Rimu
Two Minute Tree Break - Learn about the Rimu. This very attractive ancient species (fossilised pollen has been traced back 70 million years) loves life and there are records of Rimu reaching a thousand years.
Two Minute Tree Break - Learn about the Rimu. This very attractive ancient species (fossilised pollen has been traced back 70 million years) loves life and there are records of Rimu reaching a thousand years.
Two Minute Tree Break - Enjoy a change of focus with us and have a squiz at the very handsome Titoki (Alectryon excelsus). Titoki, with its glossy leaves and spectacular bright red fruit is a fine attractant for native birds including Tui and Kereru
Plant Pass Certification is awarded by PlantPass.org.nz and assures the high integrity of biosecurity risk and plant management systems, with special regard currently for Myrtle Rust and Kauri Dieback.
Two Minute Tree Break - Slip your focus sidewise and consider native trees from a historical perspective. For instance, Puka (Meryta sinclairii) is most uncommon in the wild but is a popular cultivated tree and is grown as far south as Banks Peninsula.
Two Minute Tree Break - Dance your eyes away for a couple of minutes and bring your thoughts with them to the restful green of one of New Zealand’s native trees, the White Maire(Nestegis lanceolata). If you can’t be with a native tree, then eyeball one in your thoughts
Two Minute Tree Break - New Zealand’s native trees are sometimes passed over for flashy exotics, mostly because people haven’t seen natives in the full resilient splendour that is part of a native tree’s inheritance. For instance, look at the fabulous relatively uncommon Ewekuri (Streblus banksii)
Pohutukawa are a constant as coastal summer begins, ripe with striking red blossoms composed of hundreds of stamens which for many simply spell, New Zealand. But take a break and a breath, and have a peep-eye at Golden Pohutukawa which blossoms distinctively in attractive yellow.
Two Minute Tree Break - Some native species are very fast growers. It was brought to our attention that many are unaware of this when over a week several people mentioned they’d like to plant native trees but really they grow so slowly. Not so - not at all.
Give your focus a break and check out three on a family tree – the Phyllocladus family. The Phyllocladaceae family incorporates a miniature genus of conifers, including the following three very attractive smaller forest trees.
Two Minute Tree Break - Both Makomako and Kamahi are exceptionally beautiful trees when in full bloom, each producing gorgeous racemes in a showy proliferation of colour.
Two Minute Tree break PROPOTS – a More Eco-Friendly Product. Supplying trees to streets, reserves, schools, homes and other worthy projects is a cool and eco-friendly business to be in. We, and you as customers, do our bit to help cleanse the atmosphere through carbon sequestration. Nevertheless, we have been using too many non- biodegradable woven bags
Two Minute Tree Break - Recent slips and general land instability resulting from severe storms and extreme rainfall throughout the North Island have brought into focus the absolute need to respect cliff faces and steep areas. Also, a need to thoroughly investigate potential methods for remediating land laid bare by slips
Two Minute Tree Break - Sneak a couple of minutes in to refresh your eye and sharpen your focus while you enjoy some of New Zealand’s more common, yet mysterious tree ferns.
Two Minute Tree Break - Wow your eye with this extraordinary flowering native plant, often domesticated for patios, decks and decorative gardens.
Two Minute Tree Break - Much of New Zealand has been over-watered in the last few months and wetlands have appeared where there weren’t any, and are hopefully draining as you read this
Two Minute Tree Break - Ake Ake a lovely yet hardy native tree which adjusts itself to the environment in which it grows.
Two Minute Tree Break - Thirty native tree species are perfectly suited to conditions from Auckland to the North.
Hailing from the Asparagaceae family, this iconic endemic feature of New Zealand’s landscape was known as ‘cabbage tree’ because like Maori, early settlers and bushmen ate the blanched inner leaves and cores of terminal shoots. They were a little on the bitter side but sufficiently palatable, similar to artichoke
Two Minute Tree Break - Warmer days smelling like summer make a refreshing break with the rather interesting Ngaio - a drought tolerant salt hardy New Zealand native tree, not the inner suburb of Wellington – downright pleasant
Two Minute Tree Break - Matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia) and Miro (Pectinopitys ferruginea). This handsome pair of New Zealand native trees is sometimes confused, particularly if the foliage is too high to define, but there are distinct differences despite each carrying plum-like fruit and yielding sought-after timber
Two Minute Tree Break - The genus Libocedrus refers to cypresses which resemble cedars. Plumosa translates as feathery, referring to the lovely flattened foliage which gives mature trees a ‘feathery’ look. Kawaka is an at-risk native tree by virtue of its sparse occurrence
Two Minute Tree Break - Allow us to introduce you to Mahoe, a member of the family Violaceae, which includes violets and pansies. This plant family is made up of sixteen genera and encompasses around 900 species, most of which are broadly spread across both Northern and Southern hemispheres
Two Minute Tree Break - Look for a moment at the handsome Karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus). It was food, shade, medicine, firewood, decorative, a tree with bright orange fruit that attracted and brought game directly within range of the hunter’s spear
Two Minute Tree Break - According to science, people who can see trees are more able to relax, have improved focus, and reduced stress. See if Hinau (Elaeocarpus dentatus) and Pokaka (Elaeocarpus hookerianus) might do it for you
Two Minute Tree Break - The difference between the lengthy juvenile stage and the mature adult forms of these extraordinary trees is so intense that early botanists classified them as separate species. Take a break, have a squint, and admire a marvel
Two Minute Tree Break - Some might be tempted to suggest Turepo has more handsome companions in the native tree-scape, but few trees are as hardy, or make such interesting statement or street trees. Turepo, the milk tree, belongs to the Mulberry family, genus Moraceae
Two Minute Tree Break - Putaputaweta (Carpodetus serratus) is an extraordinarily attractive native tree which harbours secrets, in tiny holes at first and then when the holes are big enough, they carry different secrets.
Two Minute Tree Break - One of our most widely known native trees is the lovely Kowhai, famous for its spectacular bright yellow display when in full bloom. Kowhai belongs to the New Zealand genera, Sophora, part of the flowering family, Papilionaceae.
Two Minute Tree Break - Recorded in 1984 the largest Kahikatea still standing at Kaharoa near Rotorua. It was 50m tall with girth at chest height of 1.84m. However, records exist of trees over 60m, making Kahikatea the indisputably tallest of our native trees
Two Minute Tree Break - This one is a break worth taking, under the shade of one of New Zealand’s most beautiful flowering native trees, Puriri (Vitex lucens). North Islanders are familiar with this tree which formed an important part of the Maori medicine chest
Two Minute Tree Break - Take a break, re-focus, and revise your take on this moment in time by standing it next to the majestic New Zealand Kauri (Agathis australis) and its moments in time. Some Kauri ‘moments’ have endured for 1000+ years.
Two Minute Tree Break - our very own New Zealand native, Elingamita (Elingamita johnsonii). This very pretty shrub or small tree is the only member of its genus, and it is at risk, though not under threat, in the wild. That’s because it is found only on West Island in the Three Kings group fifty-five miles north of Cape Reinga
Two Minute Tree Break - Pennantiaceae Family - Kaikomako (Pennantia corymbosa) and Baylisiana (Pennantia baylisiana) is a relatively new Australasian classification with a single genus, Pennantia
Two Minute Tree Break - Taraire is a close relative of Tawa and it comes from the Lauraceae family, an ancient flowering family with its genesis in the days of Gondwana.
Two Minute Tree Break - Toatoa grows slowly to two metres at ten years, to a maximum of fifteen metres, and it is a long-lived tree. It is found in the wild up to 1000m in lowland and montane forests from Ahipara, south to the volcanic plateau and not much beyond Ruapehu, although it is successfully cultivated in Christchurch
Two Minute Tree Break - behold a magnificent slender nectar-delivering New Zealand native tree upon which to rest your focus, Rewarewa (Knightia excelsa). Rewarewa is a member of the Protea family (Proteaceae)
Two Minute Tree Break - In the wild Akapuka (Griselinia lucida) usually gets a start as an epiphyte, but on the ground the amazing nutrient-seeking capacities of this shrub find it perched on cliffs and rocky outcrops and on Rangitoto Island, it grows directly on the volcanic rock
Two Minute Tree Break - Totara (Podocarpus totara). The oldest Totara in the country is 1400-1850 years old, and grows near the Pureora Forest. It is 39m tall, and to the first fork, the trunk is 10.36m
Two Minute Tree Break - In New Zealand we have just two of twelve Elaeocarpus genera.Elaeocarpus and Aristotelia represent four native species,Hinau (E.dentatus), Pokaka (E.hookerianus),and Makomako (A. serrata), and Mountain Wineberry (A. fruticosa).
Two Minute Tree Break - Melicytus is translated from Greek, as ‘honey cavity’ and refers to the nectaries, the nectar-producing glands below the flower stamens
Two Minute Tree Break - Cyril Watson is so attractive, that it has found its way into gardens, and patio planters all over the North Island, and even as far south, if conditions allow, as Christchurch despite its natural habitat from the Three Kings to North Taranaki. It’s a winner and a hardy survivor in all but severe frost conditions
Two Minute Tree Break - The habitat of Maire Tawhake has been significantly reduced by extensive land drainage and development of swampy areas for agriculture.
Two Minute Tree Break - Kohuhu was well utilised by early Maori, and is today one of the most planted small trees, both as an attractive specimen tree, and as a shelter or buffer plant
Two Minute Tree Break - Houpara (Pseudopanax lessonii). So enterprising is it, that its original natural habitat from the Three Kings south to North Taranaki, in a line across to Poverty Bay, has been extended to as far south as Nelson, and in good conditions, even to Christchurch
Two Minute Tree Break - In full bloom this graceful tree is a sight for sore eyes as it blushes with tiny white flowers, almost entirely covering the foliage. Hungere, also known as Narrow-leaved Lacebark, is the smallest of the Ribbonwood-Lacebark group
Two Minute Tree Break - Scientists aboard Captain Cook’s first New Zealand voyage in 1768, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, gathered Kohekohe as one of their first botanical specimens from the Shakey Isles. That 240 year old sample is still held in the Te Papa collection
Two Minute Tree Break - If you’re going to make 10m long bird spears that can be handed down the generations, you need Tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) timber taken from the precise centre between heartwood and bark. The marvellous native tree that provided Maori with this extraordinary hunting tool
Two Minute Tree Break - Maori named Tanekaha, Strong Man, owing to its high quality strong, ‘elastic’ timber. Known in English as Celery Pine because of its leather-like vaguely celery-shaped leaves, the olive-coloured leaves are actually imposters, being in fact flattened twigs known as phyllodes
Two Minute Tree Break - Supplying trees to streets, reserves, schools, homes and other worthy projects is a cool and eco-friendly business to be in. We, and you as customers, do our bit to help cleanse the atmosphere through carbon sequestration. Might we also mention the aesthetics of New Zealand’s amazing native biodiversity to which we contribute through sustainable development? Nevertheless, we have been using too many non-biodegradable woven bags
Two Minute Tree Break - a little known native tree, Toro (Myrsine salicina). Apparently early Maori around Rotorua found the branches well suited to bag net handles because the tough resilient fresh wood bent, but wouldn’t break
Two Minute Tree Break - Northern Rata (Metrosideros robusta), one of New Zealand’s tallest flowering trees. The Rata tree grows on an angle as one Maori tradition has it, because the first Rata sapling was trampled by a moa
Two Minute Tree Break - Slip your focus sidewise and consider native trees from a historical perspective. For instance, Puka (Meryta sinclairii) is most uncommon in the wild but is a popular cultivated tree and is grown as far south as Banks Peninsula.
Two Minute Tree Break - Dance your eyes away for a couple of minutes and bring your thoughts with them to the restful green of one of New Zealand’s native trees, the White Maire(Nestegis lanceolata). If you can’t be with a native tree, then eyeball one in your thoughts
Two Minute Tree Break - Maori utilised the resilient timber for waka keels, adze stocks, and gardening tools (sticks for digging), while Europeans made cabinets from it long before milling native forest became anachronistic
Two Minute Tree Break - The hearty but lightweight Pukatea timber was used in earlier years for boat-building and Maori built some waka from it, but it is prone to water-absorption and becoming heavy and soggy. Maori also used the bark medicinally as an analgesic. The active property is pukateine which has a similar chemical structure to morphine
Two Minute Tree Break -Wharangi (Melicope ternata) is native to New Zealand and when planted in the open is properly a shrub, branching from the base. It can be trained into beautiful bright green hedging and is indeed a finer hedge-form than produced by Papauma (Griselinia littoralis)
Two Minute Tree Break - Tawhero was used by early Maori to treat wounds and skin diseases. They scraped the bark from the sun-facing side of the tree, then stripped the clean interior bark to pulp and boil it before straining the decoction. It was used to bathe wounds before bandaging them for reputedly scar-less healing. It was also taken internally as a purgative, and mixed with oils and applied warm, to burns
Two Minute Tree Break - Are you familiar with our fetching native Makamaka (Ackama rosifolia)? It was named after its rose-like foliage, which is reddish on the underside. Allan Cunningham, an early botanist, first catalogued Makamaka in the Hokianga in 1826. Ackama was his adaptation of the Maori name, Makamaka
Two Minute Tree break - Oro oro, sometimes known as narrow-leaved maire, is a round-headed evergreen with glossy bright-green narrow leaves. The tree is very similar to White Maire except for its narrower leaves. This upright lowland-forest specimen can also be found up to an altitude of 700 metres, from as far south as Nelson through to Northland. Oro Oro is a hardy native producing quality strong, durable timber.
Summer in the city and it’s hot. Keep in mind that very young trees need to be regularly watered
Read all about our relocation to a new site
Auckland Council has a relatively limited approved native species list for use as Auckland Street trees
Two Minute Tree Break - Points which may suprise - Takana sells more Nikau than any other species. We try to carry them in allsizes from 25L up. Our specialty is Pitt Island Nikau (ALL grown from seedfrom Pitt Island), but we also carry a lovely mainland selection
We keep a consistent plentiful supply of many less-recognised native trees, but here are five of our favourites, always kept in large surplus
Following the April discovery of Myrtle Rust, we sent out a bulletin with information and observations
We have made substantial improvements to our range of native plant stock and services including offer additional bag sizes
Here are 3 new trees which Takana is promoting as beautiful and hardy additions to the Northern Street Scapes
Certain trees are often described as Wetland trees because they are found in marshy or swamp conditions, but many trees categorised as ideal in wetland areas are perfectly content
The recent Myrtle Rust outbreak discovered in Kerikeri has naturally caused widespread concern among our customers with current orders for Pohutukawa and those planting Manuka and Kanuka
Included in this article are some excellent options for your consideration all very suited to Canterbury conditions
Street trees have tougher lives than their wilder sisters living in natural situations. Successful development in to elegant maturity requires that street species have a strong upright growth habit on a single leader. Their trunks should be clear to a metre and they need to withstand wind and drought
Two Minute Tree Break - Houpara (Pseudopanax lessonii). So enterprising is it, that its original natural habitat from the Three Kings south to North Taranaki, in a line across to Poverty Bay, has been extended to as far south as Nelson, and in good conditions, even to Christchurch
Lesser known street trees provide a unique look for projects where the usual choices would be overdone. We’ve outlined a few which are eminently suited to your local climate and environment.
Flowering trees bring wonder and pleasure to their viewers. They bring birds, creating vibrant landscapes, and they turn good environments into exquisite ones over the flowering period. Let’s have a look at two of our classic New Zealand blooming trees, Pohutukawa and Kowhai.
In this article we want to showcase the following famous trees which are not as commonly planted as we would hope
Wetlands have traditionally been drained in New Zealand in favour of land development, but as the importance of these natural wet areas has become more evident, particularly in sustaining native wildlife, they are being progressively reinstated
