Grow your own Unearthing a wealth of detail
One of the joys of reading local history is tracing historic references on the ground. A newly released book does just that. Written by local historian and gardener Ann Cripps it follows the footsteps of early gardeners and plant collectors who lived in or visited Hobart in its early days and reveals fascinating details about our early gardens and nurseries and about plants collected by visiting horticulturists and botanists.
Ann focuses on the period from settlement (1804 to 1881) when Hobart Town officially became Hobart. Many of those featured were also Friends (Quakers), which gives the book its intriguing title of Gardeners, Plant Collectors, Friends: Hobart Town and Beyond.
One of the first gardens in Hobart belonged to the Reverend Robert Knopwood. He was given a 12ha land grant on the south side of Sullivans Cove (now part of Battery Point, above Salamanca). He built a house he called Cottage Green in 1805 and set about planting a productive garden.
We know a lot about this early garden as Knopwood was a prolific diarist, recording what he planted, harvested and made from his garden. In 1806 he records picking strawberries and green peas. In 1807 he claims to have harvested the first asparagus ‘cut in the colony’. I can just imagine the thrill he felt. By September 1807 he was able to send 21 heads to the Governor. A huge cucumber he grew even made a news item in the Hobart Town Gazette. It was 141/2 inches long and weighed 4lbs (or 37cm long and 1.8kg in current terms).
Planting any sort of garden in Hobart’s early days wasn’t easy as seeds underwent a long sea voyage and were often damaged or well past their use-by date. Things were easier when local gardeners and plantsmen started nurseries. Daniel Bunce’s nursery was one of the earliest established on a property Denmark Hill, in New Town Rd. In 1836 he advertised seeds for sale, both exotic and native.
Ann has unearthed this wealth of information by delving into old diaries and garden books in libraries and archives in Tasmania, other parts of Australia and on the other side of the world. In discussing the book, she said some of the material she was reading hadn’t been looked at by anyone else perhaps since it left the hands of its owner. She found pressed plants between some of the pages of old books and interesting hand-written notations.
The first gardening books used in the colony were written for gardeners in the northern hemisphere. Ann said some had annotations translating planting and care instructions for the Tasmanian seasons where September is spring (not the beginning of autumn) and December is the start of summer rather than winter.
Excerpts from diaries, journals and early gardening books as well as early plant and landscape images and maps bring this gardening history to life. Some of the most beautiful floral images, including pelargonium flowers that grace the book’s cover, are from the sketchbook of Quaker plantsman, Frederick Mackie.
As well as following the gardening footsteps of Knopwood, Bunce and Mackie, Ann chronicles many other gardeners, plant hunters, botanists, nurserymen and seedsmen and introduces some “ladies of influence”, who visited or lived in Tasmania and furthered Tasmanian gardening and knowledge. Not only does Ann present new research that broadens knowledge of Tasmania’s garden history, her book is a compelling read.
Gardeners, Plant Collectors, Friends will be launched on November 11 at the Australian Garden History Society’s Hobart conference (see gardenhistorysoc iety.org.au for details on booking to attend the conference) and is available now from Fuller’s Bookshop
($59.99 rrp).