About Us

We are are New Zealand based, family operated online business, offering our iconic craft, New Zealand made Fernwood® range of products, for sale to the world.

Fernwood® is made by nature, then crafted by hand.

We pride ourselves in supplying a truly unique range, coupled with great service. We have a secure new easy to use shopping cart on facebook, check us out on Fernwood

Tree ferns are a characteristic part of New Zealand’s native landscape. Over 200 species of tree fern grow in New-Zealand’s temperate climate where they thrive as understory plants in natural and planted forests. They are most plentiful in recently-cut forestry plantations and degraded forests.

Ubiquitous as a source of national pride in New Zealand culture, the fern is the unofficial symbol of New Zealand at home and abroad as seen in marketing symbols for the All Blacks rugby team, the New Zealand tourismboard and the Air New Zealand. Tree ferns appear on New Zealand’s stamps, coins, banknotes and the nations’s coat of arms.

The common Maori name for the native Black Mamaku tree fern is Ponga pronouced "Pun-ga" and has always been a source of inspiration and full of meaning for Maori, who used the patterns for Moku (tattoo).

The unfurling fern frond (Koru) symbolizes new beginnings and new life.

For the Maori, ponga "punga" was a valuable and abundant natural source of building materials like structural beams, walls and roofing. Hard flint-like portions of wood have been shaped into spearheads. The soft, fibrous center (pith) was used as an emergency food and resembles the taste of coconut. Other uses of tree ferns include fencing materials, retaining walls, grain storage, binding twine and popular ornamental garden plants. The unusual and distinctive texture of tree fern wood is valued by master craftsmen who make distinctive home furnishings, picture frames and Kiwiana products like Fernwood®.

Fernwood® primarily uses wood from the endemic Black Mamaku tree fern and captures the coloring and texture of this wood using a unique heat curing and treatment process.
The final kiln-dried product is suitable for export being both pest and moisture free & very durable.
Black Ponga or "punga" is a very unusual wood, that is found only in New Zealand, as such it makes great gifts, being biologically interesting and unique, it always stimulates interesting conversation.

Fernwood® is a family-run craft business, its studio based in the Waikato town of Cambridge "New Zealand's Town of Trees". Cambridge is a charming town with an abundance Art & Antique offerings, set in a village atmosphere, enhanced by its position on the banks of the mighty Waikato River, in the center of the North Island of New Zealand.

Fernwood® products are made from regenerative tree ferns, sustainably harvested in small batches from private bushlots and logs salvaged from commercial plantation forests.