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Nursery Catalogues

Wageningen UR Library has an international collection of approximately 35.000 catalogues of nurseries specialised in seeds, ornamental plants, bulbs and trees. It also contains catalogues on fruit, vegetables, garden plants and agricultural crops.

The larger part of the collection is from the Netherlands and from other European nurseries. There are also catalogues from South-Africa, New-Zealand, Australia, North and South America, Japan and other non-European countries.

These catalogues are valuable for historical plant research on (agro)cultural biodiversity, the history of plant breeding and for the reconstruction of contemporary planting in historical gardens and parks.
The collection by origin consists of two parts. The oldest and rarest nursery catalogues from 1612 onwards are described separately and placed among our book collections. The majority is a large collection (1835-2000) described as serial publications by nursery companies which are stored in boxes.

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