New Zealand Native Plants

The silver tree fern is known to grow to heights of 10 metres or more its crown is dense, and the fronds tend to be about 4 metres long and have a silver-white coloration on the undersides.

it is now nearly summer 2016 - 2017 the ferns are growing and look very nice after a hard winter, lots of winds and more rain than usual in the winter months.

New Zealand native plants have become increasingly popular in gardens and many can be easily propagated by seeds, like the ferns.

The Asplenium bulbiferous, (hen and chickens fern), is a handsome fern for the garden lover who wishes to grow some ferns in their garden.

This fern bears sporelings on its leaf surfaces, these sporelings or young ferns can be detached and potted up, or if left on the plant they will fall to the ground and root down where they land.

It is now the middle of Spring and this week has been very wet (80 mm of rain yesterday,} the ground is very wet, the ferns have been knocked to pieces with the strong wind we have had in the last week, but they will recover quickly. and new growth will appear.

Ferns offer a unique and diverse flora that includes hundreds of outstanding garden plants.

80 percent of these native plants in New Zealand are found nowhere else in the world.

They are adapted to climates ranging from rugged mountains to subtropical lowlands.

Nurseries and garden centers have responded to the increased interest and are stocking a wide range of NZ natives, ranging from groundcovers to tall trees.

The selection available is considerable, they include many new hybrid natives which have been specially selected and bred in nurseries and are distinct from native plants encountered in the wild bush country.

These hybrid and selected natives often have improved growth habits, showier floral displays, or attractive variegated or colored leaves.

I enjoy the color of flax in my garden it brings in the tui and bellbirds

I love the native plants encountered in the wild, especially the silver ferns (pongas) and ferns like the ones in this photo which hang down in an archway, still, it's nice to see added colour in the garden.

New Zealand ferns are beautiful and unique a natural heritage, but they are being destroyed.

The amount of land required for food production and human needs is forever increasing and so inevitably some species will disappear altogether.

It is up to us the private garden to help in preserving some of the threatened species of ferns.

You will love their beauty.

As a home gardener consider growing some ferns on your property, it will enhance your surroundings and help compensate for the destruction of those graceful ferns which are being destroyed daily.

As you can see from these ferns, they are beautiful to look at, especially as a breeze catches them and they sway back and forward, I cannot believe the beauty of them.

Their characteristic in my garden setting help to impart a feeling of tranquility and the growth and shape of them remind me of a walk in the native forest, that I love so much, right here in my own garden.

In natural environment in the bush, ferns flourish magnificently, but a little extra care is required in a home garden.

Soil

Ferns will not thrive if planted in sour, cold heavy clay.

They love decomposed vegetation for example leaf mould and peat to which has been added equal quantities of gritty, stony matter to keep it open and porous, to which old animal manure added is most beneficial.

Ferns are not happy in drought conditions, so water is required if dry.

But on the contrary, ferns can be grown with far less labour than is involved in the cultivation of many of the popular flowering plants.

This bush orchid is in flower,t his one is down the bottom of the garden growing on a tree trunk.

It is another form of beauty that can be found in the bush growing on trees which don't see too much sun, they are usually growing on the south side of a tree, if they are in flower you will certainly smell them as you walk past them.

Bush orchid also growing in the archway as you walk through.

This orchid is not in flower at the moment (late spring).

Nice sheltered shady corner, an ideal spot for shade-loving ferns, while the silver fern standing proud in the middle of this photo, a picture of beauty and still getting sunlight, stretching their fronds out to the heavens.

Ferns make a nice setting around the pond, with the water lilies, you can see a silver fern (ponga) in the back ground.

The silver ferns, always a nice setting in any garden, but they require shelter from the frosts.

They have been knocked around as we have had two storms with winds up to 100 km a hour.