Plants

Marshmallow Crowns (Althaea officinalis)

Marshmallow is a traditional medicinal herb valued for its soothing properties. The leaves and roots have historically been used to support inflammation and irritation of the respiratory, digestive, and urinary systems, including dry coughs, stomach irritation, and urinary tract discomfort.*

Marshmallow goes dormant in winter. Each order includes one marshmallow crown cutting with a growing tip (see image below). Simply plant into your garden over winter and watch it emerge vigorously in spring.

Multiplying Spring Onions (Allium schoenoprasum)
Family: Amaryllidaceae

Easy-care Multiplying Spring Onions, also known as Giant Chives, are one of the most productive perennial vegetables you can grow. Hardy, reliable, and long-lived, they form ever-expanding clumps that return year after year with almost no maintenance.

Enjoy a continuous harvest of crisp, mild-flavoured spring onions from September through to May. Simply harvest the largest stems as needed while leaving the smaller ones to continue growing. Each year the clumps become larger and more productive, providing an increasingly abundant supply without the need for repeated sowing, transplanting, or thinning.

Ideal for kitchen gardens, raised beds, food forests, and permaculture systems, Multiplying Spring Onions are frost hardy, easy to divide, and excellent for sharing with friends or expanding your own planting.

Your order includes a healthy starter clump, ready to establish quickly and provide years of reliable harvests. Planting instructions, growing tips, and harvesting advice 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.

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.

Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

Family: Lamiaceae

Skullcap is a hardy perennial herb renowned for its calming and restorative properties. Native to North America, it produces masses of delicate blue-violet flowers in summer that are highly attractive to bees and other beneficial insects. It is one of the most valued herbs for supporting the nervous system and makes an excellent addition to any medicinal herb garden.*

Easy to grow and long-lived, Skullcap thrives in moist, fertile soil in full sun to partial shade. Once established, it returns year after year and provides abundant leafy growth for harvesting.

Your order includes three dormant rhizomes with growing buds, ready to plant. Growing instructions, harvesting advice, drying methods, and traditional medicinal uses can be found below.

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.

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.

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.

Yomogi (Artemisia princeps)
Family: Asteraceae

Yomogi, also known as Japanese Mugwort, is one of Japan's most treasured perennial herbs, valued for centuries as both a nourishing spring vegetable and an important medicinal plant. The tender young shoots have a pleasant, aromatic flavour and are traditionally used in herbal teas, soups, tempura, and the famous green yomogi mochi (rice cakes).

Easy to grow, hardy, and highly productive, Yomogi spreads by underground rhizomes to form lush clumps that return year after year. It thrives in full sun to partial shade and is well-suited to gardens throughout New Zealand.

Yomogi dies down in winter. Your order includes one healthy bare-rooted plant with growing shoots, ready to establish quickly in your garden once temperatures warm up.

Growing instructions, harvesting advice, culinary uses, and traditional medicinal information 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.

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.

Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris)
Family: Rosaceae
Common names: Lady’s Mantle

Lady’s Mantle is a beautiful, hardy perennial herb cherished for its soft scalloped leaves, delicate chartreuse flowers, and long history of use in women’s herbal medicine. Known for its astringent and toning qualities, it is especially valued for supporting menstrual health, digestion, and wound healing. Easy to grow and highly ornamental, it thrives in a wide range of garden conditions and makes an elegant addition to the herb garden.

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

Lady's Mantle dies down in winter. You will receive a dormant plant without leaves, but with growing shoots in place.