Kentia Howea forsteriana

November 2024- Check out our sale prices on 4 XXL (trunking) grade ‘wonky’ Kentia below. These generally have a misshapen trunk and offer character to your subtropical garden. Not all is perfect in the jungle garden!

A very elegant palm, Kentia typically take 12 to 15 years to develop a trunk and start moving slowly skyward in New Zealand.

Native to Lord Howe Island.
Our recommended most beautiful palm for the Bay of Plenty.
The Kentia is well suited to our coastal environment and copes well with salt laden winds, however they do like good moisture and a fertile soil to do extra well.
Smooth, green slim trunk if grown in light or deep shade. Excellent for indoor and outdoor use. Tolerates very low light.
A very sought after palm

Fantastic when planted in multiples or tight groupings of two, three or more.

Please read this before you consider purchasing a wrapped/400 litre/1000 litre mature tree from us.

Viewing trees

We strongly recommend visiting our site to view our wrapped, 400 litre and 1000 litre selections.

Asking for quotes including freight

We have handed the responsibility for obtaining a hiab quote back to the customer. This is mainly because we get mucked around so much by dreamers who do not consider their access or budget when they contact us.
We do not supply freight movement as part of the tree purchase price. This is an independent contractor and they are paid by you separately from the tree you purchase from us.

We recommend Kyle at SkyHooksNZ on 021 404 331 or Pete on 021 884 919. They have moved many of our trees around the North Island.

The mature trees are as priced on the website. There is no trade price. They are in very scarce supply so demand is high. The mature trees have their heights displayed both in the price list columns and also under their individual photos. Add those prices to the freight quote price you get from our recommended hiab operators and you will get a very good idea of overall cost.

Logistics of moving, planting and access

The wrapped trees we sell are large (up to 6 metres high) and heavy (from 300kg – 800kg).
Only some of them can be transported on our freight specialists truck around the country. The others require a hiab truck to freight.
All of them need you to think carefully about your own residential access and ability to place the tree into its site. There’s no way 3-4 strong blokes can lift a 300kg tree down stairs (or up stairs) through a gateway or across a gangway.
There will be injuries to either people or tree attempting to do this.

You can plant a 400 litre tree into a minimum space of 2 metres square. You can plant a 1000 litre or one of our wrapped trees into a minimum space of 2.5 metres square. Please consider this before you contact us.

The hiab we recommend has a maximum reach of 6-7 metres. At this reach the loading capacity reduces to 200kg (at the end of the crane). At a 1-2 metre reach the loading will be 1 tonne. The ability for the hiab to get right alongside where the tree is to be planted is important and in the case of a 600kg-1 tonne tree.

Soil type

Kentia and Sentry palms do not like clay. If you dig a hole into a shallow clay pan you will end up with a swimming pool type situation where the tree roots and root ball will be sitting in an endlessly wet situation. Your tree will die eventually. Please address your soil type if you have any concerns about heavy clay PRIOR to contacting us specifically for Kentia or Sentry palms.

Costs of freight with hiab

A hiab trip from our nursery here in Te Puke to a simple to access site in Auckland will be approximately $700 plus GST. A round trip over 500 km will cost more.

Of course, the beauty of using a hiab for the movement is that the tree can go straight into your predug hole at your site. That saves money and time in the long run.

Recommended contacts for hiab movement of our trees

We have handed the responsibility for obtaining a hiab quote back to the customer. We recommend Kyle at SkyHooksNZ on 021 404 331 or Pete on 021 884 919. They have moved many of our trees around the North Island.

We will provide hole dimensions when needed but its easy enough to work out the scale of the hole required when the photos of the mature grades are studied.