Yates' garden guide

1961

Private Collection

Arthur Yates: Auckland

41st ed.

Yates' Garden Guide was a series produced by the Arthur Yates Company, founded in Auckland in 1883 and expanded to include a Sydney branch in 1887. The first edition appeared in 1895 as Yates' Garden Guide for Australia and New Zealand, but it was only nominally addressed to New Zealand gardeners. In the New Zealand-distributed editions from 1922-1934, revisions took greater account of New Zealand's cooler growing condition. Finally in 1934 a truly New Zealand edition (the 20th) appeared. By 1931 the guidebook was being used in schools as a text book so its influence must have been considerable. Most editions through to the 32nd (1946) saw small revisions. However the Guide was restructured for a ‘new look' edition in 1950 and briefly renumbered as the 1st of three new editions. By 1957 Yates' had reverted to the original sequence of numbers (39th edition 1957). Major rewriting was claimed for the 61st (1987) edition. This long-running series is an outstanding historical resource, encapsulating all significant trends in the history of gardening in New Zealand in the 20th century.

Yates New Zealand