Dicksonia Rare Plants Manual
Gardening Australian Flora Horticulture Nature Botanical Reference Rare Plants Tree Ferns First Edition Collecting
Dicksonia Rare Plants Manual is the long-out-of-print first edition that Australian plant hunter Stephen Ryan produced for serious gardeners, horticulture students and collectors who refuse to settle for ordinary nursery stock. Printed in 2008 by Melbourne’s Hyland House, this 138-page hardback is the only reference devoted exclusively to Dicksonia tree ferns and their cool-climate cousins, giving step-by-step guidance on propagation, potting mixes, pest control and the micro-climate tricks that let these prehistoric beauties thrive outside their native Tasmanian and Victorian rainforests. Every species is illustrated with Craig Lidgerwood’s crisp colour photographs and line drawings that show frond architecture, crown shape and the subtle trunk characteristics you need for field-level ID.
What makes this copy special is that it is a genuine first edition—already scarce because the small initial print run sold out to botanic gardens and specialist nurseries—now further personalised by a neat, earlier owner’s inscription on the front endpaper. Aside from light thumbing on the preface page, the block is clean, tight and unmarked, with no dog-eared leaves or shelf rubbing, so the detailed horticultural tables and full-page habitat shots remain perfect for bench-side consultation. For collectors, the dust-wrapper retains its original 2008 cover price, making this a benchmark copy for tracking the book’s rapid secondary-market appreciation.
Whether you are landscaping a shaded gully, building a fernery or simply want the definitive Australian text before it disappears entirely, Dicksonia Rare Plants Manual delivers the authority no blog post or nursery hand-out can match. Keywords that bring collectors to this title—“Stephen Ryan Dicksonia first edition,” “Australian tree fern book,” “rare plant propagation guide”—all point here, and supplies in this condition are now vanishingly small.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
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