Home > Special Collections > Exhibitions > Cultivating Gardens >
Case eighteen
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| Brett's Gardening Guide,
Revised ed. Christchurch: New Zealand Newspapers, 1963. Private Collection. |
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| Yates' garden guide.
41st ed. Auckland: Arthur Yates, 1961. Private Collection. |
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Gardening guides
Two long-running series have found their way into most New Zealand homes. Brett's Gardening Guide is a descendant of Brett's Colonists' Guide and Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, published in three editions between 1883 and 1902. The 1st edition of Brett's Gardening Guide (1920?) was based on gardening advice published in the Auckland Star, a newspaper which Henry Brett (1843-1927) bought into in 1870 and of which he became sole owner in 1876. Brett was a keen amateur gardener and his property Te Kiteroa in Takapuna became a showplace for its spacious gardens. It seems likely that the gardening advice reflected his personal experience. After his death, Brett's Gardening Guide was ‘completely rewritten' for the 1941 edition, and extensively revised by James McPherson in 1968, and by Tom Troy in 1977. On display with the two revised editions is the first edition.
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.