The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

I inherited a beautiful & large native garden when I bought my house 3 years ago but sadly the previous owners neglected the garden & borer badly damaged all the mature trees. The saddest case was a huge Chatham Island Kowhai that had substantial borer damage in the main trunk and most of the large branches. During a storm in Winter this year the main trunk, which splits off into two central branches at the top, split down the parting where the two branches meet leaving the main trunk open and exposed. After this storm damage I spent considerable time getting rid of the worst affected borer branches & treating the borer holes with injected kerosene and spraying the entire outside trunk, branches & the bark around the base of the tree (which had sawdust from removing branches) with a neem oil spray mix. Now 4.5 months later the tree seems to be regenerating with 20 new small branches growing from the main central trunk between the ground & where it was split. Is this normal growth?

Hi Liz, I have seen a Sophora microphylla sprout vigorously from near where a branch had been snapped off, so I imagine its a trait of the Kowhai family, and many other families. Certainly nothing to worry about.