Plant and Other News – November 2021
Friday volunteer sessions have been busy and well attended with “everything” needing to be done at this time of year. Seed has germinated and needs pricking out, cuttings have rooted and need potting into PB3’s, seedlings in small pots need potting on into PB3’s, weeds are growing apace and watering is ramping up. So….. at this very busy time of year Chris and Brian went away on holiday for 2 weeks!! Our massive thanks to Linda and Ray and our volunteers for keeping the nursery running – organising Friday sessions, and a watering regime while we were away. Our Nursery is truly community based!
It wasn’t all holiday for us, some of it a busman’s holiday as we bagged (literally put a bag over) some rare plants to collect seed for DOC in Central Otago, Brian did some work inspections and some searches for rare plants on the West Coast – which he found. Sorry Liz we only made it as far north as Okarito, but thoroughly enjoyed the wild west coast, in magnificent weather!
On the way home we attended the opening of the Cromwell Community Nursery and the Hui for 7 other community nurseries from Wakatipu, Clyde, Glenorchy, Wanaka, Cromwell, Lake Ohai (apols from Lumsden). The rise of community nurseries across the country is great to see. In our own patch of Southland there are some new community nurseries being established under the Jobs4Nature initiative and that should result in massive numbers of native plants being planted in our environment and many more environmental champions. We are very happy to be able to support Estelle at Bluff Hill Motupohue Trust, Jana at Te Tapu o Tāne and Riki at Hokonui Runanga with our local knowledge and experience and look forward to working closely together and sharing knowledge in the future.
As you can see with many preceding stories Bronwyn and Mark are doing great things with education and lots of happy children’s faces getting outside the classroom for their nature experiences. Of course sale of our plants helps continue to fund this great work as well as Lotteries and some ICC funding this year.
Couldn’t resist including a few stunning photos of West Coast – nature is rejuvenating for us all in these testing times. Look out for flowering plants at the moment - we saw lots of different orchids on the coast but here our gem Olearia fragrantissima with its intense apricot scent is in full flower, as are the wonderfully scented Ti Kouka, the cabbage tree and many others.
We are planning the Community Nursery Christmas Break up Friday on 17 December 2021, put the date in your diary.
Chris
Posted: 15 November 2021