Anne O’Neil

Anne O’Neil's love of gardening began at the age of three, when she tended her own "secret garden," behind the wall of her mother's garden in Carlow, Ireland. There she first grew English primroses and violas, and her mother wisely allowed the lupines and snowball viburnums surrounding the area to be "shared plants." In pursuit of her passion, rooted in this first young experience with plants, she later earned a bachelor's degree in commerce with a concentration in horticulture from University College Dublin. Anne strongly believes that public gardens are a necessary resource for people because they fulfill a human need on so many levels, including cultural, aesthetic, scientific, emotional, and spiritual ones.