Central Wairarapa Plains

Featherston, Greytown, Carterton, Masterton, Te Ore Ore, Opaki, Martinborough.

Environmental Factors: Generally dry and sunny with a slight increase in rainfall towards the western hills. Frost intensity and frequency increases further north.

Past Landscape: Drought and frost-tolerant podocarps dominated the canopy in the well-drained stony soils.

Plants we recommend:

"Heritage" Trees

Black, hard & red beech, matai, totara

Trees

Big (b) = >15m, Medium (m)= 10-15m. Small (s) = <10m

Black maire (b), broadleaf (m) ( Griselinia lucida), cabbage tree (m), forest cabbage tree (s) kanuka (m), lancewood (m), lemonwood (m), lacebark (s) lowland ribbonwood (b), mapou (s) marble-leaf (s), Sophora microphylla (s), tawa (b), titoki (b), toro (s), white maire (b), wineberry (s), rohutu (s).

Shrubs

Coprosma propinqua, Coprosma rhamnoides, Coprosma rigida, Coprosma virescens, Coprosma crassifolia, Coprosma areolata, corokia, koromiko, Helichrysum lanceolatum, Carmichaelia australis, Teucridium parvifolium, wild Irishman.

Climbers (c) & Scramblers (s)

Climbing fuchsia (c), small white clematis (c), NZ jasmine (c) ( Parsonsia capsularis), white rata (c), scarlet rata (c)

Ferns- including tree ferns (tf)

Button fern, NZ maidenhair, silver fern (tf), rasp fern, shield fern, shining spleenwort

Grasses (g), sedges (s) and rushes (r)

Speckled sedge (s), Longwood tussock (s), silver tussock (g), spring-flowering toetoe (g), wind grass (g)

Look for these symbols in the main list for more plants to plant in this zone: Os, To, Fh, Fm, Ab, Af.

A heritage hedge – why not?

Did you know that the Corokia cotoneaster hedge around the Government Buildings (Victoria University Law School) on Lambton Quay was planted over 100 years ago? It’s an example of a native shrub, regularly trimmed with care to last more than a life-time. Small birds such as waxeyes build their nests in it. It has starry yellow flowers followed by scarlet fruit. A wide range of native plants make effective, attractive hedges, wind-breaks and shelter-belts. Almost any tree, shrub or climber can be trained and kept trimmed for this purpose.