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Welcome to Hill View Rare Plants
Ramblings of a Rare Plant Hunter
Due to high demand a reprint of Marcus Harvey’s posthumous book Ramblings of a Rare Plant Hunter, featuring botanical illustrations by Susan Jarick is now available!
If you’ve purchased the book as a gift – downloadable print at home Gift Cards for the book are available HERE
Ramblings of a Rare Plant Hunter is an eclectic compilation of writing and poetry by Marcus Harvey, founder of Tasmanian nursery Hill View Rare Plants. A plantsman at heart, Marcus was perpetually curious, interested in everything and everyone around him.
The plant hunting journeys that inspired Ramblings were at times arduous, yet always exciting, entertaining and endlessly fascinating. They took him up the macho mountains of the Cretan shepherds, through the warm and welcoming Aegean islands, along the turquoise Turkish Riviera, down the bare-bones Mani peninsula in the Peloponnese and deep into the gloriously vegetated mountain landscapes of Northern Greece.
Marcus Harvey
Marcus Harvey was born in nipaluna/Hobart in 1952 and attended the University of Tasmania (UTAS) from which he graduated with a degree in Environmental Design. He later gained a Diploma of Librarianship and worked for many years at both the State Library of Tasmania and UTAS.
Marcus had always been fascinated by the natural world and in time developed a passion for bulbs, particularly crocus and fritillaria. In 1991 he travelled to Greece on his first seed collecting trip, returning full of enthusiasm for Mediterranean bulbs and their suitability to Australian conditions.
Crocus harveyi, named by Jānis Rukšāns in honour of Marcus Harvey.
About Hill View Rare Plants
Hill View Rare Plants was a small specialist mail order nursery that operated from 1991 until 2018 offering a wide range of rare and unusual bulbs for those who garden in cool maritime to Mediterranean type climates.
After more than 20 years experience in the business Hill View developed extensive listings of Crocus, Cyclamen, Calochortus, Fritillaries, Snowdrops, Iris and much more – many not available anywhere else. These bulbs were from a high quality collection derived mostly from worldwide seed exchanges and our own seed gathering expeditions, therefore a high degree of confidence was placed on their identification and provenance.
Hill View's Plants
Origanum 'Bellissimo'
Origanum “Bellissimo” is a superior origanum selection made by Marcus Harvey. It has the deepest, richest plum flowers of ANY origanum on the planet, let alone the trade. They last an eternity (2 months). They don’t blemish over that time or even fade much. The flower stems are arranged very neatly in an array around the plant.
Hill View's Previous Plant Selections
Hill View was one of the first nurseries in Australia to offer an extensive range of rare bulbs and seeds, often providing wild collected seed to customers. Here you can view our previous plant listings and search for particular plants of interest.
Contact Us
Contact Us
For all book and other general enquiries, please contact us via hillviewrareplants@gmail.com, or fill out our contact form below and we’ll be in touch asap.
International and Bulk Orders Over 6 Copies
We are currently only taking book orders for Australia through this website. To place International orders, and for better postage rates on bulk book orders of 6 copies or more please contact us directly to arrange.
Join Our Mailing List
If you are interested in updates regarding Ramblings of a Rare Plant Hunter or any other ongoing developments at Hill View we urge you to join our Mailing List.