GLAS Special: An insight into Bord Bia’s services for the Horticulture Industry
Print17 July 2025
Bord Bia has been active in supporting the amenity horticulture sector through various programmes such as consumer & trade promotion, business development, market research, and quality initiatives.
Here’s a report on key activities from the past year and an overview of services available to the industry.
Garden Market Report
Ipsos B&A has tracked consumer activity and spending in the gardening market since 2001.
The survey aims to provide Bord Bia with a tool to measure and track consumer spend, purchase channels, and purchase motivations.
The biennial study was conducted in 2020 during the onset of COVID-19 and repeated in 2021 to monitor the pandemic’s impact. It recorded exceptional growth in the gardening market, surpassing the previous highs of the Celtic Tiger years.
The 2023 study revealed that habits returned to pre-Covid times, stabilising with an overall value of €966 million, down 35% from the €1.5 billion peak in 2021. Despite high inflation in 2023, the market has grown 21% since 2018, indicating that Bord Bia’s focus on outdoor spaces during Covid has left a lasting impact on attitudes towards gardening.
All categories showed increased spending compared to 2018, with the most notable increase seen in landscaping services, which gained popularity since Covid.
In the outdoor and flowering plants category, significant long-term growth was evident for bulbs, flower seeds, herbs, fruits, and vegetables.
Indoor potted plants, although spending had decreased from the peak levels during Covid, have maintained strong demand, with a 17% increase in spending since 2018.
There was a notable change in purchasing motivations, with 30% opting to buy for special occasions, gifts, or other purposes rather than solely for home use. This shift aligns with the evolving spending patterns within the past decade, moving away from being primarily favoured by older females to now appealing to a diverse demographic range.
The 2025 study will take place across 2025 and 2026, with results available mid-year of 2026
Bord Bia was Bloomin’
Bord Bia Bloom attracted more than 100,000 visitors to Dublin’s Phoenix Park throughout the June Bank Holiday weekend. Event organisers reported that business was thriving, and spirits were high all weekend long in part due to the sunshine, which made a welcome appearance and remained constant throughout.
‘The Plant Lover’s Garden’ by Patricia Tyrrell
Visitors were spending their money at Bloom and many exhibitors reported strong sales and a need to restock throughout the weekend.
At the Plant Emporium, sales of plants from Irish Nurseries were substantially up on the previous year.
Jim O’Toole, chief executive, Bord Bia, said: “Bloom 2025 has been a fantastic success — we welcomed wonderful crowds over the five days, enjoyed mostly favourable weather, and the atmosphere throughout the show has been incredibly positive. As we wrap up this year’s event, excitement is already building for a very special milestone: Bord Bia Bloom’s 20th anniversary in 2026.”
‘Horticulture is Life’
The Horticulture is Life Feature was brought to Bloom in a collaboration between Bord Bia, The Department of Agriculture, Food & Marine and Teagasc and was an inspiring, informative, and educational feature in the Food Village at Bloom.
Horticulture is Life
The interactive feature demonstrated how each of the agencies work to support the Irish Horticulture Industry and growers to deliver top quality local, sustainable produce and plants.
Each agency had a dedicated area, with staff on hand to highlight their work and answer questions, while a shared wall panel will house three interactive screens inviting visitors to participate in an interactive Q&A and Quiz. The lower panel contained a fun, interactive game where children could find out more about fruit and veg, plants, soil and plant pests and diseases.
Horticulture is Life Seminar
On Thursday and Friday circa 300 primary school children were hosted throughout the day via the Agri Aware schools’ programme, while over the five days the Horticulture is Life stage hosted a wide variety of cooking demos and talks across all aspects of horticulture, including exciting and engaging Grower Talks, hosted by Home Grown presenters Kitty Scully and Colm O’Driscoll.
Sustainable Gardens
In keeping with previous years, and the focus on sustainability and waste reduction at Bord Bia Bloom, many elements of the show and feature gardens will be relocated after the event.
The final day of the festival also marked the announcement of two awards, including:
- The People’s Choice Award, whereby visitors to the show vote for their favourite show garden, was awarded to Tulsa’s ‘Fostering is for You’ garden designed by Pip Probert. This vibrant garden is a heartfelt tribute to the fostering community and celebrates the intertwining lives of children from various backgrounds, foster carers, their families, and dedicated staff.
- The Bloom 2025 garden designers select the Designer’s Choice Award, and this year the accolade was presented to Louise Checa who designed the gold medal winning ‘Citroën Downsizers’ Garden’. The garden highlights how our garden needs evolve in tune with our lifestyles and life stages. Earlier in the week, the show garden judges presented Louise with the ‘Special Award for Planting’.
Jim O’Toole of Bord Bia presents designer Pip Probert with a Silver medal for the Fostering Is For You Garden
Consumers exhibited a strong willingness to spend at Bloom, with many exhibitors reporting robust sales.
Carlingford Oyster Company, participating for the first time, was particularly impressed: “For producers, Bord Bia Bloom represents an excellent opportunity to engage directly with consumers. That brief personal interaction creates a lasting impression, ensuring our brand is remembered” said Kian Louet-Feisser, Managing Director. “The Food Hall has been exceptionally busy; it has been a highly positive experience.”
Dates for 2026
Bord Bia has confirmed that Bloom 2026 will take place from Thursday, 28 May to Monday 1 June next year.
Bloom 2025 in numbers
Some facts and figures from the five-day festival:
- This year’s show featured 21 show and feature gardens, 11 postcard gardens, 17 nursery displays, and more than 100 food and drink producers
- The prestigious judging panel consisted of 13 Irish and international horticultural experts, and awards were handed out to show garden designers, amateur postcard garden designers, plant nurseries and floral artists
- 100+ Irish food and drink producers
- 4 indoor restaurants and 3 outdoor catering areas
- 5 live stages with hundreds of talks, demos, workshops, and entertainment
- An exciting line-up of talent from the worlds of gardening, food, sustainability, music, and children’s entertainment, including headline TV stars, Diarmuid Gavin, Adam Frost, Donal Skehan, Neven Maguire, Darina Allen, and more…
- 5,000 plants potted were by children and 900 sunflower seeds given to children attending
- More than 1,800 people worked onsite each of the five days, including 100 Bord Bia staff volunteers and 130 volunteers
- It took 14 days to clear the Bord Bia Bloom site
Adam Frost, garden designer and horticulturist
Easy Steps to Dream Gardens at Bord Bia Bloom 2025
Once again, Bord Bia brought one of the Dream Gardens to life at Bord Bia Bloom, The Plant Lover’s Garden by Patricia Tyrrell to help the public get a sense of how the garden design translates from the page to reality and encourage them to have a go at creating their own dream garden at home.
The Plant Lover’s Garden, by award winning designer Patricia Tyrrell, took a prominent position in the Show Garden Area and while this brought The Plant Lover’s Garden into focus in the public arena at the show it also brought renewed attention to the other six gardens in the Dream Gardens suite on the Bord Bia Bloom website.
A full Social Media campaign, alongside a PR campaign was undertaken in advance of and during Bloom, and will continue over the summer months, driving the public to improve and enhance their outdoor space.
A total of 103 Garden Centres around the country were supplied with all the materials related to the garden, including the plant list, and utilised the specially commissioned Point of Sale materials in store, and the social media assets on their own social media channels, which amplified Bord Bia’s campaigns and drove footfall to their garden centres.
The Plant Lover’s Garden by Patricia Tyrrell, B.Agr.Sc. Landscape Horticulture (Hons), UCD and Master, Landscape Architecture (UCD), features an abundant display of flowers and will suit any location that enjoys good sunshine.
The design of this garden is quite natural, inspired by meadows with lots of flowers and grasses, with the planting brought quite close to the house to create a sense of enclosure. The hard landscaping in this scheme has been kept simple, allowing the plants to be the main attraction.
The patio closest to the house includes a built-in bench – ‘the ideal spot for morning coffee’ – while the centre of the garden features space for a table and chairs alongside a second built-in bench and barbecue.
The Plant Lover’s Garden by Patricia Tyrrell
Home Grown Series 3
Home Grown the TV series for RTE, was broadcast in spring and comprised seven half-hour programmes in which the presenters Kitty Scully and Colm O’Driscoll met some of Ireland’s leading horticultural producers, and which celebrates Ireland’s horticultural sector.
The presenters explored the full range of horticultural sites visiting both large- and small-scale growers, inspirational gardens, service providers across the supply chain and other items of horticultural interest. Home Grown series three achieved excellent viewing figures of circa 1.8 million viewers while each series has been repeated on RTE three times since their original broadcast.
Consumer and Industry feedback from surveys carried out following Series One and Two was extremely positive. Evaluations for Series three will be completed in the coming weeks, but feedback received by Bord Bia from the industry on the current series is hugely positive, both from an industry profile perspective and their understanding of Bord Bia’s commitment to raise the profile of the horticulture industry.
To date over the series one, two and three of Home Grown, a total of 92 horticultural enterprises were visited across 21 episodes, showcasing the broad range of disciplines, from fresh produce growers, ornamental growers, large and small enterprises, golf courses to large estate gardens and smaller specialist gardens, with over 5.5 million viewers tuning in to watch the series.
Catch up on all three series on the RTE Player if you missed it.
Colm O’Driscoll and Kitty Scully
We are here to help
Contact Carol Marks or Michal Slawski (Export Development) via email on: Carol.marks@bordbia.ie or Michal.slawski@bordbia.ie. For access to reports and studies contact our Library and Information on: info@bordbia.ie
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