Latest news with #LeonieCornelius
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Award winning Leitrim garden designer takes gold medal for unique entry at Bord Bia Bloom
Leonie Cornelius, an award-winning garden designer based in North Leitrim, has been honoured with a gold medal at the 2025 Bord Bia Bloom Festival in Dublin for her medium garden titled Nourish – The Caragh Nurseries Garden. This is her sixth show garden for Bord Bia Bloom. Leonie has won numerous medals and awards at Bord Bia Bloom, including a gold medal for last year's Óir, the Zarbee's Garden. Her entry this year is a collaboration with Caragh Nurseries and the courtyard-style garden blends architecture with wild nature to reconnect us with ourselves and the rhythms of the natural world. Drawing inspiration from Mediterranean living and ancient herbal traditions, Nourish features a sensory apothecary room surrounded by climate-resilient, edible, and ornamental planting. The garden invites visitors to slow down, restore, and rediscover pleasure in nature. With a focus on sustainable design and emotional nourishment, this immersive space is a powerful response to the demands of modern life. Showcasing bespoke elements from Caragh Nurseries and its outdoor brand, Finn & Elder, Nourish is both a visual and visceral experience – an inspiring blueprint for living in harmony, grounded in nature. Leonie Cornelius is an award-winning garden designer, interior architect, and bestselling author whose work explores the deep connection between nature, design, and wellbeing. Inspired by her childhood in Germany and time spent living on a Greek island and in the south of France, she blends Mediterranean influences with Irish landscapes to create soulful, sensory-rich gardens. Her designs celebrate slow living, seasonal rituals, and emotional restoration. Through her Nourish garden, Leonie invites visitors to reconnect – with themselves, each other, and the wild rhythms of the natural world. After Bloom, Nourish garden's plants will be relocated to Caragh Nurseries' wellbeing garden after the festival, ensuring their continued growth and contribution to a nurturing environment. Caragh Nurseries in County Kildare spans over 60 acres, offering exceptional trees, plants, and bespoke garden design, alongside exclusive pots, lighting, and furniture – creating complete, beautifully tailored outdoor spaces.
RTÉ News
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Leonie Cornelius and Jo McGarry
Garden designer Leonie Cornelius and nursery owner Jo McGarry are working together for this year's Bloom, taking place next weekend in the Phoenix Park. They explain why their garden 'Nourish' is a very personal project for them both Full details:
Irish Independent
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Sligo garden designer will feature show garden at Bloom while also giving wellness talks
The festival expects to welcome over 100,000 visitors across its 70-acre site, which will play host to 21 spectacular new show gardens at the centre of the experience. Sligo designer Leonie Cornelius is back at Bord Bia Bloom with her sixth show garden, Noūrish – The Caragh Nurseries Garden. Offering a sanctuary of balance and healing, this courtyard-style garden will blend architecture with wild nature to reconnect us with the natural world. The garden will invite visitors to slow down, restore, and rediscover pleasure in nature. Leonie will also give daily wellness talks, Gardening for Wild + Well, on her vision for wild integration to everyday life while the stage itself will be framed by Leonie's own, hive-design planters filled with colourful, pollinator-friendly plants to keep the Garden Stage, sponsored by Zarbee's 'The natural world teaches us about cycles, patience and resilience. This is what I will be exploring as part of my talks at the Garden Stage - the power of the wild and the realisation that we can take powerful cues from nature to heal - the importance of slowing down to smell the roses, literally and metaphorically. I think that in a time when so many people feel burnt out or unbalanced, I wanted to have conversations around how nature can reconnect and re-align us with those rhythms,' says Leonie. Gardening for Wild + Well Sessions with Leonie will take place daily at 1:45pm at the Garden Stage.. Meanwhile, visitors to Bloom can meet 100+ of Ireland's top food and craft drink producers at the Food Village including Sligo business Good4U. Good4U are makers of natural functional foods. It produces a range of Salad Toppers, Breakfast Boost and Protein Balls, all 100% natural, plant based, nut free, gluten free with no added sugar. There will also be delicious food from plenty of food trucks, the BBQ Bliss area or Bloom's four on-site restaurants: The Garden View Restaurant, Bistro Bloom, Country Crest Restaurant and The Seafood Terrace. New for this year is 'A Taste of Bloom, curated by Neven' a three-course dining experience celebrating quality Irish produce designed exclusively by chef Neven Maguire for Bloom. Green-fingered visitors can also enjoy the perfectly formed petite Postcard Gardens supported by Tirlán CountryLife, breathtaking plants in the Nursery Village and The Plant Emporium, live demonstrations and interactive workshops including floral crown making in the Botanical Hub, and exhibitions of Botanical and Floral Art and AOIFA's (Association of Irish Floral Artists) Floral Art Competition. In addition, popular features will return along with some exciting new demonstrations, panel discussions, talks and performances. These include The Plant Emporium, live demonstrations and interactive workshops including floral crown making in the new Botanical Hub, and exhibitions of Botanical and Floral Art and AOIFA's (Association of Irish Floral Artists) Floral Art Competition. Laura Douglas, Head of Bloom and Brand Partnerships, Bord Bia said, 'Bloom is a distinctive festival that combines gardening, culinary excellence, sustainable living, and family fun in picturesque natural settings. With so much on offer, we encourage our ticketholders to plan their visit carefully to ensure an unforgettable experience at Bloom this year. To facilitate this, we have added daily stage schedules, an interactive site map, and travel tips on our website. We appreciate the support of our partners, sponsors, and events team in realising our vision for this year's festival programme. We look forward to witnessing it come to fruition in a few weeks and welcoming new visitors to Bloom 2025' ADVERTISEMENT For younger visitors, there is plenty to enjoy too, with returning planting experiences for children along with a range of fun, educational and interactive workshops at the Budding Bloomers Children's Area. Tickets are on sale via the website. Two children (aged 16 and under) go free with each adult ticket purchased. This year, a range of additional visitor packages are available incorporating new dining experiences such as 'A Taste of Bloom, curated by Neven' and more. A full list of visitor experiences is available via the festival website. With over 100 talks taking place across five stages throughout the festival's five days, there are countless opportunities for visitors to grow, taste and learn.
