At a recent fast-track panel hearing of the Santana Minerals proposed gold mine in Bendigo, landscape consultant Anne Steven, who was appearing for the Environmental Defence Society, said there was pressure on sourcing native plants in inland Otago.
Demand was increasing as more sub-divisions opened.
Springburn Nursery owner Kelvin Edney said shortages were often from developers and others not looking ahead.
‘‘Developers are not a uniform group but I will observe that in subdivisions the plants are usually the last thing to go in, for obvious reasons, and if developers are thinking about plants at all it is usually to conform to their council-mandated consent requirements,’’ he said.
‘‘These requirements are often very particular with precise specifications around species and grades, which will take years to grow.
‘‘Combine that with the fact that they are rarely pre-ordered and you can see why shortages are inevitable.’’
He said their nursery grew on speculation and also did contract growing.
The latest NZ nursery survey on the 2024 year, carried out by MBIE, showed the problem was not new and was widespread.
The survey found that most native plants were grown without being pre-ordered and poor forward demand signals had made future planning difficult. About 24 million native plants were grown in 2024.
Designs by landscape architects were becoming more diverse, and may require more obscure plants in large numbers, Mr Edney said.
Their nursery was in the Queenstown-Lakes area.
‘‘This is a good thing, but does mean you’ll need to work directly with a nursery to grow to order.’’
Landscapers were also affected because they are often the ones doing plant sourcing for subdivisions, he said.
They may be required to put in tenders for huge quantities of plants that may not even really be available.
There was another form of subdivision related shortage where the majority of planting was done by the home-owners.
Many people wanted the largest plants possible especially if these are for privacy hedges.
Most local subdivisions had restrictions on what species can be planted, often allowing just two or three for hedges.
‘‘The result is predictable especially with large groups of homes all being finished at once. The local nurseries will sell out all of their large grade hedging plants allowed in that subdivision.’’
He said buyers needed to keep in mind when thinking about plant shortages and big orders was plants were living things and cannot be warehoused like nails or plywood waiting for when they are needed.
‘‘Because they are grown, not manufactured, there are hard constraints on how fast they can be produced. Plants can be ‘‘forced’’ or grown faster, such as in greenhouses, but this would have a negative impact on the hardiness of the plants.’’
For plants to perform well in harsh environments they should be acclimatised to the local conditions.
The company had done revegetation work with local mines and quarries and it was usually for environmental restoration.
It tended to go a lot smoother than with big subdivisions because of longer time horizons, more forward planning, and more flexibility in the plant requirements.
‘‘While the proposed big mine at Bendigo will have vast and irreversible effects on the environment, some of these effects could be partially ameliorated with ecological restoration work.’’
To be effective it would require a major effort from everyone involved and a lot of forward planning.
A Queenstown Nursery spokeswoman said they did not have any issues with native plant supply at the moment.
