About Us
Growing quality plants for over a generation.
Located just south of Christchurch, Southern Woods was established in 1987 as a specialist producer of tree seedlings for fuelwood and shelterbelts. Susy and the late Murray Mannall purchased the business in 1997, and through the 2000s it evolved alongside growing demand for native revegetation plantings, steadily broadening its range to meet the needs of New Zealand’s changing landscapes.
Growth in the Selwyn region over the past decade has seen Southern Woods expand further into retail and online sales, bringing quality trees to an ever-wider customer base across Canterbury and beyond.
Today, the nursery produces millions of trees per year across 500 species and varieties, covering shelter, forestry, tree crops, native revegetation, fuelwood, fodder, hedging and specimen trees. The completion of the Christchurch Southern Motorway development provided a significant opportunity to grow operations, with the nursery now occupying an 11.4ha site featuring a purpose-built plant centre and extensive display gardens.
Southern Woods is committed to enhancing our customers’ environments and improving the productivity of their land through trees. We provide expert advice, genuine ongoing support and high-quality trees and planting products to help every project succeed. Our vision is to inspire generations to regenerate New Zealand through innovation, education and propagation.
We thrive on the success of our customer’s plantings.
CUSTOMERS, CULTURE, COMMUNITY
Our People
Currently, Southern Woods employs around 50 permanent staff plus a number of casual employees during the busy winter and spring period. As a team, we’re passionate about delivering a quality product and service. Our teams have decades of knowledge to share, providing informed advice and top quality expertise to customers.
We’re always learning, constantly refining our processes and expanding our knowledge as growers.
Beyond the nursery, we’re actively involved in community planting and restoration initiatives across the South Island, supporting the landscapes and people that make this region great.
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
Our Environment
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at Southern Woods. We’ve implemented a range of initiatives across the nursery and we’re just getting started:
- Pot and plastic recycling
- Tray and pot refund scheme
- Water recycling and storage
- Replacing our diesel boiler with a heat pump
- Transitioning our nursery vehicle fleet to electric
- Hundreds of solar panels across the site
As a team, we work hard to reduce waste across all areas of the business. We’re actively measuring our environmental footprint and setting targets to reduce our emissions substantially over time.
INNOVATION COMES NATURALLY
Our Plants
The nursery currently produces well in excess of a million plants per year of 500 species – varieties for native revegetation, forestry, tree crops, landscaping plants and specimen trees.
Here on the Canterbury Plains, trees are conditioned and hardened to survive potentially harsh planting sites across the country. With scorching summers and under 600mm rainfall most years, the nursery site provides a unique set of challenges for the production team.
We’re constantly looking for innovative ways to grow plants, improving our processes for both quality, capacity and efficiency. Recently, a renewed focus on production infrastructure will future-proof the nursery for years to come.
We welcome nursery visits from interested trade and educational groups, get in touch anytime.
