Travelling in Laois and Tipperary last weekend it was like winter still, with the chestnuts just opening in sheltered places but very little else budding on trees and shrubs.

That might also be because there wasn't much of them left after the Council hedgecutting had brutalised half the hedgerows in both counties.

Most of these machines are just too big to do this sensitive work, which is done by hand in Jersey, where they take their natural environment seriously.

On the bright side, and there's always a bright side if you look for it, that means there should be lots more lovely spring things still in their prime at this year's Rare and Special Plant Fair, the annual moveable feast which is settling in the Donkey Field at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park on Sunday 7 May. It promises to be a good one, with dozens of interesting nurseries showing. Admission is free, as are all events at state-owned Farmleigh.

Running concurrently will be an exhibition of botanical and floral art in the beautiful new gallery space and the ever-popular food market will be in the yard on the day.

And while there will be some magnolias in flower along the Magnolia Walk, recently plumped up by the addition of new specimens, now is the time to see Farmleigh's magnificent pair of Magnolia kobus in the walled garden, which are coming to the end of their spectacular, sweet-smelling flowering, their blooms resembling those of M stellata, only bigger.

Demise of the Hanging Basket Forgive me if it offends anybody, but I've never quite seen the point of hanging baskets, though an exception could be made for those people with no other conceivable space in which to grow anything outdoors, not even a windowsill.

In that case, hanging baskets could be used to grow smaller bulbs, kitchen herbs, leafy salad things and to trail strawberries and the smaller, sweeter types of tomato, which are very easygoing and prolific. Outside bedroom windows, they could be planted with a cascade of hops, which help you sleep well.

Along with everybody else I stand in awe of those clever people who can plant hanging baskets so well that they appear as seamless globes of flowers and foliage. But even the most skilfully contrived hanging baskets remind me of something on a gallows. Perhaps it's their aloneness and the way their cumbersome load of imprisoned plants swings and dangles high above, many of them actually dead because nobody was bothering to water them properly.

And now, despite being championed by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at this summer's forthcoming Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (4-9 July), which will feature a show garden by the capable, award-winning Dundalk designer, Paul Martin, I can report that it looks like the hanging basket has had its heyday and is now in decline.

This is the prognosis ever since many local authorities in England decided to ditch them as ubiquitous street decoration, for ?being too problematic to water properly" in a time of impending drought.

And in case you missed all this impending drought stuff, it has been a top story for months in England and hosepipe bans are already operating in some of their warmer counties.

To book tickets for the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, call the ticket hotline on 0870 906 3791 (public line) or 0870 906 3790 (RHS Members). For tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show (23-27 May) ring 0044-870 906 3781 (public); 0044-870 906 3780 (RHS members) or go to: www. rhs. org. uk/flowershows

DIARY 1
May-14 August: Wicklow Gardens Festival 2006 will be launched at Killruddery House & Gardens near Bray tomorrow afternoon by Dick Roche, our current Minister for the Environment, at a reception hosted by the owners, the Meaths.

Now in its 18th year, the Wicklow festival is a worldfamous feast of gardens great and small, some open to the public and others usually private but open for charity at specific times during the season.

To get the best out of this great event in the Garden of Ireland, it's best to equip yourself with a free guide, which you can get from Wicklow Tourism, so that you can plan your campaign of garden visiting and attendance at some of the special satellite events, such as orienteering at sweet Avondale and gardening courses at Hunting Brook. For a copy, phone 0404-20070 or download it from the website: