Heritage Nursery NZ

08/05/2026

Our website sales are currently offline , this is intentional as we do stockstake and some other behind the scenes tasks!

It is workshop season, and were excited to introduce a new one at our new nursery base This session is $40, or $60 per couple, feel free to pm me for this option. Very limited spots due to the interactive nature of this workshop.

You will need to bring a site plan and expect lots of questions as youre guided through orchard design options. If you attend this workshop, you will have access to our wholesale bare rooted fruit tree prices. We want to help you plan and plant your orchard properly based on YOUR bioregion and specific site conditions.

We'll walk through your property's conditions and goals, discuss the best tree sources and rootstocks, and cover essential knowledge about pollinators and planting care to ensure abundant future harvests. This is perfect for DIY enthusiasts wanting to map out their fruit tree dreams. Suitable for both urban and rural property planters.

Join Mangaroa Farms for Orchard Design Learn the art of orchard planning with Heritage Nurseries, specialists in heritage and disease-resistant fruit trees. This hands-on workshop will help you design your perfect orchard, whether you're working with a rural property or a small urban space. We'll wa...

27/02/2026

Bud Grafting -

Photo on the left - Circada damage, the pesky things for fruit tree lovers are out in masses currently. They feed on trees and make something called circada rain as a by product of there feeding on the tree sap. All of this damage though will have healed by winter sets in.

It is the same healing mechanisms for bud grafting and for us, it is bud grafting of european plums and pear time.

The second photo shows a T bud of a european plum. Four go on per tree.

The european plums we're budding this week include

Angelina burdett
Mercator
Wangenheims Fruhzwetsche
Hause
Bühler Frühzwetschge
Early Italian
Fellenberg
Merton Blue
Yellow Pershore
Diamond
Greengage
Reine Claude de Bavay
John Reid
Clydesdales
Casselman seedling
BHU Prune

06/01/2026

Summer Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop at Mangaroa Farms -

We will tackle all things Summer health wise for your fruit trees along with summer tree pruning and why it matters. Tickets are $35 per person.

If you are interested and planning an orchard in winter, we will also discuss what trees suit our bio region and where to source them! Ohh so relevent and not considered.

Join Mangaroa Farms for our Summer Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop. This is a hands-on, practical fruit tree workshop designed to give you the knowledge and skills to grow thriving, productive trees.

09/12/2025

Checking in on one of the garlic beds this week, this is an early purple

Its a fantastic hard neck that has the most pungent taste when fresh and red cloves. Being a hard neck it needs its scapes cut to help produce fatter bulbs. When snipping this week, we discovered some are developing witches broom, and some not. The ones with witches broom well and truely could have been harvested a month ago, where as the ones without are still smaller. The ones with broom were in patches of the beds without weeds, the ones without had lots of weeds. In this case, a lack of weeding may be our saving grace!

Always interesting to see variations in beds and ponder why.

29/11/2025

It seems like its been a slow start here, but then it hit with a roar. A few days of rain, and we've been for a wonder to check how various parts of the garden are developing (its quite spread).

Arnica Montana (Mountain Arnica), False balm of Gilead in flower, honey wort, peony poppys to name a few. Lots of buttercup to strip out too! All in flower .

Apples on M793 stool beds...... new development for us and exciting, we will protect these babies and see what grows from the apples. Said stool bed is still trying to flower.

And a seedling peach tree we've been watching, this tree, although 8 years old and fruiting prolifically, does not loose its leaves in winter (juviniles can retain them so we've had to watch to see if the characteristic stayed), what is interesting is the old set of leaves develop curl now, while the new set remain curl free untill late Autumn/Winter. It has both sets of leaves currently on still but the old ones are slowly dropping. The parent tree came from our friends house in Auckland and retained the same characteristics, including prolific fruiting.

We think this peach tree could form some fantastic rootstock, it has an incredible grown habbit and is just so hardy. The peaches this year will be grown as rootstock and we will see what develops after. We have named this cultivor too after a friend that passed this year, she was the most incredible woman and like this tree, so giving and nurturing. She provided a base/foundation for many young so it feels apt to name it after her.

20/11/2025

Those that have been following awhile may recall our possum plight. We call ourselves forest edge gardeners, not because it fits within agroforestry but because that is exactly what we do. That however comes with its own issues. We have taken out around 60 possums in a 200 m2 area this year , directly around the nursery and house but they’re still around.

This is evidence of them on an apple . It’s a cider tree, and although valued, not a specific one we want so it’s more open and attackable. A guard tree in away. Still with its own tree guard though.

Possums don’t just eat the fruit of trees they go for the leaves and new growth. So if you see this on trees that’s what you may have eating.

Ryan shoots too, as well as over 30 traps around and guarded trees so no offers to come hunt please. Educational post for those interested only

09/11/2025

Tiny wee berries as these are reject bushes from the honeyberry trials, and NOT what we propagate from. Those are Larger fruit. But we are also small holdings folks/homesteaders and one of the things we’re pationate about is growing crops to spread the seasons. The kids have been raiding this honeyberry patch 2 weeks now.

Admittedly they’re producing a month earlier than usual for us but a good crop and going to be great as a bioregional one as not all areas will suit to grow these, but those lucky regions are probably lucky in what they can grow anyway.

Figs will be soon , Vlassoff is one of the first figs we eat around Late December

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03/11/2025

Love finding trees like this. A perfect example of why water spouts should be removed from trees . The left hand side ( yellow) has been over pruned and full of water spouts. These spouts are now a few years old. The right side has less spouts and is full of leafy growth and flowers. The left, not so much. The Trees putting all its energy into growing those spouts more instead of fruit .

30/10/2025

Lots of seed packaging going on this morning to take along to the Mangaroa Farms open day tomorrow.

Along with celebrating a big 6 year old.

There will be pony rides and all sorts tomorrow! Kids chill out zone and permaculture orchard tours along with the usual open farm tour.

28/10/2025

Two years in the making and they’re up . Non hybrid witch hazels, we’ve been unable to find these ourselves despite hunting NZ. Keen to find NZ ones still as we’re sure they’re around. Just not common knowledge .

These seeds were imported ( legally) but very slow to germinate requiring a few stratification cycles.

These are American witch hazel or Hamamelis virginiana . The commonly sold NZ ones are a hybrid which we have read isn’t actually medicinal.

HOWEVER. We make a hydrosol from ours and it certainly seems astringent.

11/10/2025

Hard to believe this time is just around the corner!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/167trL47EL/

And they are back! 🎄🌱🗓️

Our popular Advent Seed Calendars are making a return!

Coming out of the second newborn bubble in a year (between us 3 mamas) we are working behind the scenes to get these ready for you. 👶🏻🤱🏻

We will have them up on our website, as well as available from selected stockists in the Wellington region.
They will be shipping from mid November ready to be opened each day in the lead up to Christmas.🙌🏻