It sounds like the name of an iconic beer, but this ‘Tui’s Gold’ is actually a bit of an imposter, looking like one of our native kowhais but having it’s origins on an island off the eastern coast of Australia. But, once we get over that shock, we are left with a very useful form of kowhai (Sophora is the botanical name) which grows as a large shrub, reaching a height and width of around 2 metres. Although it grows slowly, ‘Tui’s Gold’ makes up for this by commencing flowering at an early stage, the huge, bright yellow flowers hanging from the branches when the shrub is only 75 centimetres tall.
If you’ve always wanted to have a kowhai but felt you didn’t have room, this could be the answer to your prayers. Once it reaches a reasonable height the chances are that tuis will come to feed on the nectar-rich flowers, as will waxeyes and possibly bellbirds too.
Plant a few other showy, bird attracting shrubs, such as the very attractive native kaka beak, Clianthus puniceus ‘Kaka King’, and you will have double the fun. The kaka beak flowers over a long period in spring, overlapping with the kowhai’s blooming, its huge scarlet blooms dripping from the branches, and when the native song birds come to feast on the flowers of it and the kowhai the garden is full of joyful sound and movement.
If you are wanting to make a garden of plants with distinctive form, then Sophora ‘Tui’s Gold’ is a good one to include. Try combining it with tangled foliage coprosmas such as the hedgehog-shaped, light green, Coprosma ‘Mangatangi’ or with architectural, silvery foliaged, Astelia ‘Silver Spears’. In milder areas, plant some winter flowering aloes to go with the kowhai. These will take your mind off the cold days with their warm colours and will also attract any native nectar eating birds to the garden before the kowhai and kaka beak open their blooms.
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Schemes & Themes
using Liddle Wonder Plants