This guide aims to help you locate gardening resources available at Puke Ariki.
Subject searches using the library catalogue
We all know that gardening is a favoured New Zealand pastime - in fact walking and gardening are the two most popular sport and active leisure activities in New Zealand (www.stats.govt.nz 1997-98).
It's no wonder then, the gardening collections at Puke Ariki and community libraries are overflowing with colourful and stylish gardening books. For example, if you did a subject keyword search for "gardening" on the library catalogue - you would get 1201 results alone!
With this in mind, before you even start looking at different gardening books on the catalogue - here is a helpful breakdown of the gardening dewey decimal categories which will assist you when browsing the bookshelves at Puke Ariki or community libraries.
630 Agriculture
631 Techniques, equipment, materials
632 Plant injuries, diseases, pests
633 Field & plantation crops
634 Orchards, fruits, forestry
635 Garden crops (Horticulture)
710 Civic & landscape art
711 Area planning (Civic art)
712 Landscape architecture
713 Landscape architecture of trafficways
714 Water features
715 Woody plants
716 Herbaceous plants
717 Structures
718 Landscape design of cemeteries
719 Natural landscapes
The library catalogue can be used in-house at Puke Ariki or accessed online.
Subject keyword search
If you are searching for titles on a subject, try to be as specific as you can to narrow your search results, for example:
- Rhododendrons
- Gardens Taranaki
- Garden pests
- Water gardens
- Astrology gardening
- Garden lighting
Here are just a few new gardening titles recently added at Puke Ariki.
Chapman, L (2003) In a strange garden: the life and times of Truby King. Auckland: Pengun
Hale, B (2004) The New Zealand pleasure garden: gardening for the senses. Dunedin: Shoal Bay
James, M (2004) The city gardener: urban oasis. London: Collins
Steens, A (2003) Bromeliads for the contemporary garden. Auckland: Godwit
Title keyword search
Title keyword searches will find any books that have your selected search terms in the title.
But don't forget some books on a subject may have a "snappy" title that doesn't include the word you are looking for, e.g: "Best garden doctor" is about garden pests. So remember to try and combination of subject keyword and title keyword searches for maximum results.
Gardening magazines
New Zealand gardener
New Zealand growing today
Better homes and gardens
Garden shed
New Zealand house and garden
Your home and garden
Archives
The archives database can be searched by staff or can be accessed on the Puke Ariki website. Search results will locate archives, oral histories and photographs. These will be mainly Taranaki orientated.
Searching can be done on personal names or general subjects such as the following:
- Gardens and gardening
- Horticulture
- Plant nursery horticulture
- Parks and reserves
- Pukeiti
- Pukekura Park
An example archive that can be found using the above subject headings:
Title: Duncan and Davies and R A Duncan nursery catalogues
Catalogue: ARC 2004-230
Type: Publication
Scope: Collection of Duncan and Davies catalogues 1930s - 1978.
Duncan Nurseries Ltd catalogue c 1964
Access: Open access
To view the archives you will need to register as a user at the Taranaki Research Centre. Identification is needed on registration. If you have searched for archives from the website, it is helpful if you can phone ahead and request archives to be put aside prior to your visit.
Photographs
Some of the photographic collection can be searched using the database on the Puke Ariki website. A more comprehensive card catalogue can be accessed in the Taranaki Research Centre. The photographs are held in drawers in the Taranaki Research Centre. Most photographs from the collection that show Taranaki gardens or garden scenes can be found by browsing the following sections.
- "Town" - buildings - private residences
- "Town" - general views
- Industry - agriculture
Taranaki Information Files
Vertical file cabinets hold folders of information relevant to Taranaki.
Commerce & Industry - Horticulture. Here you will find folders with information on such topics as:
- Duncan & Davies
- Jury nurseries
- Egmont roses
Databases
Puke Ariki has a number of full text databases available for searching. Access is free. Printing costs 20c per sheet.
Te Puna - INNZ
Search INNZ for references to articles that have appeared in New Zealand Journals and Newspapers since 1987. INNZ provides abstracts only. You can send search results to your e-mail.
Example:
Title: Felix Jury - breeder of remarkable plants
In: New Zealand Gardener, Sep 1990; 46(9):52-55
Author: Collier, Gordon
Subject: Jury, Felix
Te Puna
Access to National Bibliographic Network - a catalogue containing books, reports, conference proceedings and government reports held in New Zealand Libraries. You can send search results to your e-mail
Newztext
Full text articles from key New Zealand newspapers, including the Daily News. From 1996 - present.
Example:
Title: A flowering icon for Taranaki
Author: Jury, Abbie
In: Daily News, 25 Aug 2000, p.10
ANZ Reference Centre and MasterFILE Premier
The Australia/NZ Reference Centre combines Australia and New Zealand specific magazines, newspapers & newswires, and reference books.
MasterFILE Premier was designed specifically for public libraries. This multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 2,050 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975. It covers virtually every subject area of general interest.
Try doing a general subject searches for your area of interest, or try browsing specific publications from the title list. Each database has thousands of magazines and journals indexed.
Some journal titles from these databases include:
- Organic gardening
- Flower and garden
- BBC gardener's world
- Earth Garden
- Elle Décor
- American horticulturist
Taranaki Stories
The following stories can be found on the Puke Ariki website:
Jury Clan's Big Steps For Plantkind
Pukekura Park - A Place That Steals Hearts
Former Glory of Brooklands