Australian History/Environmental History
Book Details

Gardenesque

A Celebration of Australian Gardening

Richard Aitken

A visual tour of stunning images of more than 200 years of gardening and garden making, from the State Library of Victoria's extensive collections.

Opinion

'A delight for gardeners and history buffs.' Gardening Australia magazine December 2004

'an intriguing stroll through two centuries of Australia's gardening heritage. Capturing special moments in our cultural psyche, Richard Aitken has compiled a stunning - and often quirky- array of images. . .In a word: fascinating.'
Herald Sun 16/10/04

About this Title

Gardenesque is a wonderful ramble through more than 200 years of Australian gardening and garden making. Richard Aitken takes the reader on a visual tour of stunning images from the State Library of Victoria's extensive collections and Anne Latreille, Paul Fox and Michael Leunig offer their personal perspectives of gardening.

The diversity of Australia's gardening heritage is revealed in selections from a wide range of books, pamphlets, plans, paintings and prints. Gardenesque showcases magnificent illustrations from nineteenth-century botanical books; uncovers the symbolism of Wattle Day; follows the Gardening Year with Mr Bear; introduces the Queen of the 1953 Ballarat Begonia Festival; displays Yates' seed books from various decades; explores counter-culture manifestos from the 1970s and features Howard Arkley's suburban surrealism. Throughout, the chronological journey reflects changing fashions for plants and shifting environmental concerns.

Gardenesque celebrates both the aesthetic and practical nature of gardens of all sizes, from the national landscape to the suburban backyard.

About the Author

Richard Aitken is a Melbourne-based architect, curator and historian, best known to a gardening audience for his editing of The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens. He has prepared conservation plans for many of Australia's most significant historic gardens, including the botanic gardens of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. He was a founding member of the Australian Garden History Society and an editor of the Society's journal, Australian Garden History. He has written and lectured widely on garden history and is a member of the editorial advisory board of Garden History, the journal of the British-based Garden History Society.

978-0-522-85127-4