Community Nursery News 7 November 2022

Nursery Fridays are in full swing with potting, moving plants, pricking out seedlings, track clearing, even full nursery watering a few weeks ago! We usually have between 10-15 volunteers attending Friday mornings, so it is busy! Networking is rife with newcomers benefitting from the experience of others, not to mention the morning teas!

On the plant front everything is happening – a warm, and now wetter spring has brought out lots of native flowers from Fuchsia, kohuhu, clematis and a mass flowering of kowhai. This means lots of bird activity. I located for the first time (in 20+ years) a tui nest in our restoration area, so it proves that by providing the habitat and pest control that they will come! It goes without saying the providing a food source like kowhai will bring nectar feeders like tui and bellbird in to feed. Interestingly waxeyes are also nectar feeders but have not evolved in NZ – they “raid” the cap of the flower with their sharp beaks and get food that way rather than feeding up the long flower as tui and bellbirds do (see photos). I also recently saw two falcons at Tautuku and a shining cuckoo at our place.

In the nursery itself seedlings are all coming up and pricking out will be a major job for many weeks. This year we are also taking over the Bushy Point plant order so there will be less plants available to the public, but still lots of plants for sale at the moment from shelter species to forest restoration to wetland species. We are always on hand on Fridays to give advice so pop in and see us on Friday mornings between 9am and noon.

Note the Nursery will be closed on Friday 25th November 22 as we have a full day event booked in the Education Centre that day.