Seamus O’Brien has traveled extensively across the world to study plants in their native habitats. He manages the National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh, in County Wicklow, an eighteenth-century estate famed for its historic collection of rare and exotic plants. He is a Ccorresponding member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Woody Plant Committee and contributes to several publications including Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, the Irish Garden, Garden Heaven, the International Dendrology Society year book and the newsletter of the Irish Garden Plant Society. He was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland’s Gold Medal of Honour in 2018.