Plants in Dublin: an orchid, a cactus or a glass florarium for an indoor year
Bord Bia Bloom, Ireland's largest garden festival, fills Phoenix Park every June bank holiday weekend. Plants in Dublin live a different life: they spend the whole year indoors, so they are chosen for a sill, a kitchen counter or a desk, and for whoever will be doing the watering.
A moth orchid that comes in its own pot, box or with roses
Flowering Plants is built around the moth orchid, known botanically as phalaenopsis, and it turns up in several forms. It comes potted in a cachepot on its own, boxed as a gift such as 7 Orchids in a Box, set beside a handful of roses, or paired with something sweet. Whoever wants to send a potted orchid in Dublin can pick the form that suits the address rather than the flower itself, since the plant inside stays the same.
A phalaenopsis in bloom keeps its flower spike open for two to three months. The cachepot is only a sleeve. Underneath it sits a clear plastic pot, which stays in place once the gift arrives. Through it, silvery-white roots and the bark substrate show how damp or dry the plant is.
St James's Hospital does not allow live flowers or plants on its wards, and no pot gets around that rule. More on that, and on the Irish dates to keep in mind, is covered by hospital rules and Irish dates.
Eleven degrees on a July night: an orchid that never goes outside
The RHS sets out what a phalaenopsis wants: daytime temperatures of 19 to 30 degrees and nights no cooler than 16 to 19. Dublin cannot offer that outdoors in any month. A July day in the city averages around 19.5 degrees, but the night drops to about 11, below the orchid's night minimum even at the height of summer. January days average around 8 degrees, and the city gets roughly 35 days of frost a year.
That gap is one reason a phalaenopsis in Dublin rarely moves outdoors, even onto a balcony on a warm afternoon; the sill stays the only outdoor-facing spot it gets. Central heating adds its own problem in winter, drying the air around the leaves and the bark. Watering about once a week, less often in the colder months, keeps the roots damp without drowning them, and any water left standing in the saucer afterwards should be tipped away.
A cactus or a florarium for a desk at Grand Canal Dock
Grand Canal Dock, Dublin's so-called Silicon Docks, holds the European headquarters of Google, Meta, LinkedIn and Airbnb, and a gift sent there usually finds the recipient at a desk rather than at home. That setting favours something that can sit through a working week unattended, which is where Cactus Plants and the florariums selection come in.
A florarium left open at the top suits a cactus or a succulent rather than a fern. Open glass lets air move and the compost dry between waterings, done with a spray bottle rather than a jug. A succulent such as the stone rose sold under that name, or the one set inside the Cube Florarium with Stone Rose Succulent, can be up to nine-tenths water by weight. That is one reason it suits a desk nobody tends closely. Anyone who wants to buy a succulent florarium in Dublin for an office is really choosing the glass shape and leaving the plant to look after itself.
Potted plants for an office in Dublin go through the same door as any other courier parcel, so the order needs the company name and the floor, not a home address. For prickles rather than glass, the cacti selection covers the same desk on its own, without the glass container.
Plant delivery in Dublin is free within the centre and priced by zone further out; the details sit on the zones and delivery terms page. The florist photographs the plant before the courier leaves, and most orders go out the same day they are placed. A first look at plants in Dublin is easiest by room: flowering plants for a sill or a kitchen, and potted plants by type for everything else worth comparing side by side.