Art Gardens

Around 1870, Ferdinand von Mueller, the greatest Australian botanist of the nineteenth century, began to advertise in several newspapers across Australia for ‘lady’ plant collectors. Of Mueller’s astounding 3,000-strong network of collectors (which he maintained through between 2,000 and 6,000 letters a year), only about ten per cent were women. However, this was at a time when women typically had little recourse to science, or contact with men outside their circle of friends, making Mueller’s network of ladies quite extraordinary. Collecting Ladies profiles 14 of Mueller’s coterie of women collectors. Included are Fanny Charsley, Louisa Atkinson, Annie Walker and Ellis Rowan for whom Mueller made time to assist in pursuit of their own passions. He identified the plants they painted and provided letters of introduction to publishers and scientists. Together, these ladies produced some of the most beautiful books and botanical art to come out of Australia in the nineteenth century, covering all the Australian colonies. Author Penny Olsen provides a lively portrait of each woman featured in Collecting Ladies, beautifully complemented with photographs, drawings and paintings in full colour, the majority drawn from the National Library of Australia collections.

Out of the thousands of Australian plants worthy of garden space, here are the top 500, as edited and selected by Angus Stewart. These are the tried and tested, the popular cultivars, the ones that won’t turn up their heels and die on you – and are available commercially. Over the last few decades, the native plants that had been looked on by generations of Australian gardeners as inferior and drab are now being viewed in a different light. Many gardeners now see the opportunity to introduce a sense of place to their landscape to link it with the indigenous landscape. Improved cultivars, a better palette of plants to use in garden design, and a new-found pride in the classic shapes, forms and textures of many of the wild species of Banksias, Grevilleas, Gum Trees and Wattles have opened the eyes of many gardeners. Fully illustrated throughout and filled with handy top 10 purpose-driven lists, 500 Plants collects Angus’s favourites in his journey through the world of Australian plants. Some are relatively new cultivars, others are old favourite wild species; there is something in this book for every Australian climate and major soil type.