A new leaf turns at Chapters bookshop as 14,000sq ft urban garden centre opens on Parnell Street

Another chapter in the story of one of the most acclaimed garden centres in Ireland begins this week, with the Arboretum turning a new leaf and opening an outlet in one of Dublin’s most beloved bookshops.

The Carlow-based plant business has joined forces with Chapters, and an expansive shop is to start trading on the first floor of the Parnell Street store from Monday.

The owners hope the union of books and plants proves a match made in heaven and are confident they will be able to entice many urban dwellers through the doors with the promise of food and coffee as well as a wide array of indoor plants, furniture and all manner of accoutrements for a city centre apartment balcony.

Arboretum Urban Green stretches across more than 14,000sq ft on the first floor of Chapters, which reopened last year under new owners after closing briefly to great public dismay. It will also offer an all-day dining menu at its 60-seater cafe.

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It is the third shop opened by the family-owned and operated business, founded in 1977 by horticulturist Rachel Doyle in Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow after she went back to college to study plants at the ripe old age of 22 – “a time when most of my friends were getting married,” she said.

If Doyle was a pioneering horticulturist, her Arboretum Home & Garden Heaven – opened after a period of selling plants from her home – was a pioneering destination garden centre. It spans an impressive 10-acre site in Carlow and was followed by the opening of Arboretum Kilquade in Co Wicklow in 2015.

[ Green shoots after a fallow period at Arboretum ]

The Arboretum business is now led by Rachel’s sons, Barry and Fergal, who believe their newest venture will be an “inspirational oasis in a part of the city currently enjoying a regeneration programme”.

“We call this the revolutionary quarter and this shop is part of that,” said Fergal Doyle, the company’s chief commercial officer.

Products on sale include a wide range of unusual and distinctive indoor plants, trees, gardening tools, seeds, bulbs, treatments, garden furniture and outdoor living accessories.

A team of 15 – including two full-time horticulturists – will work at the city centre shop and promise to “impart knowledge, advice and top tips for budding gardening lovers”.

“We will be focusing on bringing a selection of products that will be suitable for urban dwellers and shoppers who most likely will have a smaller outdoor space,” chief executive Barry Doyle said. “We want to help our new customers to bring some calm into their home space [and] will actively encourage them to grow their own fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers using our seeds and bulbs for balcony and garden planters.”

Welcoming his new shop-mates to Dublin 1, Chapters chief executive Mick Finucane said the bookshop he helped to rescue from the pages of history was “about what is important in life and how to make living worthwhile and joyful”.

[ Chapters bookshop looks to move within city centre with gym plans for existing premises ]

He said he could be “flippant and joke about books, plants and cake, but what they all represent – looking after our minds and having nature present in our physical environment, stopping for a coffee to just sit and savour the moment – these are the small things that make life worthwhile”.