French Tarragon dormant plant

Chinese Artichoke / Crosnes (Stachys affinis)
Family: Lamiaceae

Chinese Artichokes, also known as Crosnes, are a delicious and unusual perennial root vegetable grown for their crisp, spiralled white tubers. Easy to grow and highly productive, they return year after year, producing abundant harvests from late autumn through winter.

The distinctive tubers resemble tiny grubs but are a gourmet delicacy with a wonderfully unique texture. Eaten raw, they are crisp, juicy, and slightly sweet, with a flavour reminiscent of water chestnuts. Cooked, they become tender, creamy, and subtly nutty, somewhere between a young potato, kūmara, and Jerusalem artichoke. In France, where they are known as Crosnes, they are traditionally braised in butter and fresh herbs—a simple preparation that beautifully highlights their delicate flavour.

Your order includes a starter pack of approximately five healthy tubers, ready for planting. Once established, the plants gradually multiply underground, providing increasingly generous harvests each year.

Chinese Artichokes are hardy, frost tolerant, and winter dormant, making them an excellent perennial vegetable for New Zealand gardens. Growing instructions, harvesting advice, and culinary tips are provided below.

Lovage (Levisticum officinale)

Family: Apiaceae

Lovage is a hardy, long-lived perennial herb treasured for its rich, celery-like flavour and remarkable productivity. Every part of the plant is useful—the leaves add depth to soups, stews and salads, the stems can be enjoyed like celery, the seeds are used as a spice, and the roots have a long history of culinary and traditional herbal use.

Order is for 1 dormant crown with healthy growing buds. Simply plant it into your garden upon arrival and watch it burst into vigorous new growth in spring. Growing instructions, harvesting tips, and traditional uses are provided below.

White Ginger (Hedychium coronarium)
Family: Zingiberaceae

White Ginger, also known as Butterfly Ginger or Himalayan Ginger, is a striking perennial from the ginger family grown for its lush tropical foliage and highly fragrant white flowers. The blooms resemble delicate butterflies in flight and release a rich, sweet perfume often compared to gardenias, making it one of the most aromatic ornamental gingers.

Despite sometimes being mislabelled in trade (including in New Zealand), White Ginger is distinct from culinary galangal species. While its rhizomes are edible and carry a mild, ginger-like flavour, it is primarily grown as an ornamental and fragrant garden plant.

This vigorous plant produces large clumps of upright stems and spreads gradually via underground rhizomes, forming a bold, tropical presence in the garden. It thrives in moist to boggy soils and performs best in full sun to partial shade, especially where soil moisture is consistently high.

Your order includes one healthy plant, ready to establish and grow into a lush flowering clump. Growing instructions and care details are provided below.

Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum)
Also known as Añu, Isaño or Cubio

Mashua (pronounced Mah-shwuh) is a colourful Andean tuber closely related to the garden nasturtium. Exceptionally easy to grow, highly productive, and one of the most cold-hardy Andean root crops, it produces generous harvests of delicious tubers with very little care.

The tubers range from the size of small potatoes to large yams and develop a pleasantly sweet, slightly peppery flavour that becomes milder and sweeter when cooked. Even the young leaves and flowers are edible, making Mashua a truly versatile perennial vegetable.

A valuable companion plant, Mashua is traditionally grown alongside other crops because its aromatic foliage helps deter many insect pests, nematodes, and soil-borne diseases.

Each order includes either one large tuber or two medium-sized tubers, ready to plant. Simply place them in the garden when you receive them and watch them emerge in spring.

Growing instructions, harvesting advice, and culinary uses can be found below.

Earth Chestnut (Bunium bulbocastanum)
Family: Apiaceae

Common names: Earth Chestnut, Pignut, Great Pignut, Earthnut

Earth Chestnut is a fascinating and productive perennial root vegetable, prized for its sweet, chestnut-flavoured tubers. Every part of the plant is edible—the small underground tubers can be eaten raw or cooked like potatoes, the delicate fern-like leaves have a fresh parsley-like flavour, and the aromatic seeds can be used as a substitute for cumin. A hardy and long-lived addition to the edible garden, Earth Chestnut is ideal for gardeners interested in unusual perennial food crops.

You will receive a healthy seedling with roots and young shoots (see images below). Plant it into its permanent position as soon as it arrives, and it will establish over winter before producing fresh growth in spring. Growing instructions, harvesting tips, and culinary uses are provided below.

Russian Comfrey Crowns (Symphytum × uplandicum)

Russian comfrey is a highly valuable perennial for food forests, orchards, and organic garden systems. Known for its vigorous growth, deep root system, and ability to accumulate nutrients, it is widely used as a dynamic accumulator, compost ingredient, mulch plant, and natural garden fertiliser.

This hardy, low-maintenance plant produces abundant foliage that can be repeatedly harvested throughout the growing season and returned to the soil to support healthy plant growth. Once established, it forms a productive clump that returns year after year.

Each order includes 1 strong crown cutting with a growing tip. Plant directly into your garden over winter and it will emerge strongly in spring. Growing instructions and uses can be found below.

Bulbine frutescens
Family: Asphodelaceae
Common names: Burn jelly plant, stalked bulbine, snake flower, cat’s tail

Burn Jelly Plant is a hardy, waterwise perennial valued for both its ornamental beauty and traditional medicinal uses. With its succulent foliage and cheerful star-shaped flowers, it makes an excellent ground cover, especially when planted en masse or used in rock gardens and dry landscapes. Easy to grow and drought tolerant, it is a popular addition to low-maintenance gardens.

Medicinal Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)
Family: Boraginaceae
Common names: Comfrey, Common Comfrey, Knitbone

Medicinal Comfrey is a deep-rooted, hardy perennial herb renowned for its powerful healing properties and exceptional ability to build soil fertility. Traditionally known as “knitbone,” it has long been used to support tissue repair, bruising, sprains, and wound healing. Fast-growing and highly productive, Comfrey is an invaluable medicinal herb as well as a nutrient-rich mulch plant for the garden.

Below you’ll find growing instructions, medicinal uses, and herbal preparation ideas.

You will receive one dormant crown with a growing tip.

Myoga (Zingiber mioga)
Family: Zingiberaceae

Common names: Myoga, Japanese Ginger, Mioga

Myoga is a beautiful, hardy perennial ginger grown for its edible flower buds rather than its roots. It produces lush tropical-looking foliage throughout summer, followed by striking pink and cream flower buds that emerge at ground level in late summer and autumn. Harvested just before they open, these tender buds have a delicate, aromatic flavour with hints of ginger and citrus. They are delicious eaten raw, pickled, or lightly sautéed, adding a fresh, zesty flavour to salads, stir-fries, soups, and traditional Japanese dishes.

Your order includes 1–2 dormant rhizomes (depending on size), each with healthy, well-developed growth buds ready to produce vigorous new shoots in spring (see sample image below). You will receive either one large rhizome or two to three smaller rhizomes of equivalent size.

Multiplying Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum)
Family: Amaryllidaceae

Multiplying Leeks are one of our favourite perennial vegetables at KoruKai Herb Farm. Exceptionally easy to grow, hardy, and highly productive, they require very little care while providing a reliable harvest throughout winter and well into spring—just when annual leeks are finishing for the season.

Unlike ordinary leeks, these perennial leeks multiply naturally by forming clumps of new plants each year. Individual stems grow to around thumb thickness, with a mild, sweet leek flavour that is perfect for soups, stews, stir-fries, quiches, and countless other dishes. Harvest what you need and leave the remaining plants to continue multiplying, creating an increasingly abundant patch year after year.

Your order includes a healthy starter clump of 3–4 young multiplying leeks, ready to establish quickly in your garden. Planting instructions and growing tips are provided below.

Skirret (Sium sisarum)

Skirret is a traditional European perennial root vegetable that was widely grown from medieval times through to the 19th century, valued for its sweet, clustered roots. Often referred to in old texts as a “sugar root,” it produces slender, finger-like roots that are sweeter and more aromatic than carrots when cooked.
The flavour is gently sweet, nutty, and floral, with a soft, creamy texture when roasted, boiled, or pan-fried. At KoruKai Herb Farm, we especially enjoy it simply sautéed in butter, where its natural sweetness really shines.
Skirret forms a clump of multiple edible roots from a single crown, making it a productive and rewarding perennial vegetable for the home garden. Once established, plants improve in yield each year as the root system expands.

Your order includes a healthy seedling with developing storage roots and shoots (see sample image below). Plant it directly into the garden on arrival and it will establish quickly, re-emerging strongly in spring.

Growing instructions and care details are provided below.

Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana)

Horseradish is a hardy, fast-growing perennial root crop valued for its powerful, pungent roots used in traditional culinary and herbal preparations. Once established, it produces vigorous leafy growth above ground and a deep, spreading root system below, forming a long-lived and highly productive plant.

Freshly harvested roots are grated or crushed to release their signature heat and aroma, traditionally used to make sauces, condiments, and medicinal preparations. A little goes a long way, making horseradish a rewarding and self-sustaining addition to the edible garden.

Each order includes 1 dormant, bare-root horseradish plant with a healthy growing tip (see example images below), ready to establish quickly and shoot strongly in spring.

Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)
Family: Lamiaceae

Woundwort is a hardy woodland perennial from the mint family with a long history of use as a traditional first-aid herb. For centuries it has been valued for supporting the healing of cuts, wounds, bruises, and skin irritations, earning its common name through generations of herbal use. In summer, it produces elegant spikes of deep purple flowers that are highly attractive to bees and other beneficial pollinators, while its lush green foliage makes an excellent addition to woodland gardens and food forests.

Your order includes 3 dormant plants with healthy growing tips, ready to establish quickly and send up vigorous new growth in spring. Please see the photos and growing information below.

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
Family: Lamiaceae
Common names: Lemon Balm, Balm Gentle

Lemon Balm is a vigorous, easy-to-grow perennial herb from the mint family, loved for its fresh citrus fragrance, soothing medicinal properties, and delicious flavour. Adaptable and generous, it thrives in a wide range of soil conditions and produces abundant growth throughout the season. With regular harvesting, we typically enjoy 3–4 cuts each year.

Lemon Balm dies down in winter. You will receive a dormant plant. 

Below you’ll find growing instructions, medicinal uses, and herbal preparation ideas.

Valerian Crowns (Valeriana officinalis)

Valerian is a well-known medicinal herb traditionally used to support restful sleep and help with insomnia.*

Each order includes 1 healthy valerian crown cutting with a growing tip. Plant directly into your garden over winter and it will emerge again in spring. See photos below for examples of the growing tips.

Organically grown at KoruKai Herb Farm without synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, or herbicides.

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)
Family: Lamiaceae

Rosemary is a beautiful evergreen Mediterranean herb, treasured for its fragrant, needle-like leaves, stunning blue flowers, and wide range of culinary and medicinal uses. Hardy, drought tolerant, and long-lived, it makes an attractive addition to herb gardens, food forests, edible hedges, and pollinator plantings.

Flowering from late winter through spring, Rosemary provides an important early nectar source for honeybees and other beneficial insects when few other plants are in bloom. Its aromatic foliage is indispensable in the kitchen, pairing beautifully with roasted vegetables, potatoes, breads, lamb, poultry, and many Mediterranean dishes.

Your order includes one healthy bare-rooted seedling, ready to establish quickly in your garden or a large container. Growing instructions, harvesting advice, and traditional medicinal uses are provided below.