There is something special about Connemara in the Winter when the light is low. For this reason, I knew it had to be the setting for our Christmas Collection photoshoot. 

Connemara is where I'm from, and has always inspired my work: even in the depths of winter, the landscape, boreens, roadside verges and hedges are full of wild and organic beauty. For the shoot location, we chose 'Within The Village' where I had designed the landscape garden last year. 

I worked with photographer Doreen Kilfeather, a long-time collaborator and friend of The Garden. We had a lovely mid-October day, the light was beautiful well into the evening, and we ventured out into the village of Roundstone too.

One of the main features of our Christmas shoot is always our Winter Wreaths. A firm favourite is The Pink Pepper Berry Wreath, full of colourful berries like Malus and Hypericumm. The hues and accents from pink Hydrangea, red ilex and dried fruits add surprising colour and texture, creating a modern take on the traditional Christmas wreath, while also including classic foliage like noble Fir, Conifer, Pine and Eucalyptus. 

We were in the perfect place to shoot our Connemara Wreath, which is inspired by this very part of the world. It includes recognisable foliage and stems you'd see dotted across the landscape: Irish birch branches, dried bracken, orange Ilex berries, rose hips, heather, eucalyptus and Fir. The Irish Grown Foliage Wreath and The Traditional Christmas Wreath looked the part too, hanging against the beautifully crafted wooden doors.

When it comes to Winter Arrangements, I'm less inclined to go for really pretty things so my bouquets tend to be more masculine, using foliage with bracken, Birch twigs and berries. This winter, it’s a little old-school but I’m really liking using Hypericum berries with Leylandii, keeping it all quite simple. I also like Armyliis bulbs in flower at Christmas, I used them here very simply with Rosehips (see below).