The Irish Garden, January/February 2006, Volume 15 No 1
My Favourite Plant
Derek Mooney
in conversation
with Yvonne Gordon
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"I have two favourite plants – a Dublin Bay rose and a bay tree. I got them when I moved into my house three and a half years ago. I love and adore them because they are presents that will probably live as long as I will. They give me great enjoyment in the garden.
"The first present was a bay tree. People put bay leaves in food when they are cooking. I don’t put them in food but when I moved in to the house I said I was going to start cooking. It is great because it improves the aesthetics of the property and it is a useful plant.
"I don’t know anything about gardening or plants, but this brings great pleasure to me. The tree has grown from one foot nothing in three and a half years to at least six feet. Either the soil is right or where I’ve positioned it in the garden is the perfect place to put it. When you walk by, you get a lovely minty smell off it.
"Richard Collins, a contributor on Mooney Goes Wild, gave me the Dublin Bay rose. I planted it to hide a bare wall. I didn’t think the sun would shine there or that the soil would be great. I planted it for aesthetic reasons so when I look out, I can see something nice. Where I have my kitchen table, I have sliding doors into the garden.
"The Dublin Bay rose has grown from less than a foot. It came in a pot and I have it pinned up along the wall. It’s now growing everywhere. It’s beautiful, I have roses on it from summertime up until December. The great thing about it is I can cut a rose and put it in a vase of water and it lasts about a week. My house is plain and minimalist, clean and simple, and a red rose stands out. It’s a beautiful, beautiful plant. I can use it and give it to someone – I have often cut a rose off it and given it to friends who are feeling low. Because you’ve grown it yourself, it means so much more to people.
"One thing I have noticed about something from the garden – there’s no comparison between a rose growing in my garden and commercial rose you’d buy. It’s like your mother cooking your dinner when you were a child – you’ll never get food the same anywhere else.
"I don’t have a fancy garden, it’s not very well kept and it’s small back and front. I am not a gardener, but a plant really makes a difference, that little sprinkling of colour. I got a lot of presents when moved in and I get great pleasure from these two presents. With these, they both gave them a lot of thought. If you can’t decide what to get someone moving house, get them something useful."
Derek Mooney is a wildlife radio broadcaster and his radio programmes include Habitats, The Nature Line, Nature Trails and Mooney Goes Wild on 1, which has been running on RTÉ Radio 1 for ten years. He also presents the weekly national lottery television programme Winning Streak and in January takes over from Ray D'Arcy as the presenter of popular TV show You're a Star.
© Yvonne Gordon 2006
