Heritage Nursery NZ

08/08/2026

There comes a time in every nurserymans life that you get a dedicated plant material fridge! Likely the first of a few, but boy is it starting to look packed.

This was about a month ago, looking quite full now.

This is how we store scions. Scions or plant material when we need the to stay dormant. Scions are what we graft onto rootstock to make exact replicars of trees.

Its how your granny smith tastes the same as other granny smiths.

Grafting starts this week, with stone fruit, followed by pears, then apples. With other trees mixed between.

We will be grafting for nursery but also for the Mangaroa Farms fruit and forage trail where many of these scions are destined.

31/07/2026

You may not realise it, but plants are certainly waking.

We have honeyberries in flower already and today visited a neighbours to air layer blueberry plants. Only to find fruit forming on the early plants already.

This blueberry farm will end up with up to 500 air layer balls placed which will come off late Summer.

Air layering is done during active growth times, spring is our preferred time to do it but a second window exists in summer.

26/07/2026

As always, this time of the year in any nursery is a little hectic!

A few weeks ago we started collecting our scion wood.

This tree is Oratia Beauty, it is about 50 year old and planted by
Lynne and Bob, locals to Upper Hutt.

They reached out wanting to donate the tree that did so well at there property, fruiting prolifically year after year to the Fruit and Forage Trail.

It was a fantastic visit, hearing about Lynne and Bobs life. Lynne mum had even wrote an Apple cook book, how cool.

For us, Oratia beauty has another significance. We're ex west Aucklanders so it was nice to hear how productive and well it does down here.

We had Photography with us on this trip, thus the non blury photos (usually Hannahs standard). Dane has been taking photos for the Mangaroa Farm Fruit and Forage Trail.

24/07/2026

We are in the bush today collecting Rimu duff. A friend kindly shared that there was a branch laden in seed that had fallen in autumn so we went on a hunt to find it.

Duff is the forest floor. It is endemic seed growing in its natural environment through an interconnected web of mycelium .

It is the perfect soil for native growing, and the plants always thrive as they’re inoculated with what they like day1.

We have grown our natives in duff for a while now and love the simplicity of it.

This is a bit new though attempting canopy species. Rimu is a giant, a podcarp of the forest so we will see how it goes.

24/07/2026

Scam alert ! some may know that Heritage Nursery is our trading name, we originally set up our small business as homesteaders under the name Cernunnos Mil . Although we’ve morphed it’s our registered business name. A kind follower has let us know that sure enough Cernunnos mil is pinging as a
scam. If you’re contacted by us, please be sure it’s us. We have a phone number here and you can ring and call :)

03/07/2026

Mashuas are back in stock as we've started uplifting. Really great season with large tubers this year.

Such a unique taste, frost sensative (but we want frost as it improves the taste). The flowers are much more divine than nastursams , leaves have the same peppery taste and the tuber, a mix of pepper horseradish nut and liquorice when raw, the taste becomes more nutty we find when cooked.

Of all the root vege, this is one with the highest Vit C content. We're tempted to put some in firecider and see how it tastes!

$10 for four tubers, plus post while dormant. Please pm or comment.

01/07/2026

We're involved in this pretty cool project in Whitemans Valley, with Mangaroa Farms. They're planting the PUBLIC walkway with forageable fruit and plants this spring, and the following. Funds donated are matched by Mangaroa Farms own parent Trust, Biome.

There will be a multitude of educational experences attached with free grafting and propagation workshops included.

This grant funding is unique, it works based on the idea that more voices matter, $5 donated is as powerful as $50. Check the link out and donate if you can or share. Lots of other cool projects too.

https://maearth.com/mangaroa-farms/fruit-and-forage

Feel free to comment with fruit tree choices too! This track is accesible to Joe Blogs and will be a huge asset to Upper Hutt for food security.

Mangaroa Farms is exploring the creation of a publicly accessible heritage harvest trail woven throughout our existing 3km farm loop that is nestled alongside the Mangaroa river in Whitemans Valley,...

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.