Fern Factor, a specialist fern nursery
It all started in the late 80’s when Paul was living on the land in the Buller, West Coast, South Island. A mining company rolled into the small town of Charleston looking to start mining on land up the Nile Valley. When the extent of the project was revealed, Paul felt an over-whelming need to jump into action. He enlisted some local help & ferns were rescued ahead of the excavators – a small business named Native Creations was thus born!!
An 8m x 3m shade-house was constructed on Paul’s West Coast land & ferns were potted for sale. A trip to Christchurch to check markets revealed a small niche in the nursery market.
In 1990 Paul was offered the lease on a property on the outskirts of Christchurch up Hoon Hay Valley. The site included a 56m x 11m shade-house + garage structure that offered a considerable expansion option. The decision was made to shift back to his home-town of Christchurch & make a strong effort to set up a commercial operation focusing on fern supply.
Over the next 7 years with the help of a small staff and Paul’s mother & father, they established an extra greenhouse and did early development work in learning how to propagate these ancient wonders.
Then in 1998 came a name change to Fern Factor after securing a 15 acre bare block of land out west of Christchurch. This has seen the development, that continues today, of a well-planned production nursery and laboratory facility. With computer-controlled high humidity propagation houses to implement the process of producing many 1000’s of ferns, of various species from spore, Fern Factor strives to be NZ’s leading fern nursery.
Our nursery operation is now nestled into extensive native plantings that not only provide shelter and much needed bio-diversity for the depauperate Canterbury Plains, but a clear sense of our unique flora & fauna for this part of Aotearoa.
