Early nursery catalogues - An historical resource

Abstract

The landscape of New Zealand has undergone dramatic change in its 140 years of organised settlement. Man's impact has been considerable, and one of his major tools of change has been the plants he introduced. Recently I commenced the collation of this story, at least so far as it affects Canterbury; not plants just as plants - G. M. Thomson did this many years ago - but plants as part of a deliberate design process. When the nurserymen came what did they bring first? What quantities did they produce? Who purchased it, and what effect did it have on the landscape - the created landscape as well as the cultural landscape?