A garden dedicated to threatened species

Established in 1991, the garden has been continuously revegetated with threatened species from the Botanic Garden ki Paekākā, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush or the Berhampore Nursery, and the Council's revegetation programme.

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.  

Previously, Kate had been working as the New Zealand Collection Curator at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, and she was thrilled to work with flora up close in their natural environment at the Wellington gardens.

A few plants are grown from seeds taken directly from existing plants at the Botanic Garden, and some like Kate’s favourite endangered plant, the kākābeak (Ngutukākā/ Clianthus puniceus), self-sow, meaning they drop their seeds for Kate and her team to scoop up and raise at the Botanic Garden Nursery.  

Kate says that a lot of New Zealand seeds need to be sown fresh, which can be an issue. They may not get a good germination rate, but luckily, they’re well cared for at the nurseries.  

However, some things just can’t be supported in the rare and endangered species inner-city garden.  

“We do a lot of research to find out which threatened species would be suited to our region, our climate and our garden increasingly using tools like the Climate Assessment Tool; we don’t just bring things in and hope for the best.  

“They’re too rare. If we see anything that can’t fit or isn’t happy, it gets sent back to Ōtari to be looked after there.” 

These plants are mainly endangered by introduced mammals – possums, deer, rats – and climate change. However, Kate says people like her all around the world are working to prepare for and combat these challenges. 

“There’s a rare white-flowered kākābeak that is now in the New Zealand collection in Melbourne, and independent environmental consultant Graeme Atkins gave me the seeds for that from his garden. It turned out to be great – like a time machine garden because we could see how the plant would be affected by heat.  

“Climate change is surely going to be affecting plants here. With areas getting warmer, some plants might get an expanded distribution, while higher average temperatures will reduce it for others. There is potential for new pests, not just mammals; there’s myrtle rust and viruses. It’s not just about saving the plant itself, it’s about trying to make a contribution to biodiversity by looking after the food sources for birds."

Kate says that this year everything seems to be flowering well.  

“New Zealand plants have so many quirks – leaves changing colour, branches going off in crazy directions... such an amazing range of plants!” 

Check out some of the threatened species in the garden in this pdf.