24 April 2025
A tiny population of rare native orchids has received a boost with the first-ever reintroduction of lab-grown seedlings into the wild.
Cooper's orchid - New Zealand's rarest and most elusive native orchid species - spends years growing underground, before emerging as a leafless stick with brown flowers.
This subterranean lifestyle, plus a fussy relationship with fungi, makes conserving these orchids particularly challenging.
Continue reading here: Our Changing World: Helping New Zealand’s understated orchids
14 April 2025
The Begonia House at Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā is a large conservatory in the Lady Norwood Rose Garden. It was opened in 1960 and is an iconic building within the heritage-listed Botanic Garden landscape setting. The building has a range of uses and houses plant displays for plant conservation, botanical interest, and for wonderment of our natural world. Read on to learn more about the history of the Begonia House.
Continue reading here: History of the Begonia House
18 March 2025
Autumn is an exciting time in the garden! From the stunning autumn colours to the perfect weather for planting and prepping for winter, there’s lots to do. Here are some helpful tips from Wellington Gardens Plant Collections Team Manager Megan Ireland on how you can prep and make the most of your garden this autumn.
Continue reading here: Bet your autumn dollar, you’ll love these gardening tips
23 February 2025
This paper is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Conservation Nelson, the University of Otago, Envico Technologies, and the Lions Ōtari Plant Conservation Laboratory. It explores how seed balls can be used for large-scale restoration in New Zealand by spreading them from the air—a method called aerial broadcasting. The team studied 11 native species, figuring out the best ways to collect, process, and test the seeds to see if they can handle this approach and successfully grow.
Read the paper here: Viability of seed balls for large-scale restoration of native plant communities in New Zealand
19 February 2025
Thanks to a team effort between Wellington City Council, Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne Ecosanctuary and volunteers, over 3000 kg of weeds and rubbish have been removed from a section of Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush affectionately known as ‘the Shire’, not only paving the way for native plants but uncovering a hidden section of the Kaiwharawhara awa (stream).
Continue reading here: Clean-up effort uncovers hidden section of Kaiwharawhara awa
27 January 2025
Pōneke is full of beautiful manu, and Wellington City Council has many initiatives in place to protect them in the city. One of these projects has given us a full circle moment a decade later, where a special kākā has been spotted at Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush. Read on to find out more.
Continue reading here:The circle of life: Meet the returning kākācam star
14 January 2025
Not many people are aware of the threatened native plant species garden in the Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā, a hidden gem that is tucked away on a steep slope beneath the Treehouse Visitor Centre.
Team Leader Main Gardens Kate Roud has been working at the gardens since October 2021, and has had the task of nurturing this bespoke garden with her team.
Continue reading here: A garden dedicated to threatened species
22 November 2024
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the capital – with rātā and pōhutukawa turning crimson weeks ahead of schedule.
Famously, Wellington’s trees break out in red around the last week of the working year. But some of the city’s rātā are already blossoming, said Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush manager Tim Park. “It’s really early... There is something going on.”
Continue reading here: Wellington’s Pōhutukawa and rātā flower weeks early
11 September 2024
Each Spring, the Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā flourishes with flowers and events for the annual Spring Festival, but did you know the planning and planting process for the event starts in Autumn?
Continue reading here: Fleur Speedy knows flowers take time
27 August 2024The annual Te Wā o te Kōanga - Spring Festival at Wellington Gardens is the perfect way to get amongst the kōanga flowers, and celebrate the season of new beginnings when fresh buds spring into life.
There are lots of events and activities for all to enjoy including an Ikebana Exhibition, garden performers performing the works of Shakespeare, and a free fun day celebrating our buzzy bees.
Continue reading here: Spring into action with a festival of flowers
12 July 2024Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush is the only public botanic garden in New Zealand dedicated to native plants. Recently, it opened its pā harakeke, planted in 2019.
The flax plantation, planted by Ōtari staff with design input from Ōtari Raranga Weavers, contains plants from around New Zealand, chosen for their special leaf and fibre properties. It is a dedicated cultural resource for weavers and includes varieties for making kete, whāriki (mat), piupiu and cloaks.
Continue reading here: Flax collection planted in Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush for making kete, whāriki, piupiu and korowai
22 May 2024Moko, the celebrated grandmother of Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, has presided over the land for more than 800 years, a guardian for the largest remaining forest remnant in Wellington city and the only public botanic garden dedicated to native plants in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Loved in Pōneke and across the country, Moko is a finalist for Tree of the Year NZ, a competition run by the New Zealand Arboricultural Association, which asks New Zealanders to select their favourite tree from a shortlist of six trees around the country.
Continue reading here: Ancient rimu at Ōtari-Wilton's Bush finalist for Tree of the Year
13 May 2024Wellington city is full of beautiful plant displays, gardens, and green spaces, but who are the green thumbs behind them?Not many people know that the Council offers a Horticulture Apprenticeship – a three-year programme where you complete a NZ Certificate in Horticulture – Amenity where you can work in nature while also getting a qualification.
Get to know more about what this apprenticeship can offer from current apprentices, Clem and Cloud.
Continue reading here: Join the shrub: Get to know our horticulture apprentices
11 April 2024The team at Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā is taking a more sustainable approach to planting by extending the time between plant rotations in the display gardens.
The upgrades involve removing existing bedding, soil enhancements, installing interpretation signs, irrigation adjustments, and planting a mix of annual plants, bulbs, perennials, shrubs and grasses.
Continue reading here: Gardens go greener with new approach to planting
March 2024Our amazing volunteer groups, the Friends of Wellington Botanic Garden, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush Trust, and the Friends of Bolton Street Cemetery, share what’s been happening in our spaces and some exciting projects they have been working on.
Read their newsletters here:Friends of Bolton Street CemeteryFriends of Wellington Botanic GardenŌtari-Wilton's Bush Trust
27 February 2024Easily overlooked and regionally endangered, very little is known about the habits and needs of our endemic small onion orchid Microtis oligantha. As this year’s Victoria University of Wellington Summer Scholar at Te Papa and Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Ben Carson aims to make the acquaintance of these unusual orchids.
Continue reading here: How do you grow onion orchids? Peeling back the layers of an overlooked native | Te Papa’s Blog
24 February 2024Live music events have taken place at the gardens since at least the early 1900s. In 1979, the Wellington City Council hosted its first Summer City Festival, a series of outdoor events, concerts and activities.
The historic event is an opportunity for Wellingtonians to enjoy a slice of the local arts scene, elevated by a natural environment that becomes enchanting after dark.
Continue reading here: A history of Gardens Magic, the 154-year-old Wellington concert series | The Spinoff
1 February 2024The Friends of the Wellington Botanic Garden warmly welcome Sandra Morris, this year's Artist in Residence, to the Wellington Botanic Garden. Sandra will immerse herself in the Garden's enchanting surroundings, following the Friends' simple brief: to showcase the Garden's magnificence.
Sandra is excited about renewing her love affair with the Wellington Botanic Garden, she plans to sketch in the gardens, interact with the public and staff, and observe the intriguing relationships between birds, insects, and plants.
Continue reading here: https://wellingtongardens.nz/events/artist-in-residence/
24 January 2024The Wellington Botanic Gardens has a new display on at the Treehouse celebrating women in botany from across the globe who made historic advances in their field.
Reg Harris, a botanist and a guide at the Gardens who put together the display, joins Emile Donovan for an interview on RNZ.
Listen here: Women in botany celebrated at Wellington Botanic Gardens
17 January 2024Water use in Pōneke is at an all-time high. With leaky pipes, forecast El Niño conditions, a growing population and a higher amount of water usage compared to other parts of the country, we’re losing more water than ever before. This impacts not only our residents and businesses, but the green spaces we use in the city.
Wellington Gardens Manager David Sole says that the team are keeping a careful eye on their water usage while still protecting rare and threatened plant species. “Our staff have been asked to be careful about how and where they use water and to regularly check the systems for overspray and leakage. There will be some hand watering of newly planted trees which is essential for their long-term establishment. If there’s low rainfall, we may lose floral displays, plants in planter boxes, and green walls across the city and we’ll be considering planting more drought-tolerant species over the winter months.”
Continue reading here: https://wellington.govt.nz/news-and-events/news-and-information/our-wellington/2024/01/saving-water-across-council-green-spaces
January 2024The Friends of the Wellington Botanic Garden are thrilled to announce a collaboration with La Petite Chocolate. Together they have developed a select range of handcrafted small-batch chocolate bars.
Using herbs gathered from the Wellington Botanic Garden and the magic of a professional chocolatier, they are thrilled to present three stunning flavour combinations: Rosemary and Sea Salt, Thyme and Lemon, and Camomile and Orange plus the traditional favourites of dark and milk chocolate.
A portion of each sale is donated to the Friends so they can continue their support of the Garden. Available from The Treehouse and La Petite, Tinakori Road, Thorndon.
21 December 2023Gardens Magic returns for another triumphant year with the Gardens Magic Concert Series, Light Display, Kids Garden Trail, and Kids Explorer Days. Set amongst the natural beauty of the Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā, this iconic Wellington summer event will paint the gardens with original lighting, activities for the kids, and the vibrant, powerful sounds of our capital’s musicians.
Continue reading here: Gardens Magic 2024
10 November 2023 Across the city, our horticulture apprentices are gearing up to share their carefully crafted gardens with the always popular Hidden Gardens project – if you can find them!
he apprentices, who are all involved in the Council’s 3-year horticulture apprenticeship, have been developing their unique themed gardens since January, with creative themes ranging from witches, ferns and fungi, to tipu toi, the power of the soil, and an alpine adventure.
Everyone is invited to spend time at the gardens and enjoy the space with a picnic with friends and whānau.
Continue reading here: Get ready to beat around the bush with Hidden Gardens
30 October 2023
Karin van der Walt who works in the Lions Ōtari Plant Conservation Laboratory at Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, along with other researchers have published a paper on the advances in the cryopreservation of Syzygium maire (swamp maire, maire tawake) zygotic embryos.
Continue reading here: Advances in cryopreservation of Syzygium maire (swamp maire, maire tawake) zygotic embryos, a critically endangered tree species endemic to New Zealand.
20 October 2023
For those of you wondering about the new structure that’s appeared discreetly in the Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush Epiphyte Garden, a ‘rātā shrine’ is what you’re looking at. It’s quite a special story. Adam Ellis works in creative fields; industrial product design and urban public gardens, integrating designed structural elements within lived landscapes. He also loves rātā.
Decades ago, Adam volunteered at Ōtari supported by Anita Benbrook. He learned so much from the gardeners and botanists that he wanted to ‘give back’, so recently approached manager Tim Park with an idea to design a ‘living structure’ that celebrates rātā. He’s built a few other iterations around the country but none like this one.
True to the Ōtari ethos of celebrating and protecting rare native plants, this new structure features the white-flowering rātā moehau (Bartlett’s rātā, Metrosideros barlettii) which is close to extinction. Only thirteen plants remain in the wild in the Far North.
Most rātā begin life as epiphytes and some grow into trees. This tripod-shaped structure is designed to rot away over time and its supports are filled with sphagnum that will host tendrils reaching to the ground from the rata planted at the top. It will take many years, but eventually, all going well, the plant will become a self-supporting tree.
We are grateful for Adam’s creative inspiration, to Ōtari staff who enabled the project, and especially for the generosity of John Randall, who funded the project as a living memorial to his late wife Robin, daughter of noted botanist, photographer, and Ōtari supporter, Olaf John.
Written by Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush Trust
13 October 2023
We're upgrading the beloved Botanic Garden play area to make it a better place to play.
Works begin on Monday 16 October 2023, and the playground will be reopened to the public in February 2024, weather permitting. The play area will be unavailable for use during this time.
The design was shaped by public input and includes a modern dual flying fox, a large climbable tower, three long slides and an all-ages swing set. We also added sensory play equipment, in addition to popular play pieces - a trampoline, monkey bars, carousel, springers and swings.
Continue reading here: Botanic Garden ki Paekākā play area renewal
13 September 2023
Clare Shearman is the plant collections team manager for Wellington Gardens. She looks after the Botanic Garden, Bolton Street Cemetery and Truby King Park.
Her garden at home in Kelburn is full of dahlias, anemones, lavender, rosemary, and loads of freesias. Working at the Botanic Garden’s Treehouse Visitor Centre, with her visiting black bird pecking at her window, is dreamy.
Continue reading here: https://www.thepost.co.nz/a/nz-news/350071256/my-wellington-cheeky-kaka-and-inquisitive-blackbird
30 August 2023
Wellington’s Botanic Garden ki Paekākā is the first plant nursery in Aotearoa to ditch gas heaters and use heated pipes to keep their glasshouses warm.
Previously, the gas heaters in the glasshouses used to blow hot air around at floor level and were often temperamental and unreliable.They used up to 33,000 kWh of gas per month in the winter – that’s the same amount as 30 average Kiwi homes use in a year, in just one month! As well as being costly, the unpredictable temperatures caused health issues in the plants.
“What we’ve achieved at the Botanic Gardens is what we want to do everywhere else. Doing a smaller scale project like this one shows how much we can optimise systems and roll out similar changes in our facilities.”
Continue reading here:https://wellington.govt.nz/news-and-events/news-and-information/our-wellington/2023/08/botanic-garden-glasshouses-better-off-without-gas
9 August 2023
You cannot be much closer to extinction than the swamp helmet orchid (Corybas carsei), a tiny terrestrial orchid that is found in a single wetland in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.Fortunately, recently published studies, part of Te Papa/VUW student Jennifer Alderton-Moss's (who is also a Research Technician at Ōtari-Wilton's Bush) thesis, are helping to understand how mycorrhizal fungi can be used to save one of our most threatened orchids.
Jennifer Alderton-Moss and Botany Curator Carlos Lehnebach describe the work.
Continue reading here: https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/08/09/our-swamp-helmet-orchid-is-a-step-closer-to-find-its-perfect-partner/
30 May 2023
Jennifer Alderton-Moss and Karin van der Walt who work in the Lions Ōtari Plant Conservation Laboratory at Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, along with Carlos Lehnebach from Te Papa Tongarewa, were recently featured in the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network Newsletter, Trilepidea, for their research on the propagation of Gastrodia cooperae (Cooper's black orchid).
Continue reading here: "First insights into the propagation of Gastrodia cooperae, an elusive orchid with unusual eating habits”
21 April 2023
Conservation and Science Advisor at Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, Karin van der Walt, recently published a paper with six co-authors who are from Chile, South Africa and Spain. It looks at the potential impacts of climate change on ex situ conservation options for recalcitrant-seeded species.
Continue reading here: “The potential impacts of climate change on ex situ conservation options for recalcitrant-seeded species”
Photo Credit Chris Coad
1 February 2023
Two of Wellington’s iconic gardens have come up smelling of roses garnering a number of significant awards to add to their blooming trophy cabinet.
Continue reading here: Wellington gardens win awards and commendations