Loss of camellias lamented
For more than 50 years camellia trees have been a feature of New Plymouth’s suburban streets.
But now an expert on the exotic plant, an import from eastern and southern Asia, has warned they are ‘‘slowly disappearing’’ across the city.
Tony Barnes was horrified to last week find a bevy of the trees had been cut down at ground level on Maranui and List streets.
Barnes, president of the National Camellia Society, which owns Oa¯ kura’s Ngamamaku Garden, said the trees were planted in the early 1960s and were a part of the city’s gardening heritage.
He believed the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC), responsible for the management of street plants, had also removed a number of the trees from other areas, including Timandra, Cracroft, Bell and Turakina streets.
‘‘They’re just slowly getting destroyed,’’ he said. ‘‘They’ll take three out this year and then next year they’ll decide to take out another three.
‘‘It all happens under the radar and then suddenly somebody wakes up and says ‘oh there’s no camellias around any more’.’’
In an emailed statement, NPDC infrastructure manager David Langford said after assessing the 24 camellias on List and Maranui streets, seven were removed.
‘‘The trees were found to be dying and NPDC Parks staff are planning to replace them with native kowhai in the spring where possible.’’
But Barnes, who phoned the council to enquire about the disappearing trees, said there was a bias towards planting natives.
‘‘I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with native, of course not, but they need to keep it in balance.’’
He said some of the tree’s varieties were great food sources for tui and other native birds, something he believed the council had overlooked, as well as the tree’s historical significance.
Barnes, who is gearing up to host the National Camellia Show in New Plymouth next month, was worried about the future of the exotic trees.
He said Taranaki had a huge history of camellias, with New Plymouth one of the first cities in the country to do street plantings of the trees. Of the 500-odd varieties to have been named in New Zealand, he said more than 30 per cent were bred in Taranaki. He hoped instead of cutting them down, the council would consider better management of the plants.
‘‘They’re long-lived trees – you can cut them down to virtually a stump and they’ll grow again.
‘‘They could thin them, which would immediately reduce half of the flower drop, and it would let light in so they wouldn’t be casting lots of shade and it wouldn’t do the trees any harm.’’
‘‘It all happens under the radar.’’ National Camellia Society president Tony Barnes.