Plants from NZ growing right here in British Isles!

[stepr]

The word on the street is probably that the British Isles has the worst climate anywhere.. well sometimes it feels like it, but it's moderate enough to grow some of your beautiful native flora.. I know this is not for everyone, and maybe there's not many people interested in plants, but does anyone recognise them? (these photos were taken today just up the road from where I live)

[Manukau heads obs]

often the cabbage tree is grown in the UK too
(that also is endemic to parts of SE asia from what I understand)

[Orion]

Your pictures #2 & #3 look like the Australian Grevillea - perhaps "Canberra Gem".
The others look like some flowering Manuka cultivars (Leptospermum scoparium)
and a Kowhai (Sophora microphylla?)
with #1 a tree-fern of some kind - don't they look exotic!
Other posters may have more info.
It always gives me a surprise to recognise the good old Cabbage Tree (Cordyline australis) and Flax (Phormium tenax) in British landscapes

[stepr]

oh I didn't realise the Grevillea was Australian!

Yes I believe there are a few leptospermums (tea tree and manuka?)

We have Sophora microphylla (flowering), and Sophora tetraptera (not sure of the normal name for this... just Kowhai again?)

I have a Cordyline and Phormium in my own garden, but they're such a normal part of our landscape we just pass them everyday without even thinking about it! Though many got killed down to the ground in 2010! (away from coast).

[spwill]

Hebe, Phormium and Leptospernum might be the more commonly seen NZ plants. We would like to send back Gorse.

[Nev]

often the cabbage tree is grown in the UK too
(that also is endemic to parts of SE asia from what I understand)

From what I gather, the 20 odd species of the Cordyline genus are found around the western Pacific, eastern Australia, SE Asia and Hawaii. However, most are shrubs, and only 4 are classified as 'trees', 3 of which are endemic to NZ, while the other is native to both to NZ and Norfolk Island. The tallest of these (Cordyline Australis) reaches about 20m, and is what we normally refer to simply as the Cabbage Tree. The Norfolk Island Cabbage Tree (Cordyline obtecta) is our 2nd tallest at about 10m, followed by the Mountain Cabbage Tree (Cordyline indivisa) at about 8m and the Forest Cabbage Tree (Cordyline Banksii) at about 4m. We also have a fifth species, the Dwarf Cabbage Tree (Cordyline Pumilio), but at just 1m can't really be classified as a tree. The Cabbage Tree's name appears to have been coined by early NZ settlers, who used the young leaves as a cabbage substitute (although Maori seem to prefer the roots).

[Manukau heads obs]

re the manuka and kanuka
to tell them apart....its done via the roughess/toughness of the leaves
think of kanuka...K for kind...i.e softer leaves when you run your hand over them...

[Richard]

Neat photos Stephen. do you see the Cordyline Australis flowering in the UK

[Storm Struck]

Cordyline Australis is also considered as part of the Lily family, always lots of seedlings year round even in the forks of tree branches.
They also grow well in small pots even though the roots eventually overtake, they usually don't sulk until atleast 2 years on when you can replace the root ball into a larger pot.
Great for colour around the BBQ area and home entrances, not so around grass edges where the dozens of leaves drop and get caught up in the mower blades if not picked up correctly .
I find the definition between Manuka and Kanuka is, Kanuka has the red stem on the end of the branches and is more soft and whippy.
The ferns I used to get into the effort of putting a frost cloth over them but for a couple of winters I have left them and they have become quite acclimatised, even now after several frosts the leaves are all still green and there are no signs of burning.
However they are about 10-15 years old, I would not do this with new ferns.

[Orion]

I wonder when Cordyline and Phormium became commonly used in British landscaping?
I've observed them in gardens in television programmes set in the 1950s ("Miss Marple") and in the 1930s ("Poirot") and it has seemed faintly anachronistic to me, because I haven't noticed those plants in any of the gardening books and magazines I have from those decades.

[Nev]

According to botanist Philip Simpson, Cabbage tree seeds were probably first brought to the UK in the 1820s. However many Britons probably have no idea of its origins, as it has come to be known, among other names, as the ‘Manx palm’, ‘Brighton palm’, ‘Torquay palm’ and ‘Torbay palm’. Of course it's not a 'palm' at all, and (as previously mentioned) is in fact part of the lily family.

Quite a good article here.

[Orion]

Thanks for the link, Nev.
I do still wonder when those plants became commonly used in municipal and domestic gardens away from that South Coast area. The older books I have mention Mediterranean and South African plants of similar form but nothing from NZ.

[stepr]

Id say around 1950... I have seen old photos of a seaside resort called Llandudno in North Wales, in a place called Gerddi Haulfre (Haulfre gardens), and they have Cordylines around 1950.. now some of them are huge, but in general, I guess Torquay was the first place to get Cordyline as landscape plants.. I would guess around the 1930s?

Interestingly there is a botanic gardens called Logan Botanic Gardens in Western Scotland, and they must be some of the oldest untouched Cordylines in Britain. In other words, the Logan ones may never have been cut down since they were planted.. whereas the Torquay ones may have been cut down by cold at some point.

This would make Logan Gardens the mildest, or one of the mildest Botanical gardens in Britain.