Growing epiphytes for your restoration area

Astelia epiphytes are not only spectacular to view in the New Zealand bush canopy, they should also be considered for any restoration project. At some point restorers must move past planting pioneers and think about the more complex flora that makes up our bush ecosystem. Astelia epiphytes are one of these. We grew ours from small pieces gathered from fallen epiphytes when bush walking. We had no rule book to follow so approached this in two ways. First, as we are fortunate to have a shade house, we used a short piece of punga trunk, took a wedge out of the side, inserted the epiphyte root into the wedge and wrapped it in sphagnum moss to hold moisture.(Photo 1)These were then hung up on the wall of the shade house.

 2015 - Photo 1

With regular watering from the sprinkler system, they grew into mature epiphytes over the following eleven years.(Photo 2)

 2026 - Photo 2

We then employed an arborist to install them into a variety of trees in our 10-hectare restoration site.(Photo 3)

Arborist installing epiphyte -Photo 3

The second way was to basically do the same as with the punga log but install the epiphyte cutting directly into the bush site to take its chances with the weather (Photo 4).If you are doing this, select a site of semi-shade and / or facing south so as not to get the full blast of the summer sun. This worked well. While not growing as much as the ones in the shade house it has grown to a healthy size in the fourteen years that it’s been installed (photo 5). This is probably a more practical option for most restoration groups.

2012 - Photo 4

2022 - Photo 5

We used two Astelia species: Astelia solandri and Astelia hastata / Collospermum hastatum with some of the Earina orchid species coming along for the ride. These orchids grow epiphytically as well and are often found among fallen Astelia nests. This all adds to your restoration mix.