What are “exotics’s”?!

So we have named our business project, Williamson’s Exotics, but more than one person has queried us as to what that actually means…

So what is an exotic plant or tree?

In a botanical sense, it is technically any introduced species which is not native to the area in which it is growing. While there are definitely native species of plants in New Zealand that do produce edible fruit, almost everything we would find in our fruit and veggie shops would technically be considered exotic.

n a colloquial sense, exotic means something different to the norm. Until more recently as more and more people get back into getting their hands dirty, the urban garden “norm” is generally planted out with non fruiting or non edible ornamentals, many of our backyards in fact commonly contain very poisonous and dangerous plants which “look pretty”.

Even some New Zealand natives are confined to a tiny range in the wild but can be found and grown in areas beyond that, technically making them considered exotic….

From the perspective of us here at Williamson’s Exotics, we consider “exotic” to be anything we find interesting or unusual, as well as a range of fruiting trees and shrubs and edibles. We are keen to encourage more people to get edibles plants in their backyards, garden strips, pots or even buckets and are quite the fans of the unusual..

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  So so many healthy new growth tips on the Rose Apple at the moment too! #ourgarden #ourbackyard #roseapple #growthtips #growth #growyourownf

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  Found the first little beautiful flower on our tamarillo this afternoon too! _#fruit #fruitflowers #tamarillo #tamarilloflower #flower #exot

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  Fresh, healthy looking new tip on the Prickly Pear at the moment! _#pricklypear #pricklypears #pear #cactus #edible #edibles #inthegarden #N

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  Even the flowers on the Bubbhas hand citron look a bit curly and funny compared to a standard citrus! _Our little tree is covered in them at

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  New banana palm leaf unfurling today! _#banana #bananapalm #palm #unfurling #growyourownfood #growyourown #gardening #NZ #newzealand #nzgard

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  Baby plants ;)

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  Love how cool the ice cream bean is! Have a few of these to do listing's for on our site soon _) have you heard of them before_ They are nit

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  Check out these nuts!!!! This macadamia tree is about 6 years old, it's only about seven foot tall and this year is covered in fruit! Last y

We are still in the processes of setting up our online ordering system, if you would like to see our current stock list in the meantime, please feel free to email us (williamsonsexotics@gmail.com) or message us on our Facebook page.