Free native plants
Published on 28 May 2025
Whangārei's favourite plant giveaway is back on Friday 20 June 2025. This is a chance to get your hands dirty by planting free native plants.
Every June, we run the Pōhutukawa Coast Programme, giving away native plants to residents of the Whangārei District.
The Pōhutukawa Coast Programme celebrates an amazing milestone in 2025 – someone will take home the 100,000th plant given away! To celebrate, one of this year's 5,000 plants being given away will contain a winner's disc, worth a $100 gift voucher from Tawapou Coastal Native Nursery.
Plant distributors and pick-up locations
Get your free plants from our plant distributors on Friday 20 June 2025. They can offer expert advice to help you choose the right plants.
- Botanica Whangārei (no stock remaining); 2-4 First Avenue, Avenues, Whangārei 0110
- All plants for 2025 have been claimed.
- Friday 20 June opening hours 9:00am to 4:00pm, otherwise open 10:00am to 4:00pm
- Tawapou Coastal Natives, 606 Matapouri Road, Matapōuri 0173
- Open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00am to 3:00pm, closed Sunday and Monday. Guy and Sandra will help you out.
- Alan Willis and Rona Mahy-Willis, Whangārei Heads
- Robbie Jones, One Tree Point
The plants available this year
- pōhutukawa
- puriri
- kauri
- rewarewa
- titoki
- rengarenga (lily)
- cabbage tree / ti kōuka
- melicope ternata / whārangi
- flax / harakeke and wharariki
- griselinia littoralis / kāpuka
- whiteywood / māhoe
- red matipo
- nīkau
- kōwhai
- pittosporum crassifolium / karo
- coprosma robusta / karamū
- lancewood / horoeka
- pittosporum eugenioides / tarata
- astelia banksii / shore kowharawhara
- nestiges apetala / coastal maire
- pittosporum tenuifolium / kōhūhū
- hebe stricta / koromiko
- coprosma Poor Knights / taupata
- hebe parvifolia / koromiko tāranga
- muehlenbeckia astonii / mingimingi.
Plant limitations
There is a limit of two plants per Whangārei District property to ensure fair distribution.
If you have more than one property or are picking up plants for someone else, bring a rates statement as proof. A maximum of 10 plants (for up to five properties) per owner will be distributed.
Special thanks
We extend our thanks to everyone who has made this year’s Pōhutukawa Coast Programme possible, especially the volunteer distributors who offer their time year after year to ensure the success of the programme.
Pōhutukawa Coast Programme celebrates amazing milestone
This year, one lucky planter will receive the 100,000th plant given away for Whangārei’s 34-year-old Pōhutukawa Coast Programme.
“Giving away our 100,000th plant is an outstanding achievement that everyone involved in the programme over the years deserves to celebrate,” says Council Parks Technical Officer Spencer Jellyman, who has been involved in the programme for many years.
He gave special thanks to Alan Willis and Rona Mahy-Willis for their steadfast support, volunteering on behalf of the Northern Branch of the Royal Forest and Bird Society since the programme began. Along with Marge Maddren and Nola McCullough, they were the first to distribute the programme’s pōhutukawa trees in 1991, with the society receiving $1 for each plant given away.
“The aim was to increase the number of pōhutukawa trees in the District, especially along our coast. The catchphrase was ‘colour the district crimson’, and 10,500 pōhutukawa trees were planted in the first five years,” Mr Jellyman says.
Refining NZ supported the programme for 22 years, and when they withdrew in 2008, we decided to cover its costs.
Initially, the trees were grown in the Council nursery. In 2008, after Marge Maddren retired, Tawapou Coastal Nursery took over growing the trees, along with volunteers throughout the District, distributing them on a ‘first come, first served’ basis in June every year.
“We keep the names and phone numbers of the distributors secret until the actual day and then we put them on our website and Facebook,” says Mr Jellyman.
By 2012, more than 40,000 pōhutukawa trees had been provided, and the programme expanded to include kauri, kowhai, hebes and flax. The programme’s objective has now evolved to improve the District’s biodiversity by offering a range of plants that attract native birds and help to create ‘green corridors’ between the Western Hills, Parihaka and the central city.
The 50,000 mark was reached in 2013, celebrated with the then-mayor, Morris Cutforth, and representatives of Refining NZ, Council staff and schoolchildren planting 500 trees on Mount Manaia’s lower slopes.
In 2023, we started delivering plants to the far north of the District, with residents of Bland Bay, Ōakura and Helena Bay eagerly participating. In 2024, more than 5,000 plants were given away.