Free The Attack of the Killer Rhododendrons by Glen Chilton Page A

environmental legislation prevents that. Instead, the dead plants are woven intomassive fences that resist decay and act as a barrier to grazing deer and sheep.
    According to Barron, dried rhododendron wood burns really well. Since it is illegal to take rhododendron wood out of the park, cut wood piles up. Driving from one locale to another, we passed a fellow filling the back of his car with rhododendron logs. When Barron slowed down to have a good look, the fellow jumped into his car and sped off.
    As we wandered hills close to the highway, Barron pointed out the remains of abandoned “lazy beds,” where the scant earth had been pulled into hilly rows suitable for growing potatoes many years before. I spotted the bones of a largish mammal. “I hope it’s a sheep,” said Barron. It seems that removing rhododendrons is only half the battle in restoring oak forests. Deer and sheep might not eat rhododendrons, but they are perfectly willing to chow down on young oak seedlings.
    These bones were not from a sheep, but from a Sika deer, another introduced pest. According to its promotional material, Killarney National Park is home to Ireland’s only remaining wild herd of native red deer. The genetic integrity of red deer is threatened by hybridization with Sika deer. Barron explained that hybridization is less of a problem than generally claimed. The local population of red deer is genetically pure, and the Sika deer are the most genetically pure anywhere outside of Japan. The two do not hybridize in the park. They do so further to the east, and hybrid populations are moving toward the park, but that is a concern for future generations of conservation biologists.
    I WANTED TO CONTRAST the difficulties brought on by rhododendrons in the oak forests of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland with the beauty of ornamental rhododendrons growing peacefully where they were planted. In my last act of rapidly dying faith in my guidebook, I aimed for Annes Grove Historic Irish Gardens. These gardens were said to be awash in rhododendrons of every description, collected from all over the world. This sort of gardening seems tome a demonstration of belief in the acts that survive us; young rhododendrons are planted with loving care in the certainty that their best floral displays will come long after the gardener has died.
    Travelling east from Killarney, my first great trick was to navigate the narrow streets of Mallow. Not ever such a big town, Mallow certainly has big traffic problems. Delivery trucks are longer and wider than any street in town, where they clog any sensible vehicular progress. The road system was well signed to take me back to Killarney, but not so keen to show me how to move forward. I found no fewer than three signs willing to send me off in what I knew was the wrong direction. All three were the sort of temporary plastic sign that normally read “Real Art Sale This Saturday at the Airport Holiday Inn” or “Jim’s Landscaping: No Job Too Small!!!” At first I thought the misleading signs might have been printed and erected by someone with a poorly developed sense of humour. On my third trip down the main street, I concluded that they had been put up by the Town Council in the hopes that weary travellers would eventually need a restaurant or a hotel. Or a mortician.
    Halfway between the towns of Mallow and Fermoy (Mainstir Fhearmuighe), Annes Grove Historic Irish Gardens should have been easy to find. The gardens’ website indicated that once I got to Castletownroche, I was to turn left at Batterberry’s Pub and then follow the signs. I found Batterberry, but it was a grocery store, not a pub, and it wasn’t at an intersection. I also found a butcher shop offering a free turnip with every piece of bacon purchased. I spotted a pub called Dany’s, and since it was at an intersection, I turned left.
    The gardened estate has been in the family of Arthur Grove Annesley for more than two centuries. I was greeted at the