Manual of Practical Gardening

Daniel Bunce 1838

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the appointment of Daniel Bunce to Curator of the Geelong Botanic Gardens in August 1857 the Friends published a facsimile edition of his Manual of Practical Gardening adapted to the climate of Van Diemens Land 1838. The Manual became the first gardening book published in Tasmania and the third in Australia. It was the first Australian gardening book to deal with the flower garden as well as the fruit and vegetable garden. The advice is very relevant today.

Our first curator was a remarkable man; nurseryman, explorer, friend of the aboriginal people, writer and pioneering horticulturist. Daniel Bunce transformed a treeless reserve of 86 hectares on the eastern fringe of Geelong into a thriving Botanic Garden. Bunce used indigenous, Australian and exotic plants. Many of the trees planted by Bunce are a feature of the Geelong Botanic Gardens today.

Copies of the Manual of Practical Gardening are available from the FGBG Office (telephone 52226053), and the Friends Teahouse at a cost of $25 (please add $3.50 for postal orders).

You can read more about Daniel Bunce at the online edition of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Also available

Now also available through the Friends is History of Wirruna Nursery, Wallington by Anne Vale at $10 per copy.

In 2008 the Friends facilitated and assisted with the funding of recording the history of John & Judy Bailey's nursery Wirruna. Anne Vale, landscape historian and member of the Australian Garden History Society has written this important Geelong gardening story.

Wirruna which was sold in 1998 had a long association with the GBG. Judy Bailey received cutting material from superintendent George Vafiopulous when she first began her nursery at Wallington in the 1970's. Judy propagated cuttings of Wigandia caracasana which was subsequently introduced to Geelong and Melbourne gardens.

Judy Bailey advised on the original design of our perennial border in 1994 and assited with providing plant material. Judy was also a member of the Advisory Committee to Council in 1996 to progress the Chris Dance Master Plan for the GBG.

Many Friends gained a broad understanding of plants through an association with the Wirruna Nursery and it's display gardens. Judy trained many apprentices who have made a contribution to horticulture in the region.

Copies of the History of Wirruna Nursery, Wallington are available from the FGBG Office (telephone 52226053), and the Friends Teahouse at a cost of $10 (please add $3.50 for postal orders).