Finding Mrs Mitchinson: The Life of a Forgotten Colonial Plantswoman

• 20 March 2025
• 7.00pm - 8.30pm 
• Link Room at Hamilton Gardens
• Entry $5 waged, $2 unwaged

Mary Mitchinson (1860-1937) ran the Caledonian Nursery in New Plymouth for over ten years after the death of her husband in 1895.

An entrepreneur, medal-winning horticulturist and importer of rare and exotic plants, Mary Mitchinson dominated Taranaki’s garden scene from the mid-1890s into the early twentieth-century. This talk will follow her career, the challenges she faced as a businesswoman in a male-dominated market, her role in expanding the reach of Taranaki nurseries throughout New Zealand and the way in which she helped to shape Taranaki’s 19^th-century image as “The Garden of New Zealand”.