New Zealand South Island temperate forests

A part-shade planting with shrub structure and low foliage contrast.

A pollinator-supporting palette of eastern North American natives with broad hardiness ranges and wide native distributions. Built for gardeners who want a planting that can handle warming zones without giving up wildlife value.

A low-water edible palette of culinary herbs + a hardy grape for hot dry sunny sites. Mediterranean-origin plants thrive on neglect; their primary failure mode is overwatering, not underwatering.

A continuous-bloom native pollinator strip for eastern North America. Covers spring through frost with host + nectar plants spanning monarchs, native bees, hummingbirds, and specialist Lepidoptera. Little bluestem provides the matrix grass + Hesperiidae host.

A part-shade / bright-shade planting for morning sun or dappled light - eastern North American woodland-edge natives with spring bloom, season-long foliage, and a fern + shrub structure.

A durable sunny border with summer bloom, seedheads, and upright winter texture.

The Chatham Island temperate forests cover the remote Chatham Islands archipelago, which lies roughly 800 kilometers east of New Zealand's South Island in the Pacific Ocean and includes the two largest islands, Chatham and Pitt. Isolated for well over a million years, the islands were originally cloaked in relatively low-stature forest interwoven with scrubby heathland and rush swamp, where tree ferns, orchids, and Nikau palms (Rhopalostylis sapida) thrive in a humid, peaty understory; conspicuously, the podocarps and southern beeches typical of mainland New Zealand are absent. The climate is oceanic and windswept, with a narrow temperature range, frequent rain, and constant exposure to Southern Ocean storms. The flora is strikingly distinct, with around fifty endemic plant species, and the ecoregion's flagship is the Chatham Island black robin (Petroica traversi), famously brought back from just a handful of surviving birds, though invasive mammals and past habitat clearance keep much of the native vegetation under pressure. For gardeners, the islands are the wild home of several prized ornamentals, including the Chatham Islands forget-me-not (Myosotidium hortensia) and tree daisies of the genus Olearia.

The Eastern Australian temperate forests cover the southeastern Australian wet-eucalypt forest belt - from coastal southeast Queensland through New South Wales (the Great Dividing Range east slopes), eastern Victoria, and the immediately adjacent inland tablelands. Mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans), messmate, manna gum, and brown stringybark anchor the wet-forest canopies, with tree ferns, sassafras, and southern beech in the understory of the wettest gullies. Sydney + Newcastle + Wollongong + Melbourne all sit at or near the coastal edge of this ecoregion.

The Fiordland temperate forests occupy the rugged southwest corner of New Zealand's South Island, a remote landscape largely protected within Fiordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. Southern beeches (Nothofagus) dominate much of the forest, with silver beech (Nothofagus menziesii) clothing the fiords and red beech (Nothofagus fusca) filling inland valleys, alongside tall podocarps such as rimu, totara, and miro and an understory rich in tree ferns, mosses, and shrubs. The climate is wet and cool-summered, with rainfall that climbs steeply from drier eastern areas to extraordinarily high totals near the western fiords, holding the treeline below about 1,000 meters despite the region's mid-latitude position. Isolation has produced some of the highest levels of endemism of any temperate or alpine area on Earth, with nearly 700 higher plants largely unique to the ecoregion and emblematic birds including the takahe, the alpine kea, the kakapo, and the southern brown kiwi. Gardeners may recognize natives of this region's open alpine zones, where Chionochloa snow tussocks form extensive herbfields above the beech line.

The Nelson Coast temperate forests cover the top of New Zealand's South Island, spanning the Tasman and West Coast regions across the flanks of the Paparoa Range and neighbouring mountains. Southern beech (Nothofagus) dominates the drier eastern ridges, while podocarp rainforests in the wetter west carry northern rata (Metrosideros robusta), karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus), and the nikau palm (Rhopalostylis sapida). The climate is temperate and maritime, with high rainfall on the west-facing slopes giving way to a more sheltered, drier eastern side fringed by golden sand beaches. Despite its modest size, the region holds about half of New Zealand's roughly 2,450 plant species and shelters the great spotted kiwi, with much of it protected within Kahurangi, Paparoa, and Abel Tasman national parks. For gardeners, several signature natives here, including the nikau palm, northern rata, and karaka, are valued ornamentals in suitably mild, moist climates.

The New Zealand North Island temperate forests cover the warm-temperate to subtropical native forest of the North Island - historically dominated by kauri in the northern half, podocarp-broadleaf forest (rimu, totara, kahikatea, with broadleaf rata and tawa) across the central and southern reaches. Less than 25% of the original native forest remains; surviving fragments are heavily managed against introduced mammalian browsers (possum, deer, goat).

The Northland temperate kauri forests cover the warm northern end of New Zealand's North Island, spanning the Northland, Auckland, and Waikato regions along with offshore islands such as the Three Kings and Poor Knights. The ecoregion takes its name from the towering southern kauri (Agathis australis), which rises above broadleaf and podocarp forest of rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), totara, miro, and tanekaha, and it also holds New Zealand's southernmost mangroves. These are the warmest forests in the country, with a warm and humid climate. The forests are notably endemic-rich but heavily reduced: most of the original kauri was removed through logging and gum-tapping for farmland, and introduced predators such as rats, stoats, and ferrets have pushed many plants, birds, and reptiles into offshore-island refuges. Gardeners may recognize several striking endemics from this region, including the Three Kings vine (Tecomanthe speciosa) and the genus Pennantia.