Our mission: ‘To encourage and improve horticulture in NZ by promoting the understanding, appreciation, conservation and use of plants’.
Garden History Award
(Award in Horticultural History and Conservation)
The award is granted to any nominated individual or organisation within New Zealand making distinguished contributions to horticultural history and conservation. The contributions may include scholarly publications on any aspect of horticultural history or of the development of cultivated plants, studies on individual gardens, horticulturists or plants, projects on the conservation of cultivated plants, projects involving the conservation and/or restoration of gardens or garden structures.
The aim of the award is to help focus Institute support for horticultural history and the conservation of cultivated plants, promote public interest in horticultural history and conservation, promote public awareness of the Institute, and encourage cooperation with other bodies such as the Historic Places Trust.
We thank Dr AR Ferguson who wrote the majority of the earlier award citations.
2025: Dr Clare Gleeson
Location: Wellington
Citation: New Zealand Garden Journal, 2025, Vol.
28(1): 11
2024: Anthony (‘Tony’) Laurence Barnes
Location: New Plymouth
Citation: New Zealand Garden Journal, 2024, Vol.
27(2): 20
2022: Associate Professor James Beattie
Location: Dunedin
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2022, Vol. 25(1): 10
2021: Dr Allan Ross Ferguson
Location: Auckland
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2021, Vol. 24(1):
23–25
2020: Louise Elizabeth Beaumont
Location: Havelock North
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2020, Vol. 23(1): 18
2019: Annemarie Endt-Ferwerda
Location: Auckland
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2019, Vol. 22(1): 14
2016: Toni Sylvester
Location: Kaiwaka, Northland
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2016, Vol. 19(1): 19
2014: Dr Michael David Wilcox
Location: Auckland
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2014, Vol. 17(1): 33
2012: Alan Jellyman
Location: New Plymouth
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2012, Vol. 15(1): 30
2011: Bee Dawson
Location: Wellington
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2011, Vol. 14(1): 18
2010: Eleanor Kay Baxter
Location: Hawkes Bay
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2010, Vol. 13(1): 26
2009: Christopher Johnstone
Location: Auckland
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2009, Vol. 12(1): 25
2008: Professor Helen May Leach
Location: Dunedin
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2008, Vol. 11(2): 16
2007: John P. Adam
Location: Auckland
Citation:
New Zealand Garden Journal, 2007, Vol. 10(1): 20
2001: Winsome Shepherd
Location: Wellington
Citation:
Newsletter of the RNZIH, 2001, No.4, p.6
2025 Garden History Awardee: Dr Clare Gleeson.
“Persons who have rendered distinguished service to horticulture”
“Members who have made a significant contribution to horticulture by their activities or interest in or service to horticulture”
“Granted to any nominated individual or organisation who has raised in New Zealand a cultivar considered to be sufficiently meritorious”
“Granted to any nominated individual within New Zealand making outstanding contributions to horticultural communication”
Contact the RNZIH if you wish to nominate someone for the Garden History Award.
Nominees need not be members of the Institute. Nominating bodies are the National Executive, any branch or affiliate of the RNZIH, any incorporated horticultural organisation, or the Historic Places Trust of any branch thereof.
Closing date: 31 December each year.
Dr Clare Gleeson is the 2025 recipient of the Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture Garden History Award. Clare is a...
Posted by Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture on Sunday 16 March 2025
Tony Barnes is the 2024 recipient of the RNZIH Garden History Award. With a track-record of wholesale rose production...
Posted by Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture on Thursday, 14 March 2024
Congratulations to Associate Professor James Beattie for receiving the Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture Garden History...
Posted by Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture on Sunday, 10 April 2022
Congratulations to Dr A.R. Ferguson of Auckland for receiving the Award in Garden History. Ross has a long and...
Posted by Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture on Tuesday, 13 April 2021
Congratulations to Louise Beaumont for receiving the 2020 Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture Garden History...
Posted by Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture on Sunday, 7 June 2020
Congratulations to Annemarie Endt-Ferwerda for receiving the 2019 Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture Award in Garden...
Posted by Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture on Wednesday, 14 August 2019