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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA
Shown here one
year post-planting,
Kauri Park Nursery
supplied plants for
the NZTA MacKays
to Peka Peka
Expressway project.
Growing green
Eco-sourcing for optimal results
Text by Fiona Hoyle Images provided by Kauri Park
Kauri Park is New Zealand’s largest native plant nursery with a site
north of Auckland and another in
Palmerston North.
Kauri Park produced a total of
7 million plants in 2015; this increased to 10 million in 2016. These
plants are used mainly in commercial landscape projects, riparian
plantings, subdivision planting,
wetlands, and Manuka forestry.
“We understand the importance
of using high quality plants in
landscaping projects — plants that
can easily acclimatize to the new
conditions, plants that will result in
high success rates,” says Kauri Park
director Phil Wearmouth. “High
quality plants can decrease the
overall cost of the project and take
less time to achieve the desired
outcome.”
Plants not only need to look great
when they are planted, but have the
right fiber and qualities to continue
their growing pattern once in the
ground. Kauri Park mixes a blend
of seven additional ingredients into
the soil at the time of production
to improve the quality of the plant.
These ingredients include a mixture of fertilizers — some are a
quick-release and give the plants
an initial boost, while others are
slow-releasing and help continue
the plant growth once out of the
nursery and into the landscape.
Kauri Park uses a unique tray
system (of their own design) to
help facilitate healthy growth
post-planting. The individual
plastic cells have grooves running lengthways, which prevent
the plant roots from growing in
a circular motion as they may do
in a planter bag or a round pot.
When the plants are pulled out
of the trays, the roots are freed.
This helps minimize transplanting
shock and maximizes successful
establishment post-planting.
The cleverly designed tray also
minimizes handling of the tops of
the plants pre-planting. Both at