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Growing Knightia excelsa
Plants

Knightia - Growing Guide

Growing Knightia excelsa

Commonly known as ‘New Zealand Honeysuckle’

We import plug liners of this plant from New Zealand and have now got it growing well into a small tree in the garden here. Its flowers bear more than a passing resemblance to embothrium.

The leaves are oblong leathery and toothed and the tree has a columnar habit. Our plants have reached 10-12ft. Clusters of many tubular red flowers appear usually in the summer from the older wood. This is another feature it shares with embothrium.

With us it has readily survived up to -5°C but if should be regarded as frost tender or a greenhouse plant in most parts of the country.

It likes growing, as you would expect, in full sun with shelter from cold winds. Neutral to acid soil is fine but this must be well drained.

If you can grow Lomatia ferruginea this is certainly a plant well worth trying. We have not tried it from cuttings but suspect half ripe new growth would root in summer with bottom heat.