Aotea Community Native Plant Nursery

In August 2025, the Aotea Community Native Plant Nursery will have been open for 4 years.  Originally situated in Garden Rd, Tryphena, this Aotea Great Barrier Local Board and Auckland Council funded project has exceeded all expectations.

The Nursery was established as a pilot project following community aspirations for a native plant nursery and the need to reduce the number of plants being brought to the island with all the attendant biosecurity risks like ants and plague skinks hiding in the soil.

Since opening, over 2716 plants have been sold and sales are growing. 4500+ plants have been propagated and we have well spilled out of the original ground area for plants.

The Nursery was managed under the Windy Hill Rosalie Bay Catchment Trust umbrella and was a great sister to the restoration project that is the Windy Hill Sanctuary. The Trust employed a part time nursery manager whose wages were met from Local Board funds and Council meets the capital costs of things like soil and bags. Budget forecasting puts the nursery standing alone in another 5 years.

The Nursery building was a renovated cow shed that looks sharp after a recent lick of paint and was leased from landowner Derek Bell with the lease payment being by way of native plants. The ‘cowshed’ housed a propagation room, a small office, and a room for potting and storage. There is now a large polytunnel donated by Damian Honiss and a shade house purchased from funds to grow plants in. An irrigation system was donated by Danvers Devereaux whose company makes the Barrier Bee Co range.

A small section for non-native plants has also been established.

The Nursery has an Advisory committee made up of knowledgeable locals to assist with planning and plant matters and has visiting ‘experts’ from mainland Nurseries who assist with propagation, irrigation, etc.

Locals volunteer, drop off plants, pots and seedlings, and grow on plants for the Nursery. The Nursery supports local growers by purchasing plants to sell on and works on landscape scale projects collaboratively with Okiwi Green, a private Nursery in Okiwi.

Plants have been donated to community planting on public land and recently, to the Marae at Kawa and Motairehe.

The management of the nursery was handed over to Motu Nurseries in 2024 and the retail shop is now located in Medlands next to Aotea Brewery.