A memorial to honour Gil Teague, founder of the Florilegium bookshop, will be held on Friday 27 March at the Petersham Bowling Club, Sydney. RSVP: mmjteague@gmail.com
This tribute to Gil was written for the April issue of Australian Garden History:
For many years, the fine and gentle Gil Teague would send a palette of books to AGHS conferences and load up his trusty Volvo to bring members the latest books on gardens, plants and garden history, as well as fine second-hand books to feed their thirst for research. Gil and his lovely wife Margaret (d.2023) enjoyed our conferences, although AGHS never really competed with the Cottage Garden Club days where Gil was inundated with hundreds of buyers.
Despite being intensely private, Gil liked to get to know his customers and their interests and would often ring them if he thought a new antiquarian acquisition might be tempting. Principled and self-effacing, he charmed with his twinkling eyes, dry and subtle wit. He would push customers to think about a book that might challenge their thinking – he enthusiastically recommended Germaine Greer’s White Beech and Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe.
Gil was born in Casino, NSW. His father was a forester and the whole family loved horse racing. He attended Melbourne Grammar in secondary school and won a Commonwealth scholarship to study veterinary science at the University of Sydney. However, he found animal dissection and anatomy very off-putting and left. A job in the library of the University of Newcastle set him on a lifelong career in books. Gil had various roles in publishing, beginning as a sales representative and eventually in a senior position with a large educational publisher.
The quarterly English journal Hortus was founded in 1987. Printed on heavy paper stock in a typeface from the 1930s and illustrated with wood engravings and line drawings, it was an anachronism. Yet, this style combined with essays from top-notch English garden writers enticed Gil to become its Australian agent.
In 1989 Gil launched his own business from the front room of the Teague house in Balmain. It was here I first met Gil in the early 1990s when bibliophile Richard Aitken arranged a visit. Gil kept his most precious books in the front room but most were across the road in a garage, which had a tiny but efficient packing station. For years, Gil would chat with clients in the front room and then duck over to the garage to bring back books. He published the award-winning Wisterias: A Comprehensive Guide by Peter Valder in 1995, The Aussie Plant Finder 1999/2000 by Margaret Hibbert, The Garden Plants of China by Peter Valder, of which he was immensely proud, and in 2012, the outstanding monograph Huanduj Brugmansia by Alistair Hay, Monika Gottschalk and Adolfo Holguin.
The books spread beyond the front room. Margaret gave Gil an ultimatum and by 2000 he opened Florilegium in St John’s Road in Glebe, where they lived above the shop. In 2000 he published Michael McCoy’s Garden, launched by Leo Schofield in one of the many happy events at the bookshop. Gardens in China by Peter Valder was published in 2002 and an update of the Plant Finder in 2004. In about 2010 Florilegium moved to Derwent Street in Glebe. Gil and Margaret again lived upstairs and their beloved daughter Mary and son next door. Many mourned the closure of the Florilegium bookshop in 2020, the only one dedicated to horticultural and garden books in the country.
For the past year Gil had been helping Miguel Garcia at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney Daniel Solander Library value the library’s rare books. Gil’s death has elicited glowing tributes from near and far. In remembrance of Gil you may like to donate to the Sydney Botanic Garden’s Library: https://www.botanic gardens.org/our-science/our-collections/daniel-solander-library