Roger Mann B. Arch ARAIA AAILA
landscape architect and author, Newtown NSW
took the degree of
Bachelor of Architecture
from the University of Sydney in May 1974,
and at the end of that year went up to Canberra to train in landscape architecture under the late John Stevens FAILA
at the Australian National University.
He was a remarkable man and the best teacher
any aspiring LA could have.
I gained my corporate membership of
the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1979
and that year passed the qualifying exams of
the Australian Insititute of Landscape Architects,
which admitted me as an Associate in February 1980.
I am currentlly a registered landscape architect.
I spent nearly ten years (1974 -83)
at the Australian National University --
for three years as Mr Stevens' assistant
and then as University Landscape Architect -- during which time
I prepared all landscape plans for the main campus and such
University properties as Mt Stromlo Observatory.
After two years (1983-4) of solo practice in Canberra,
I moved to Adelaide at the end of 1984 to take up the post of
Principal Landscape Architect to the City of Adelaide
Projects there included:
the redevelopment of the landscape of Light Square;
a ten-year replanting program for the Park Lands;
major street tree plantings including Pulteney Street and North Terrace (for which the City won the Greening of Adelaide Award for 1988); landscape development plans for the grounds of the old Adelaide Gaol and the new Morphett Street Bridge park lands;
; and furnishing advice to the City Planner on landscape components
of developments proposed for the City.
During my time in Adelaide I was elected Secretary to the SA Group of the AILA and served on several Committees and as the SA correspondent for the AILA's official journal, Landscape Australia.
In 1980 to 1982 I was the landscape architect member of a group of Canberra design professionals called The New Millwrights which gave lectures and courses in environmentally-sound design,
and in 1983 and 1984 I devised and gave two courses
for the ANU Centre for Continuing Education,
one on plants and planting (Four Seasons)
and one on Landscaping Your Garden.
Both were sold out and given twice.
In Adelaide I lectured on the history of landscape architecture
as part of the undergraduate course
in landscape architecture organised by the AILA
in the Adelaide University School of Architecture.
At the end of 1988 I came back to Sydney, my old home town,
to a change of direction.
While I continue to design landscapes to commission
(mainly private gardens these days) the drawing board and muddy boots have played second fiddle to the computer
on which I write books and magazine articles
on all aspects of gardening and garden design.
I am a member of the Australian Society of Authors and of the
Horticultural Media Association of NSW,
of which I have served as President and Vice- President.
For nearly ten years (from 1987) I was gardening editor for Australian Family Circle,
ditto for the brilliant but short-lived NOW magazine;
and for a couple of years had my own column, Ask the Flowerpot Man, in That's Life! the most successful new magazine launched in Australia in the 'nineties. (It no longer includes gardening.)
Since 1998 years I have been a regular contributor to Your Garden,
Australia's oldest gardening magazine.
And there have been articles here and there in various other magazines.
Heaven knows how many, on just about every aspect of gardening and garden design -- I lost count years ago.
magazines I have written for
Landscape Australia
Australian Family Circle
NOW
Gardening Australia
That's Life!
Zest
Your Garden
I've written a number of books on gardening and garden design,
and here I can give a full list! .
books written by Roger Mann
Landscaping Your Garden (Murdoch Books, 1992)
The Secrets of Good Gardening (Murdoch, 1993)
Universal's Popular Plants & Flowers series:
Cottage gardens and Fragrant Plants (1993)
Trees Shrubs and Groundcovers (1993)
Fruit Vegetables and Herbs (1993)
Native Plants (1994)
Plants for containers and Courtyards (1994)
Exotic Plants (1994)
Roses (1994)
Pruning and Planting for Successful Results (Murdoch, 1994)
Better Homes & Gardens 1995 Gardener's Diary (Murdoch 1994)
The Ultimate Book of Flowers (Random House 1995, Ward Lock 1997)
A Kid's First Book of Gardening (Murdoch, 1995)
Better Homes & Gardens Garden Diary 1996 (Murdoch, 1995)
Cottage Gardens (Murdoch, 1996, Meerhurst 1999)
Better Homes & Gardens Garden Diary 1997 (Murdoch 1996)
Making Beautiful Gardens (Murdoch 1997)
Better Homes & Gardens Garden Diary 1998 (Murdoch 1997)
Organic Gardening (Murdoch, 1998; Merehurst 2000)
What camellia is that? (Stirling Macoboy with Roger Mann, Landsdowne1998)
Better Homes & Gardens Garden Diary 1999 (Murdoch 1998)
rated best gardening book of the year by the Sydney Morning Herald!
Beautiful Small Gardens and Courtyards (Murdoch 1999)
Better Homes& Gardens Garden Diary 2000 (Murdoch 1999)
Yates Roses (Harper Collins 2002)
One Hundred Top Fragrant Roses (Pacific Publications, 2004)
Naming the Rose (Random House, October 2008)
Exotic perennials (Stirling Macoboy; Angus & Robertson, 1991)
Bulbs (Stirling Macoboy; Angus & Robertson, 1991)
Macoboy's Roses, aka The Ultimate Rose Book (Mallon, Abrams, 1993)
What Flower is That?, revised edition (Stirling Macoboy: 2000)
Macoboy's Roses, revised edition, 2008
Reader's Digest Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers,
(Australian edition, Reader's Digest, 1991)
The Year Round Gardener (revised edition, Murdoch, 1993)
The Ultimate Australian Gardening Book (Random House, 1994)
The Ultimate Book of Trees and Shrubs (Random House, 1996)
Containers Non-Stop, (Graham Strong, Australian edition: Merehurst/Murdoch books 1998)
Reader's Digest Fix-it-Yourself Guide (Reader's Digest 1998)
Take Two Plants (Nicola Ferguson: Reader's Digest 1998)
The Best Rose Guide (Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Australian edition, Florilegium,2004)
Thank goodness for having designed and made parks and gardens in four Australian States (including eight gardens of my own) and doing a bit of pottering in friends' gardens in Britain and America! You know, whenever I open a computer book to learn something new about the computer, I learn afresh how many people must feel when they pick up a gardening book....
Naming the Rose came out last October, but like any author and designer I'm always interested in new projects -- there are still plenty of good books (and magazine stories!) to be written and gardens to be designed; and I bring both wide professional experience of creating gardens and -- or so my readers tell me -- fairly sharply-honed skills
as a writer and communicator. I do pride myself on being user-friendly,
both to my editors and to my readers.
And I like to take out the drawing board and design landscapes.
If you'd like to know more, please drop me an
