The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Hi, I am wondering if any of NZ's subantarctic megaherbs have been cultivated successfully on the mainland? Eg. Ross Lily, Pleurophyllum, Auckland Island forget-me-not.

There's very little information about growing these plants and I guess many may be impossible to grow on the mainland, but I'm really interested. I've seen you can get seeds for Anisotome latifolia from some websites overseas, which gives me hope!

Hi Graydon, the best example of successful cultivation is at Larnach Castle, where several species have been, and are, cultivated. For Wellington, see if Otari has succeeded. Rewi might see this. Anisotome latifolia has been available as plants within the trade on a fairly regular basis. I think Texture Plants sold them for a while (most likely from seed collected from mainland-grown specimens), as did a couple of other nurseries. Undoubtedly, several people in Southland will have grown megaherbs. Jesse will know.

A brief search shows that Pukerau and Taupo NPN have stocked it in recent times and may have stock available.

At Percy Scenic Reserve in Lower Hutt we have growing in pots in our collection Anisotome latifolia,Stilbocarpa polaris,Acaena minor var.antarctica amongst others.Though in the collection we can grow them reasonably well, in a garden situation have found them very difficult to maintain.As Philip says maybe in the Lower South Island you may have luck in most parts of the country you will probably struggle unfortunately.

John's right. If you were to try it in other parts of the country, you would need a cold, equable area of a property. At Joy Plants, they grow many difficult plants (including one or two Subantarctics) at the base of a cold, south-facing bank which still receives a good amount of indirect light.

Anisotome lyallii grows on the mainland around the Catlins Coast and Fiordland - it doesn't have showy pink flowers but is still very handsome. http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=366. Lawrie Metcarlf in 'The Cultivation of New Zealand Plants' says he struggled to get A. latifolia to grow but A. lyallii is much easier.

Hello Graydon , Queens Park in Invercargill has a subantartic garden which includes some genera from the Chatham Islands as well.A few pics are attached.
I've grown Bulbinella rossii for a number of years now in a cool shaded spot and last season it had 3 flowering stems however it's never set seed. Try Hereweka Nursery Dunedin for that where they may also have some Anisotome.
In our cool moist climate Myosotis capitata again in a cool area suffers from the heat of summer while Myosotis rakiura is more permanent and seeds around.
Hokonui Alpines Gore have listed Myosotis capitata and Anisotome latifolia at times.

Queens Park

Queens Park

Queens Park