Focus on Business: Blume Design House

Tucked away behind the hills which look down on Parke's Castle and Lough Gill is a pretty trout fishing lake called Doon Lough. Nestled on its idyllic shores is the home of Leitrim's very own Bloom Gold Medal winner, Leonie Cornelius. Leonie will be familiar to TV viewers as the winner of RTE's Super Garden series. Her design entitled "Cookie and Cream's Reclaimed Sanctuary" (right) was also adjudged Best in Category (Medium Garden) at Bloom 2012.

So just who is this green-fingered genius living amongst us? Well, Leonie Cornelius was born in Monchen-gladbach in Northern Germany. When she was 8 years old her parents, Wilhelm Bodewigs and Gilla Cornelius, decided to move their family to Ireland. Leonie grew up on the shores of Doon Lough and attended Sligo I.T., where she earned a higher degree in Interior Architectural Design. A move to Bray in County Wicklow followed, where Leonie worked on some small interior projects. The birth of her son Armando, now 5 years old, caused her to re-think her career plans and she returned home to Leitrim 4 years ago. She now lives and works in a cottage just along the lakeside avenue from her parents' home.

Leonie celebrates her win at Bloom 2012

It was Leonie's mother Gilla, a psychotherapist with the Sligo Rape Crisis Centre, who spotted the prospectus for the distance-learning garden design course which would be pivotal in determining her daughter's career path.  When Leonie graduated in December 2011 she applied to be interviewed for a TV gardening show in London. The producers there suggested she apply to RTE's Super Garden programme. Leonie duly applied, was interviewed and selected and the rest, as they say, is history. Work on the programme began in April of this year, with Leonie being set the task of designing a garden for the Flynn family of Tonaphubble, Sligo. Five gruelling weeks later, the garden was complete, and at an adjudication ceremony in Russborough House, Co. Wicklow, Leonie was crowned Super Garden Champion for 2012.

There was no time to rest on her laurels however, and almost before the bubbles had popped in the celebratory champagne it was off to the Phoenix Park to recreate the garden for the prestigious Bloom 2012 show. Once again Leonie's design caught the eye of the judges, and she was awarded a Gold medal and also scooped the Best in Category award.

So, what was it that made Leonie's design so attractive and popular?  Her philosophy is to have "Nature and Architecture working in perfect harmony" and draws on "natural prairie planting styles as well as clear architectural lines and symmetries" to create ethically sustainable designs which work well both inside and out. She works closely with her clients, preferring not to impose her ideas, as in the case of her award winning design for which the brief was a "party garden and family hangout space". She cites her inspirations as many and varied, but mentions the work of Piet Oudolf (oudolf.com) and Tadao Audo. She is also influenced by her father Wilhelm, who is an expert in ecologically sound building methods.

The past six months have been hectic for Leonie, who freely admits that she was thrown in at the deep end with the Super Garden project and found the experience at times terrifying, at others shattering, but ultimately rewarding. Nonetheless she has not taken a rest since Bloom ended. She continues to work as usual from her small office in Sligo, and from home in Doon Lough, juggling a busy career with the demands of motherhood. She plans to enter a garden for Bloom 2013, but as yet has no plans for Chelsea for the next year or two, preferring to do things "slowly and properly". Leonie is a perfectionist you see, and it shows.

Leonie's Blume Design House has been inundated with offers of work as a result of the exposure the Super Garden and Bloom wins have brought, and her design diary is booked solid for the next three months. Even so, she is in talks with the trustees of the Alfred Beit Foundation, having been approached to "do something" within the gardens of Russborough House. After this, she says, she will take a holiday. I suspect she will need it!

Blume Design House, The Stables, Doonlough, Fivemilebourne, Co. Leitrim.

Tel: 087-7552159     Email: info@blume.ie     Website: www.blume.ie

For anyone who cares to leave a comment about this article - Leonie Cornelius has very generously agreed to sponsor a prize of one hour of free garden design consultation for what is deemed (by the Editor) to be the best comment.