The Cabbage Tree or tī kōuka was hugely useful to maori; the root, stem, and leaves were all eaten, the leaves used in medicine or woven into sandals, rope, and baskets.
The Cabbage Tree or tī kōuka was hugely useful to maori; the root, stem, and leaves were all eaten, the leaves used in medicine or woven into sandals, rope, and baskets.
Kōwhai are members of the pea family, famous for their bright blossoms of yellow flowers. Kōwhai is also the maori word for yellow.
New Zealand is home to the largest fuchsia plant in the world; the tree fuchsia or kōtukutuku can grow to 15m.
Harakeke is a valuable resource because of its strength and was New Zealand’s biggest export in early European times.
This spring we have been thrilled by the number of volunteers who supported our planting days. We had record numbers of volunteers, especially at Whitechapel, where 1920 natives were in the ground before Peter could shout “BBQ is ready”!
Across our keystone sites, 350 community members spent 850 hours planting 5140 natives, with a further 2860 natives planted at our Community sites and Schools. Wow!
Morning tea was a big hit at each of the planting days, and we would like to say a very big and special thank you to Aabhi and his team at Hilton Hotel and also Alvaro and his team at Crowne Plaza, for kindly providing delicious mid morning nourishment and for also joining us planting!
But there is no resting on our laurels! The nursery is in full swing as the spring growing season is well and truly underway, and our amazing team of nursery volunteers have already pricked out 3000 wee seedlings and pottered them into V150 root trainer pots. Most of these seedlings will stay in the nursery until they are ready for planting in 2022.
As always, we shout out a HUGE thank you to every single one of our volunteers. Your efforts are restoring the biodiversity of our local environment, one plant at a time!
The competition is split into four age categories and we are very excited to offer a prize pool worth over $2000! So get creative and submit your entries before Sat 15th August.