Tragedy as beloved gardener dies one week after being crowned Bloom Garden Winner

Tragedy has struck only two days after the Bloom festivities, as beloved Kildare gardener John Dooley passed away on Wednesday.

John, from Castledermot, co. Kildare, had only last week won RTÉ’s Super Garden show, which had meant that his work was displayed at the Bord Bia Bloom festival in the Phoenix Park, where tens of thousands of people flocked to over the weekend.

Despite being an avid and experienced gardener, it wasn't until his wife Liz signed him up without him knowing that he got a chance to prove himself.

"I missed the first showing of Super Garden and got the repeat, so he was gone to the shop or somewhere and it was over", Liz recalled to RTÉ, speaking outside of their winning garden at Bord Bia Bloom last week.

"Shocked at first", John had told RTÉ of how he felt upon getting that call back. "I said to Liz I was glad she did it because if we had have spoken about it first I would have said 'no way, I wouldn't be able for it'. But when she put me in I was in shock first but then I said, 'we'll give it a go and see'.

"It was stressful in the lead up to it, but once we were two days into it we just totally enjoyed it. Had a ball."

(Pictured above - John Dooley's 'Super Garden', photographed at Bloom 2024)

Attendants of the Bord Bia Bloom festival had many positive words for John Dooley, as well as his garden. One Kildare attendant had described him as "the nicest man", while another said he was a "breath of fresh air" to meet.

Named 'Back to the Future', John's garden created a low-maintenance, sustainable, and bio diverse garden for Daija and her two daughters, Amanda and Amelia. John's design accommodated Daija's scoliosis and offered an easy-to-care-for space for the family to enjoy.

"I would have never had the courage to enter it and just can't believe how well we've done at it," he told RTÉ ahead of the weekend festivities.

John worked as a farm manager until his retirement, and he was also the Sacristan in The Church of the Assumption in Castledermot. Unsurprisingly, the flowers in the Church were always very artistically arranged.

John is sadly remembered by his loving wife Liz, brothers, sisters, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and a large circle of friends.