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George Kerslake’s Gardens

George Kerslake c.1905 by the Royal Horticultural Society. Courtesy Ancestry.com

It’s Spring time! The Strathfield district has long boasted spectacular gardens. When our grand homes were being built during the 1880s and 1890s, it was quite common for owners to plan a large, formal garden. Gardeners were often employed to tend their gardens and impress their neighbours. There were numerous horticultural societies too, where specimens were displayed, meetings were held and awards were coveted. Garden parties were also held to admire the blooms, raise money for charity and take tea with society.

Daily Telegraph 26 April 1896 p.5

Alderman and Mayor, William von der Heyde[1] of Elwood House, in Albert Road, employed arguably Strathfield’s best gardener, Mr George Kerslake. A native of Devon, England, George and his wife Hannah had emigrated to Australia in early 1884, along with their three children. Another three children were born after their arrival in Strathfield. By 1888 they were the only residents of Oxford Road. It’s likely that their cottage was on the Elwood House estate, fronting Oxford Road. When Elwood House was later advertised for lease in December 1907, a gardener’s cottage was also mentioned. This is probably where the Kerslake family had earlier resided.[2]

George and Hannah Kerslake with George junior, Philip, Mabel and Mary, c1886-87.
Courtesy Ancestry.com

Elwood House. Courtesy Strathfield-Homebush District Historical Society

Not only did Elwood House have extensive gardens, but it also featured ‘an indoor fernery where ‘rare plants and flowers fill the marble shelves, and the luxuriant vegetation, grand tree ferns, and ornamental foliage afford a grateful rest for the eye.’[3] Unfortunately there are few photos of the Elwood House gardens but the aerial photo below shows the extent of the Elwood House property c.1922.

Elwood House can be seen slightly to the right of the centre of the photo with extensive gardens behind, c.1922.

Courtesy Strathfield-Homebush District Historical Society

George Kerslake was known for his plant breeding successes and excellent work in hybridisation, particularly with bouvadias, chrysanthemums, carnations, dahlias, roses and penstemons. At a time when plant and flower competitions were many, he regularly took out the honours. At the Strathfield and Western Suburbs Horticultural Society show in Burwood during November 1889: ‘Herr von der Heyde’s gardener, George Kerslake, was most fortunate, and well he deserves the many first prizes he has won. He gained first prize for 12 antirrhinums, also for six begonias (foliage), one single specimen plant latania bortonica, 12 miscellaneous plants, six foliage plants, nine adiantums, and one single plant clerodendron Balfourii; in whatever section he entered he gained first prize. His begonias deserve special mention.’[4]

The following year he won a number of awards at the Horticultural Society of New South Wales’s Grand Chrysanthemum Autumn Show.[5] In December 1892 the Western Suburbs Horticultural Society ‘held a very successful monthly meeting’ in the Ashfield Town Hall. ‘The 24 varieties of gloxinias staged by Mr Kerslake, gardener to Mr W. von der Heyde, Homebush were greatly admired. The floral committee at once awarded Mr Kerslake the society’s certificate of merit.’[6]

Gloxinia

In November 1894 Sir Henry Parkes opened the Liberty Plains Horticultural Society annual spring show at Rookwood. On this occasion George Kerslake was a judge.[7]

William von der Heyde died in April 1896. In January 1897 unimaginable tragedy struck the Kerslake family when George and Hannah’s three sons were all drowned in a water hole at Druitt Town, now Strathfield South. George junior (13), Philip (10) and Stephen (8) had been playing with a young friend who was staying with the family. Philip and Stephen decided to cool off in the creek but were quickly out of their depth. Big brother, George went in to help. None of the boys could swim. Their friend, Thomas Morrison, ran to Elwood House to alert Mr Kerslake but it was too late to save the boys, whose bodies were recovered from a nine-foot deep water hole by two local men.[8][9] Described as a ‘chain of ponds’ by C.A. Henderson in 1923, the water holes would fill quickly, and to a surprising depth, after heavy rain.[10] John Rennie’s slaughter works backed on to the river at this point. This would have been roughly near modern-day Prentice Lane, Strathfield South, but long before canals were constructed on the Cooks River.

George Kerslake remained as gardener to Mrs von der Heyde for a few more years after the tragedy, before opening his own nursery in Yukka Road, Rookwood (now Regents Park) c.1900 and concentrating on his plant breeding.

At the Horticultural Society show in the Sydney Town Hall, in March 1906, ‘the non-competitive display of cactus and pompone dahlias brought in by G.H. Kerslake, of Potts Hill, Rookwood, was the finest ever seen in the building. One gloriously perfect red bloom was a rival of Flora herself, but there were others of surpassing loveliness. One yellow flower was splashed with purple, and had dainty lines of red running down the centre of each petal. Another originally of one hue had been so changed that it showed up as a variegated flower of uncommon grace.’[11]

Cactus Dahlia

At the Dahlia Evening of the Liberty Plains Horticultural Society, ‘Mr G.H. Kerslake stages an incomparable lot, which included many of his latest creations, among them being the much-talked-of T.A. Kerslake. This was, of course, the centre of attraction, and it was well worth going to see. No doubt Mr Kerslake can well lay claim to the title of the Burbank of Australia, for his creations easily outdistance the best of imported stuff.’ [12] T.A. Kerslake had been named for his brother, Thomas who was also a nurseryman.

George Kerslake was regularly invited to be a judge in regional areas, such as Bathurst, where, in 1908, he was recognised as the ‘leading dahlia grower in Australia.’[13]

In 1906 he published the paper ‘Some Practical Experiments in Cross-Fertilisation in New South Wales’ at the Third International Conference on Genetics.[14] But although he regularly provided assistance and advice to growers he mostly resisted entreaties to write about his methods and successes.

Bouvardia Humboldtii corymbiflora. Illustration from Kerslake’s 1906 paper to the Third International Conference on Genetics.

When Elwood House was offered for sale in September 1906, its more than two acres of gardens included ‘fragrant gardens, pleasaunces full of flowers of sweet-smelling herbs, of beautiful shrubs, and of stately trees. Then there is a tennis court, and also smoothly shaven lawns of the most brilliant emerald colour, a paradise indeed, from which the ugly, the crude, the harmful, have been rigorously excluded. The balance of the land is devoted to paddocks, park-like in effect.’[15]

In February 1911 The Bulletin reported on the death of George Kerslake at the age of just 57: ‘Sydney’s flower-breeder, G.H. Kerslake, has been plucked by the Gatherer. He was, perhaps, the most successful of flower hybridists in Australia. He propagated numerous brilliant varieties of various flowers – carnations, bouvadias and (above all) cactus dahlias. When the old-fashioned ball-shaped dahlia was displaced by the accidental discovery that they could be grown in latter-day “cactus” fashion, Kerslake led the way in evolving beautiful and wondrous varieties. He was an Australian to be proud of…’[16]

George Kerslake was survived by his wife, Hannah, and three daughters, Mabel, Mary and Ethel. Within a few years the nursery at Regents Park was resumed for the pipeline to the Potts Hill Reservoir. George’s work was continued in the Blue Mountains for some years by his brothers under the name G.H. Kerslake & Co. In November 1912 The Blue Mountain Echo advertised that ‘Kerslake’s famous carnations, pentstemons, dahlias, chrysanthemums, [are] now ready for planting on the mountains.’[17]

George’s achievements were lauded for some years after his death with several writers to the newspapers bemoaning the loss of his plant breeding expertise.[18][19] A number of his varieties had been named after family members and for years Mrs G.H. Kerslake and Ethel Kerslake, among others, were still available for sale. His youngest daughter, Ethel married John Upton in 1918 and settled in Penshurst, where her husband’s family were also nurserymen. Her mother, Hannah joined her there.

Subdivision plan of Regents Park showing Kerslake Avenue. Courtesy State Library of NSW.

Today George Kerslake’s name is largely unknown except perhaps to the keen growers and researchers of dahlias, carnations and bouvadias. Kerslake Avenue in Regents Park was named after him in the early 1920s.

Part of Strathfield Girls’ High School now stands on the site of Elwood House in Albert Road, where George Kerslake once tended its extensive gardens for the Mayor of Strathfield.

 

By J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

[1] Australian Town and Country Journal 24 March 1888 p.28 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71095593

 

[2] Sydney Morning Herald 4 December 1907 p.16 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14898486

 

[3] The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser 25 April 1885 p.882 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163273455

 

[4] The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser 9 November 1889 p.1028 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162069377

 

[5] Sydney Morning Herald 24 April 1890 p.5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13767872

 

[6] Sydney Morning Herald 10 December 1892 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13889293

 

[7] The Cumberland Mercury 10 November 1894 p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/252760557

 

[8] Cumberland Free Press 16 January 1897 p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/144442173

 

[9] The Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal 16 January 1897 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/100708418

 

[10] Henderson C. A. ‘Sydney to Homebush 1855’, Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and proceedings Vol. VIII, Supplement, 1923

 

[11] Sydney Morning Herald 23 March 1906 p.8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14761077

 

[12] The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 31 March 1906 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/85936510

 

[13] National Advocate (Bathurst) 13 April 1908 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/157191348

 

[14] Kerslake, George ‘Some practical experiments in cross-fertilisation in New South Wales’ in Report of the Third International Conference 1906 on Genetics: Hybridisation … – Google Books https://books.google.com.au/books?id=en8CAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA397&ots=8h-b7BQxpV&dq=Brunsvigia+Baptisii&pg=PA396&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[15] Sydney Morning Herald 1 September 1906 p.23 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1479677f

 

[16] The Bulletin V.32 No.1619 23 February 1911 p.20 https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-676490432/view?sectionId=nla.obj-693608953&searchTerm=kerslake&partId=nla.obj-676499896#page/n19/mode/1up/search/kerslake

 

[17] The Blue Mountain Echo 1 November 1912 p.5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/119298715

 

[18] Sydney Mail 29 June 1921 p.30 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/159038009

 

[19] The Bulletin V.44 No.2241 25 January 1923 p.21 https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-619049296/view?sectionId=nla.obj-632737603&searchTerm=kerslake+horticulture&partId=nla.obj-619090515#page/n20/mode/1up/search/kerslake+horticulture

 

Further reading:

Jones, Cathy ‘Albert Road, Strathfield’ https://strathfieldheritage.com/2017/10/06/albert-road-strathfield/

 

Jones, Cathy ‘Wilheim von der Heyde’ https://strathfieldheritage.com/local-government/council/mayors-of-strathfield-council/wilheim-von-der-heyde/

 

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