in the manner in which he has made gardening such fun and such a joy.”
Paddy Tobin, Irish Garden Plant Society
Related reading and listening