Inspired by the Emerald Isle: Eight Pretty Irish Flowers You Can Grow to Enjoy a Greener Garden Life

While we most often celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a robust combination of food, drink, fashions, parades, along with singing and dancing traditions; as a garden designer and horticulturist, I thought it appropriate to mark the day with Irish Flowers. 

After all, Ireland is referred to as the Emerald Isle for good reason. With its rain and moist air and moderate temperatures, it’s a kind of Shangri La or plant utopia. So while I wouldn’t ever change up your affinity for such customs as drinking green beer while crooning “Danny Boy” or wearin’ the green to the local pub for corned beef and cabbage, I wanted to add a bit of garden magic to your Irish festivities. And who knows, maybe you’ll be dusted with some of a sprite’s fairy dust and be inspired to grow some of these Celtic classics.

The native, national, Irish flowers are simply gorgeous in a natural, unfussy way.  They also serve not only as inspired landscape plantings ~ to attract our heart and soul as well as their pollinators, they are also delightful as cut flowers for the home and terrace.  In addition, many are medicinal. 

Please enjoy this list of beautiful, National Irish flowers, sourced from celtic titles blog and other sources I researched for you.  Besides, who doesn’t love flowers? (There’s more to Irish flowers than dyed green carnations!) Long after you’ve spent your pot of gold or finished the last of the soda bread, you can enjoy a truly greener life, inspired by the Emerald Isle… 

Grab your Guiness and read on. Sláinte!

Irish Eyebright 

You can be singing “Irish Eyes are Smiling” while enjoying this Euphrasia salisburgensis. They all have pretty two-lipped flowers which have purple stripes and a yellow spot in the throat.

Gorse

Sometimes referred to as Furze or Whin, the Ulex europaeus or the Irish version of Aiteann gallda, they mainly grow in hedgerows and line the country roads. The sunny yellow pea flowers bloom all year, but are most in abundance between February and May. 

Early Dog Violet

This pretty purple plant is one of my favorites. It looks most like the Garden State / New Jersey official flower ~ the common meadow violet, Viola sororia, 

the Early Dog-Violet is a native Irish perennial throughout the island. They note that another attractive feature of this violet is the heart shaped leaves, which are as wide as they are long. They flower early in the year, from March to June and thrive in areas such as woods, shady habitats.” 

Primrose

This is another of my favorites and use with frequency in my own garden as well as my clients. Primrose is such a dainty, happy bloom. But I learned so much from Celtic Titles blog that I have fallen in love all over again and gained a new sense of awe for this small but mighty flower. “Despite sometimes being known as the English Primrose, the primrose is in fact also native to the Emerald Isle, and even has its own Irish name, ‘sabhaircín‘ (pronounced  sour-keen). The eye-catching flower and its supporting plant are in fact edible and supposedly taste like lettuce!

The pretty yellow Irish flowers appear in shady banks, damp woods and along the roadside between the months of March and May.

And did you know that they were considered sacred by the Celtic ancestors? There is also a long history of primroses being used by those in Ireland who brewed their own cures and concoctions in days gone by. Some of the ailments they are believed to have been able to treat include headaches and toothaches, jaundice and burns.”  Love it! 

Sea Aster

I love my hard-working fall-blooming asters. I usually use the New York Aster because its purple petals work so well with the sedum and orchid-looking Toad Lily, Tricyrtis hirta. The Irish Sea Aster is abundant along the island’s coastal salt marshes and estuaries. The Tripolium pannonicum flowers between June and September and provide great nourishment for butterflies. 

Marsh Cinquefoil

The Comarum palustre’s distinctive star-shaped maroon-red flowers which appear between the months of May and June, in or near the bogs, lakes, and marshlands, providing nectar for butterflies and other pollinators.

Sheep’-Bit

Alternatively, the Sheep’s-bit, Jasione montana, is a pretty flowering plant which is most commonly found around the heaths, clifftops and areas of dry grassland in Ireland, according to Celtic Titles. “It grows in abundance from May to September, and can often appear to carpet huge areas of the ground. You can recognise Sheep’s-bit by its distinctive fluffy headed blue flowers which extend up above the wavy edged hairy leaves which sit at the base of the short stems. Interestingly, Sheep’s-bit is highly visible under ultraviolet (UV) light, making it attractive to pollinating insects which can see a different spectrum of light than our eyes can. It is also a common feature to many gardens, often adorning rockeries.”

Wild Clary

This pretty violet flowered plant, Salvia verbenaca or tormán in Irish “is a rare native subspecies which flowers mainly in dry grasslands around the counties of Cork and Wexford.” 

There seems to be a lot of violet colored flowers in the Emerald Isle, no?  The Wild Clary’s deep violet-blue blooms are complemented beautifully by their curled, sage-like leaves. They typically bloom from May to August. 

There are many other native Irish flowers from which to choose from including, Broom…

You can grow your own Irish flowers or order from your local florist to enjoy a wee bit of the Emerald Isle in your gardens in every season.