Cultivating Gardens: Practical gardening advice through the ages. Online exhibition

Description

Botanists rely on floras, and apothecaries on herbals for the critical task of plant identification. Gardeners need practical advice as well as descriptions of plants—such as on the best times to sow seeds and graft trees, on the latest varieties, on bulb storage, and on tools and techniques. The exhibition traces the development of practical English gardening books from the late 16th century to the Victorian era, and follows developments in 19th and 20th century New Zealand, where new manuals were written for local conditions.

Collection Items

Rose growing in New Zealand
James Young (1862-1934) was Curator of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens from 1908-1933, having trained in England and worked in Victoria, Australia. As an expert on roses—the Christchurch Botanic Gardens rosery was probably the largest in…

Manual of gardening in New Zealand
After Murphy's death, David Tannock, the Superintendent of Gardens and Reserves, Dunedin, took over his role. His first book, Manual of Gardening in New Zealand appeared in 1916. Appointed Curator at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens in 1903 following…

Fruit growing in New Zealand
Whitcombe and Tombs were New Zealand's leading publishers of household manuals, on both cooking and gardening. At the end of the 1st World War, they began a series of New Zealand Practical Handbooks. For amateur gardeners, the series provided advice…

Vegetable growing in New Zealand
Whitcombe and Tombs were New Zealand's leading publishers of household manuals, on both cooking and gardening. At the end of the 1st World War, they began a series of New Zealand Practical Handbooks. For amateur gardeners, the series provided advice…

Flora, seu, de florum cultura
ohn Rea (d. 1681) was a professional nurseryman and garden designer who wrote just one gardening book: Flora Ceres & Pomona (1665). His audience were ‘florists', the term then used for flower fanciers and collectors. Having found Parkinson's 1628…

Rapin of gardens
Translated by James Gardiner

An essay on the picturesque
Although Sir Uvedale Price (1747-1829) cannot be described as a writer of gardening manuals, his theoretical contributions to the debate over what constituted a ‘picturesque' landscape greatly influenced practising landscape gardeners. His Essays…

A treatise on forming, improving, and managing country residences
In 2 vols.

Rural scenery is so congenial to the human mind, that there are few persons who do not indulge the hope of retiring at some period into the country.' So begins John Claudius Loudon's A Treatise on Forming, Improving and Managing Country…

The gentleman's recreation
The 2d ed.

The Rev. John Laurence (1668-1732), was the first of sixteen clergymen to write important gardening books in the 18th century. His first work The Clergy-Man's Recreation (1714) aimed to preserve the health of clergy by encouraging them…

John Evelyn
John Evelyn was born in Wotton, Surrey, in 1620. He spent most of his early life in Lewes, Sussex. After being educated at Balliol College, Oxford, he spent several years travelling in Europe. Evelyn was a supporter of Charles I and after the King's…

The herball
John Gerard's reputation rests principally upon his Herball or generall historie of plants (1597). It was not original. It was based on the work of Rembert Dodoens and de L'Obel. It does however contain original gardening advice, based on Gerard's…

Kalendarium hortense
The de Beer collection contains three editions of John Evelyn's (1620-1705) Silva (or Sylva), the first publication officially sponsored by the Royal Society. This book promoted the planting of trees to avert the timber crisis facing the British…

Chapman's hand book to the farm and garden
For some decades after colonization began, the settlers continued to use the English gardening manuals they had brought with them. These were still good sources on techniques, but poor guides to seasonal operations. George Chapman's Hand Book to the…

The amateur gardener's yearbook
The Rev. Dr Henry Burgess was a Victorian curate who followed John Laurence's advice to obtain exercise cultivating his garden. When not editing The Journal of Sacred Literature, he was penning practical advice for the Gardener's Chronicle (1846-9).…

New Zealand alpines in field and garden
Walter Boa Brockie (1897-1972) was the curator of the Otari Open-air Native Plant Museum from 1947 to 1962, following Leonard Cockayne (1926-1934). He had a special interest in alpine plants, having worked with James McPherson on the development of…

The French gardiner
As well as writing his own books on gardening and arboriculture, the English virtuoso John Evelyn translated several influential French manuals. The first (1658) was Nicolas de Bonnefons's Le Jardinier François, a handbook on the cultivation of…

The Florist's manual
Maria Jacson (mis-spelled Jackson) (1755-1829) wrote her book The Florist's Manual (1816) for middle-class women, so that their choice and arrangement of plants would ‘procure a succession of enamelled borders' (p.4) through spring and summer. She…

The gardeners dictionary
As also, the physick garden, wilderness, conservatory, and vineyard, according to the practice of the most experienc'd gardeners of the present age. Interspers'd with the history of the plants, the characters of each genus, and the names of all the…
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Collection Tree