I marvel at the way some women of the Victorian Age donned their button-up boots, picked up their long skirts and petticoats to step onto a gang plank, ready to roam the world. While many of these intrepid travellers were […]
Funga Obscura (NewSouth, 2025) by Alison Pouliot is an extraordinary exploration of the hidden kingdom of fungi, presented through a unique combination of evocative writing and stunning photography. Pouliot takes us on a journey not just across the world but […]
Review of Enid Mayfield, Illustrated garden glossary, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, March 2025 The author of this beautifully produced book is a botanical illustrator. Her glossary features at least one, and often several, of her own colour illustrations on every A4-sized […]
Here I reflect on writing Thrushwood Garden Evolution and Thrushwood Garden and Collections, both published in 2024. The Southern Highlands in NSW is well known for its beautiful gardens. Thrushwood (a 2,782m² property) is one of the most diverse and […]
Review of Weeds of the South-East, An Identification Guide for Australia, by F J Richardson, R G Richardson, R C H Shepherd, fourth edition, CSIRO Publishing, March 2025 The identification of plants and the recognition of weeds are at the […]
In Tasmanian Gardens (Thames & Hudson Australia, 2024) author Meg Bignell and photographer Alice Bennett have produced an enlightening and generously illustrated coffee table book to take you on a journey through a wide-ranging selection of twenty Tasmanian gardens. Within […]
That is the question at the core of The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege by Simon Parkin (Hachette, 2024). The story of the siege of Leningrad for more than […]
The Secrets of Great Botanists and what they teach us about gardening, Matthew Biggs, Exisle Publishing, 2024 Rush out and buy your favourite gardener a copy of this terrific little book, even if too late for a ‘stocking filler’! This […]
A book is a gift you can open again and again. So said Garrison Keillor, that wry, wise American author, singer and humorist, whose Prairie Home Companion radio show offered so much insight into the human condition. And he’s right, […]
Most Australians have heard of mainland Australia’s highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko, but few know the name of its near neighbour, Mt Townsend, which is only 11 metres lower in height. Many years ago, AGHS Victoria branch did the walk from […]
OUT NOW AND AVAILABLE AT THE AGHS ONLINE SHOP $65 (includes postage within Australia) Alfred Buxton was the father of landscape design in New Zealand. Working in the early twentieth century, he was one of the first in the country […]
Michaela Hill reviews A Short History of Flowers, The stories that make our gardens by Advolly Richmond, illustrations by Sarah Jane Humphrey (Frances Lincoln 2024). This book may just be the perfect last-minute Christmas shop. It will appeal to gardeners, plant […]
Roger Cross has brought into the limelight yet another wonderful Australian lady plant collector: Anne (Annie) Richard. Here fellow Burra resident, Francis Walling, reviews his book, Everlastings, Becoming Me: Annie Richards the flower hunter, Green Hill Publishing, 2024, 279 pp., Amazon […]
Max Bourke, AM reviews Experts in the World Heritage Regime – Between Protection and Prestige by Luke James, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. With conservation at the heart of the Australian Garden History Society philosophy, World Heritage places (including 20 in Australia […]
A special edition of Historical Records of Australian Science, edited by Andrew Geering (University of Queensland) reveals how the profession has flourished and, despite being isolated from the scientific community in the northern hemisphere, was able to make world-first discoveries. The issue […]
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Hamilton Gardens by Peter Sergel, photographs by Grant Sheehan Phantom House Books, 2024 I always enjoy visiting the Hamilton Gardens but have often thought they are a bit like a horticultural Disneyland, with gardens from […]
Members of the Bloomsbury Group during a stay at Garsington Manor. From left to right: Ottoline Morrell, Maria Huxley, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell (1915) This 2024 summer in London, the Garden Museum is presenting an exhibition […]
The Medicinal Garden, Treat, feed and soothe straight from your garden by Caroline Parker, illustrations by Lucy Mora, Thames & Hudson 2024 This beautifully presented book is aimed at the younger gardener who is interested in organic gardening, herbalism and experimentation. The […]
John Dwyer reviews Burnley Gardens: Their Design and the People who loved them, by Michele Adler, winner of the 2024 Book Laurel, Horticultural Media Association of Australia Inc. From their inception in 1860 by the Victorian Horticultural Society, Burnley Gardens […]
Amy Stewart, The Tree Collectors, Tales of Arboreal Obsession, Text Publishing, Melbourne, Australia. 2023, 307 pp. Collecting or putting together a collection of something is a common habit. About 30 to 40% of households engage in some form of collecting behaviour. […]
Stuart Read reviews Bob Crowder: a New Zealand organics pioneer, by Matt Morris, Otago University Press, 2024 This is a quiet landmark book from over the ditch. About an industry – organic farming − that’s now mainstream and worth big […]
There is a lot of fascinating information contained in this book. Did you know that morning glory (Ipomea indica) was identified on the north Queensland coast by Joseph Banks in 1770? How did it get there? Could it have been […]
John Viska & Lisa Williams (eds), Historic Gardens of Perth: European settlement to Modernism, Scott Print, Perth, 2023, reviewed by Pamela Statham Drew. This handsome book of 202 pages is the first to tell the story of Perth’s gardens from […]
This week’s review comes to you from Dr Jacqueline Newling, an historian, gastronomer and museum curator. This is not a garden book but one that might be of interest to those who love not only gardens but also the food […]
Rosemary Purdie reviews Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon, by Melissa L Sevigny, published by W W Norton & Company, 2023 ‘In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada […]
Book review by Tim Gatehouse In Napoleon’s Garden Island – lost and old gardens of St Helena, South Atlantic Ocean (Kew Publishing), Professor Donal P McCracken dispels the common perception that the island of St Helena is only significant as […]
Sandra Pullman reviews Mab, The World of Mab Grimwade by Thea Gardiner (The Miegunyah Press, Imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2023) This beautiful book celebrates the life of Mabel Louise Grimwade née Kelly (1887–1973). The author, Thea Gardiner, gives […]
Dr Kim Loo, general practitioner, and member of Doctors for the Environment Australia responds to Fevered Planet by John Vidal, Bloomsbury, 2023, Doctors for the Environment started more than 20 years ago when three doctors sat around a kitchen table […]
Fiona McMillan-Webster, The Age of Seeds, Thames and Hudson, 2022 Reviewed by Francesca Beddie McMillan-Webster likes word play and the occasional pun. At the AGHS conference in Ipswich, she used a double entendre, ‘A date with history’, to introduce her talk. […]
Reviewed by John Dwyer, QC, PhD This book is disappointing in a number of ways. Its intent was ‘to revive the work of late 19th century landscape photographers that shaped the environmental attitudes of settlers in the colonies of the […]