McCahon trees a picture of health
Owning a Colin McCahon painting may be out of reach for many, but how about a McCahon tree?
About 600 saplings grown from cones picked from kauri trees at the artist’s former Titirangi home, now a museum, are being sold to raise money for the McCahon House Museum and The Kauri Project.
In a New Zealand first, they were grown from trees infected with kauri dieback but are disease-free themselves. The trees were the subject of some of McCahon’s most notable paintings.
The fungus-like disease has devastated trees around Auckland, on Great Barrier Island and in Northland. It was discovered in the McCahon trees three years ago and then museum manager Chris
HWatch the video at nzherald.co.nz McBride had the grim task of arranging for two of the 27 trees to be cut down. McBride has since cofounded The Kauri Project, which uses art to raise awareness and promote understanding of the disease.
He says the remaining 25 McCahon kauri have the soil-borne disease, which causes yellowing foliage, loss of leaves, dead branches and lesions that bleed gum, but are being injected with phosphite to slow its spread.
In 2014, Auckland Council Biosecurity plucked cones from the very top of the trees, eliminating the changes of contact with soil, to see if disease-free saplings could be grown from them.
The saplings are selling at $50 each, will come with a booklet, and can be ordered by emailing mccahon@mccahonhouse.org.nz, on (09) 817 6148) or picked up at a McCahon Kauri Community Day on Sunday, August 6 at the Titirangi War Memorial Hall.