Win a Family Day Out to Bord Bia Bloom 2025: The Competition Includes Tickets, Lunch & Parking!
Win a Family Day Out to Bord Bia Bloom 2025
Win a Family Day Out to Bord Bia Bloom 2025: The Competition Includes Tickets, Lunch & Parking
- 29/05 - 02/06/2025
- Phoenix Park, Dublin
- bordbiabloom.com
Discover Ireland’s Premier Garden Festival
Bord Bia Bloom is back in Phoenix Park, Dublin, from May 29th to June 2nd, 2025, bringing with it a vibrant celebration of gardens, food, and family fun. Whether you’re a budding gardener, a foodie, or simply seeking a fantastic day out, this festival has something for everyone!
Why You Cannot Miss Bord Bia Bloom 2025 – what are this year’s most exciting garden themes?
Once again nature and the environment play a starring role in Bord Bia Bloom, with 21 magnificent Show Gardens paying tribute to Mother Nature. All gardens include measures to enhance biodiversity, featuring pollinator-friendly planting, wildlife habitats, and designs with a focus on sustainability.
The circular economy
This year Bloom is welcoming two informative gardens which will promote the circular economy and challenge perspectives on waste.
The European Commission’s ‘Renewed Blooms’ Garden, designed by Bloom newcomer, David Negus, embodies EU circular economy principles by repurposing materials and blending nature with human-made elements. Featuring a discarded railway track and facade tiles made from recycled PVC windows, the garden will showcase how waste materials can be transformed into functional, durable, and striking design features. DIY workshops will be held adjacent to the garden with the Rediscovery Centre, Ireland’s National Centre for the Circular Economy.
The Repak Most Sorted Garden, designed by James Purdy, will show that waste is not an inevitability but a design flaw; one that can be solved through thoughtful recycling and regeneration. Every element in the garden will exist within a closed-loop system where materials are repurposed, resources are regenerated, and nothing goes to waste. The garden will be a hub of activity over the five days of Bord Bia Bloom, hosting talks, discussions, and workshops that engage visitors in the future of recycling.
Gardens for children
There are several gardens that will provide safe, nurturing, and engaging spaces for children this year, including the Fostering Is For You – large show garden, which is designed by another new Bloom designer, Pip Probert, and sponsored by Tusla Fostering.
This vibrant garden is a heartfelt tribute to the fostering community, symbolising unity, diversity, and connection. The design, inspired by the Tusla logo, features colourful planting to reflect Tusla’s welcoming ethos. A central space with built-in benches and lively bean bags will foster togetherness and evoke family celebration with picnic-style charm under bunting-laden pergolas. Towards the back lies the “Safe Haven”, offering interactive play and cosy nooks where children can bond and grow.
The Make-A-Wish Garden of Hope, designed by Linda McKeown and sponsored by Make-A-Wish Ireland in association with The Smurfit Westrock Foundation is a modern, naturalistic, and accessible space that will capture the magic and wonder Make-A-Wish brings to children across Ireland. Vibrant colours, soothing scents, and diverse textures will create an atmosphere of tranquillity and possibility. Lush planting and carefully selected materials will weave together to form a welcoming retreat.
How to Train Your Dragon Garden, designed by Tünde Perry and Barry Kavanagh and sponsored by Universal Pictures Ireland, is another garden that will captivate junior visitors. Featuring a sculpture of the dragon Toothless, it celebrates the release of the live-action reimagining of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ which opens in Irish cinemas on June 9th. It incorporates a flavour of the beautiful natural landscapes and planting of Northern Ireland, where the movie was filmed.
And in something very different for Bloom, look out for The Rainbow Brick Balcony Garden. It is designed by Limerick artist, Gary Kirwan, as a tribute to LEGO, the iconic brick loved by millions of children and adults around the world. Constructed entirely from bricks, it replicates the beauty of nature with flowers such as fairy foxglove, aster, Welsh poppy, and sunflowers. Unlike a living garden, these flowers will stay in bloom through every season, giving year-round enjoyment and endless opportunities to be creative and have fun!
Ideas and inspiration: Elsewhere, visitors can pick up a wealth of ideas for creating their own show gardens at home. The Citroën Downsizers’ Garden, designed by Louise Checa and sponsored by Citroën Ireland, provides inspiration for those moving to a smaller space; The Pot Gallery Garden, designed by Alan Rudden and sponsored by the Alan Rudden Collection, demonstrates how freestanding and vertical pots can green spaces such as terraces, roofs or balconies; and The Plant Lover’s Garden – Easy Steps to Dream Gardens, designed by Patricia Tyrrell and sponsored by Bord Bia, demonstrates how to incorporate an abundance of naturalistic planting to give year-round interest.
A full list of Bord Bia Bloom’s 2025 Show Gardens will publish on bordbiabloom.com shortly.
See 2024 Show Gardens selection below (source: bordbiabloom.com)
Leading the Way in Sustainability
Bord Bia Bloom is aiming to be the most sustainably operated large-scale event in Ireland and as such, and is deeply committed to improving the sustainability of the festival each year. It is achieved by reducing the impact on the environment, empowering visitors to make more sustainable choices when visiting the festival and providing advice on how to live more sustainably at home.
To learn about how you can play your part in safeguarding the environment, head to the Conservation Area. This important feature within Bord Bia Bloom provides an empowering space where you can meet with leading conservationists and environmentalists and learn how we can all take action to improve the world around us.
Within the Conservation Area, you will also find the Sustainable Living Stage, sponsored by Certa (official supplier of HVO to Bord Bia Bloom). This interactive stage is hugely popular with visitors and provides a platform where experts in sustainability gather to share ideas on how we can care for the environment. This year journalists Jo Linehan, Caroline Hennessy, Aoife Carrigy and Suzanne Campbell will host a series of talks and panel discussions. Topics to be explored include sustainable fashion and personal care, sustainable food choices, and practical tips for sustainable living. The full schedule can be viewed here.
At the Garden Stage, sponsored by Zarbee’s, you can hear experts in garden design and horticulture discuss how to nourish the planet, starting with your garden. Among the star-studded line-up this year are designers and TV presenters Diarmuid Gavin and Adam Frost, plus show garden designer Leonie Cornelius and more. Find the schedule here.
In the Food Village, you can meet with over 100 artisan food and drink producers, all of whom are members of Bord Bia’s pioneering Origin Green sustainability programme, the only national programme of its kind in the world. In the Food Hall you can learn about and purchase food and drink that has been produced in harmony with nature while on the Dunnes Stores Quality Kitchen Stage you can watch some of Ireland’s top chefs and culinary stars in action and get plenty of ideas for cooking within season and eliminating food waste at home. Among those taking to the stage are television presenter and food writer, Donal Skehan; Ballymaloe Cookery School Founder, Darina Allen; MacNean House & Restaurant’s Neven Maguire; plus rising star, chef Aishling Moore of Goldie Restaurant in Cork. View the stage schedule here.
And of course, don’t forget to visit the flagship Show Gardens which will demonstrate how to nurture wildlife, encourage biodiversity, and protect the environment within your own pocket of earth – whether that’s in a large garden or a small balcony space. It’s also worth stopping by the Postcard Gardens, supported by Tirlán Country Life, which are brought to Bloom by community groups, schools, and training groups across Ireland. These showcase our heritage landscape and shine a spotlight on important environmental matters.
Visit bordbiabloom.com to learn more about the sustainable educational features at Bloom this year, how to visit the festival sustainably, and what steps the Bloom team are taking to improve the sustainability of the festival.
A Bloom Experience for the Whole Family
There is so much fun for all the family at Bord Bia Bloom. Younger visitors will love the Budding Bloomers Children’s Area, where there is a fun new arts and crafts corner, plus a busy programme of educational, interactive workshops and activities. This year’s line-up includes Scientific Sue’s Bubbling Botanicals, Paddy Courtney’s Planting Patch, The Cool Food School, Westcountry Willows weaving, Story Time with Dublin City Library, and Healthy Heroes. Look out also for Agri Aware’s popular farm feature, which demonstrates how to milk cattle, shear sheep and more, and Westland Horticulture’s Potting Shed beside the Cultivating Talent Show Garden, Into The Forest.
Along with our regular mix of glorious gardens and gardening features, we are excited to introduce an informative new Botanical Hub. Here the Association of Irish Floral Artists (AOIFA), the Institute of Flowers, the Irish Orchid Society, and plant experts from our Nursery Village will host live demonstrations and hands-on workshops on a range of topics, from how to make a floral crown to caring for houseplants.
The Seafood Kitchen is new to Bord Bia Bloom this year, adding another exciting demonstration space to the culinary programme. Here chef Trisha Lewis will serve up some deliciously, nutritious ideas for cooking with fish and shellfish, demonstrating how seafood is not only one of nature’s healthiest foods – it is also surprisingly simple to prepare.
And finally, don’t miss ‘A Taste of Bloom, curated by Neven’, a special new dining experience in collaboration with chef Neven Maguire. Relax in the stylish surrounds of the Garden View Restaurant overlooking the Show Gardens and enjoy a sumptuous three-course meal, choosing from a menu that has been thoughtfully designed by Neven to showcase some of the very best ingredients from quality Irish producers. Much of the produce selected will be on display in the Food Village at Bloom this year, providing you with an opportunity to meet the producers after your meal and purchase ingredients to enjoy at home. With limited availability, it is advised to book in advance. Learn more here.
A Launchpad for Garden Design Careers
As the centrepiece of Bord Bia Bloom, the show gardens provide a space for leading garden designers, landscape architects, horticulturalists, and plantspeople to create spectacular gardens that entertain and inspire the tens of thousands of visitors that attend the festival each day and the many more who follow Bloom on television and online. The gardens are an important showcase of industry talent and many designers who have participated in Bloom have found the experience hugely beneficial to their careers.
Alan Rudden, who has won eight gold medals at Bord Bia Bloom, and who is designing and sponsoring The Pot Gallery Garden at this year’s festival, explains the benefit of designing a show garden: “There is no doubt about it, people associate a certain level of quality with Bord Bia Bloom and it adds another string to your bow when building your business profile. You get back what you put into anything. A show garden comes with a lot of hard work, but for me it is the foundation from which I have built everything. The images lend themselves so well to social media platforms such as Instagram and have really helped build our brand. Bloom should be a definite draw for any aspiring designers.”
Supporting emerging designers
In a bid to support the next generation of garden designers and horticulture professionals, Bord Bia Bloom launched Cultivating Talent in 2022. This exciting initiative, which is sponsored by Westland Horticulture, provides financial support and one-to-one mentoring to an emerging designer, helping them to design and deliver their first show garden at the festival.
Joe Eustace, who won the inaugural Cultivating Talent competition in 2023 and who followed this success with a gold medal-winning garden at Bloom 2024, found the experience richly rewarding. “Winning Cultivating Talent was a great experience. I learned so much being on-site and seeing how the experts were approaching their gardens. It allowed me to learn about the importance of producing a set of drawings that can be read and applied to the site, and the key differences between designing a show garden versus a client garden, which is where the 1:1 mentorship was invaluable. Going from a regular spectator at Bloom to being involved has given me a huge boost as a designer.”
Joe will return to Bord Bia Bloom for a third successive year this June bank holiday weekend where he is designing The Support Garden for the Decision Support Service. Also featuring this year is Sarah Cotterill, winner of the 2025 Cultivating Talent initiative, who is designing Into The Forest, a small show garden which is inspired by the ancient oceanic woodlands of the west of Ireland.
The competition to find next year’s Cultivating Talent winner will launch in the autumn. If you are an emerging designer with an ambition to bring a garden to Bloom, then keep an eye on Board Bia social channels @BordBiaBloom for more details.
Show Off Your Garden & Win a Family Day at Bord Bia Bloom!
We’re running this competition on both Facebook and Instagram, and you’re welcome to enter on one or both platforms to increase your chances. Please note, however, that there is only one prize to be won.
We’re giving away a family ticket to Bord Bia Bloom 2025, which includes:
- Entry for 2 adults and 2 children
- Lunch vouchers for the Food Village
- Car parking passes
How to Enter on Facebook:
- Follow us on Facebook
- Like this post
- Share a photo in the comments that shows off your garden
- Tag a friend you’d love to bring to Bloom
How to Enter on Instagram:
- Follow us on Instagram
- Like this post
- Post a garden photo on your feed (make sure your profile is public) and tag it with #tridentandbloom2025
- Tag a friend who’d love to come along
Deadline: Monday, 12th May at 12 noon
Winner announced: Tuesday, 14th May
Get your camera ready – your garden could be your ticket to a fantastic day out at Bloom 2025!
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