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About us

We grow a wide range of indoor plants, flowering and foliage, perennial plants, vegetables, shrubs and specimen trees. Our heated state-of-the-art glasshouses enable the production of tropical plants including Phalaenopsis Orchids, Anthuriums, Bromeliads, Peace Lilies, Begonias, Hibiscus and tropical foliage. We also produce perennials including New Guinea Impatiens, Petunias, Hydrangeas, Geraniums, Calla Lilies and Dahlias. RPN’s tree nursery produces shrubs and specimen native and exotic trees in containers from 10 litres up to 800 litres on our modern 10-hectare container nursery.

My dad, Peter Tayler, started in 1975 with his business partner Ken Caldwell in Waipuna Rd, Mt Wellington, Auckland.  Dad did a Bachelor Degree in Horticultural science and after that became an MAF officer who used to go to all of the nurseries and advise them.  One of these nurseries was a tomato grower who used to grow a few things like cyclamen and polyanthus on the side. Massey Wood approached Peter and told him he was retiring and asked Dad whether he wanted to take over.  Dad did, got rid of all of the tomatoes and started growing plants. In 1982 dad moved out to what is our current site in Ramarama. I studied Bachelor of Applied Science at Massey University and after doing a little bit of work outside the nursery, I came back as soon as I could!  My plan had always been to come back to the nursery. It was why I went to study. When I returded, I spent a couple of years in potting, then 4 or 5 years in the tree nursery, and finally started doing the sales.  After a few years we then engaged an external business advisor, my uncle, to help develop a strategic plan as to how I was going to get integrated into the management of business, to enable my dad to start to winding back from the business and eventually retire. It is still important to me to have monthly meetings and review strategic plans regularly with an external advisor to the business. The process back then was essential so that everyone, the staff, dad, and myself, knew what was happening. I don’t think it was difficult for the staff to handle this transition from father to son, because everyone was aware of what was happening. 

Why did you decide to go into the family business?

I have always wanted to get into the nursery right from a young age and enjoyed coming out to the nursery. I was interested in plants and it was cool going into a family business. My earliest memory of the business was potting on an old potting machine, with tractors bringing in 3 shelves on forks and hand-loading those, then taking them out to the shade house baskets of fuchsias. The exciting part for me was trying to see how fast I could pot, and getting paid. When I was 10 or 11, Dad would bring me out for 1 week of the holidays and when I was 14 it got to 2 weeks of the holidays. By the time I was 15-17, I was on the nursery for all of the holidays. I loved it, going to work with Dad every day, driving out here, driving home potting. I used to get excited telling Dad how many plants I had potted and therefore how much mix that he had to make with the tractor! I didn’t really care what I got paid, I was more motivated with what I was doing. Getting the job done and seeing how much we could do.

What was the
first thing you changed? Why?

The first thing I changed was starting to do our own freighting. We used to use carriers for everything, for the houseplant nursery and for the trees.  However, using carriers for the trees started to become problematic dealing with erratic and unpredictable demands of this industry! Was the motivation to do our own freighting better servicing of the customers or an excuse to buy a brand new truck…? Both – I do love trucks! Rainbow Parks Nurseries currently has 7 trucks and a couple of trailers. 

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What advice would you give to others who are considering to join or take over the family business? 

Very simply: get advice. Work on a plan. Don’t take the very first advisor that crosses you path, but get some references and then decide. Get a strategic plan, make sure you have it on your desk or nearby and review it regularly, sit in a room with your stakeholders. Very important. It is too easy to make a decision on buying something shiny without thinking it through. Our advisor will sit in a board meeting and anything over a certain amount we have to justify which is good. Everyone knows what you are doing in a family business.

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What does the future hold?

There are a few challenges for our business: Urban Sprawl is right on our boundary, which is a pain in the bum, and secondly, there is the sustainability angle, dealing with replacement of fossil fuels to heat glasshouses and the skyrocketing of natural gas prices. We hope to keep on modernizing, expanding in the future, and delivering the best product we can whilst remaining up to date and on-trend.  My dream would be to move the nursery further out of town!  Relocate to one huge site where we can be more efficient, more automated and sustainable. The challenge there of course is making sure we can get a decent enough return out of moving to a new site. I think I am up for that challenge. 

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Generations: Andrew Tayler (43),
2nd generation

The process back then was essential so that everyone, the staff, dad, and myself, knew what was happening. 

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NURSERY: Rainbow Park Nurseries, New Zealand

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The process back then was essential so that everyone, the staff, dad, and myself, knew what was happening. 

NURSERY: Rainbow Park Nurseries, New Zealand

Generations: Andrew Tayler (43),
2nd generation

newzealand.png (copy)
schermafbeelding_2021... (copy1)
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schermafbeelding_2021... (copy3)

About us

We grow a wide range of indoor plants, flowering and foliage, perennial plants, vegetables, shrubs and specimen trees. Our heated state-of-the-art glasshouses enable the production of tropical plants including Phalaenopsis Orchids, Anthuriums, Bromeliads, Peace Lilies, Begonias, Hibiscus and tropical foliage. We also produce perennials including New Guinea Impatiens, Petunias, Hydrangeas, Geraniums, Calla Lilies and Dahlias. RPN’s tree nursery produces shrubs and specimen native and exotic trees in containers from 10 litres up to 800 litres on our modern 10-hectare container nursery.

My dad, Peter Tayler, started in 1975 with his business partner Ken Caldwell in Waipuna Rd, Mt Wellington, Auckland.  Dad did a Bachelor Degree in Horticultural science and after that became an MAF officer who used to go to all of the nurseries and advise them.  One of these nurseries was a tomato grower who used to grow a few things like cyclamen and polyanthus on the side. Massey Wood approached Peter and told him he was retiring and asked Dad whether he wanted to take over. Dad did, got rid of all of the tomatoes and started growing plants. In 1982 dad moved out to what is our current site in Ramarama. I studied Bachelor of Applied Science at Massey University and after doing a little bit of work outside the nursery, I came back as soon as I could!  My plan had always been to come back to the nursery. It was why I went to study. When I returded, I spent a couple of years in potting, then 4 or 5 years in the tree nursery, and finally started doing the sales.  After a few years we then engaged an external business advisor, my uncle, to help develop a strategic plan as to how I was going to get integrated into the management of business, to enable my dad to start to winding back from the business and eventually retire. It is still important to me to have monthly meetings and review strategic plans regularly with an external advisor to the business. The process back then was essential so that everyone, the staff, dad, and myself, knew what was happening. I don’t think it was difficult for the staff to handle this transition from father to son, because everyone was aware of what was happening. 

Why did you decide to go into the family business?

I have always wanted to get into the nursery right from a young age and enjoyed coming out to the nursery. I was interested in plants and it was cool going into a family business. My earliest memory of the business was potting on an old potting machine, with tractors bringing in 3 shelves on forks and hand-loading those, then taking them out to the shade house baskets of fuchsias. The exciting part for me was trying to see how fast I could pot, and getting paid. When I was 10 or 11, Dad would bring me out for 1 week of the holidays and when I was 14 it got to 2 weeks of the holidays. By the time I was 15-17, I was on the nursery for all of the holidays. I loved it, going to work with Dad every day, driving out here, driving home potting. I used to get excited telling Dad how many plants I had potted and therefore how much mix that he had to make with the tractor! I didn’t really care what I got paid, I was more motivated with what I was doing. Getting the job done and seeing how much we could do.

What was the
first thing you changed? Why?

The first thing I changed was starting to do our own freighting. We used to use carriers for everything, for the houseplant nursery and for the trees.  However, using carriers for the trees started to become problematic dealing with erratic and unpredictable demands of this industry! Was the motivation to do our own freighting better servicing of the customers or an excuse to buy a brand new truck…? Both – I do love trucks! Rainbow Parks Nurseries currently has 7 trucks and a couple of trailers. 

What advice would you give to others who are considering to join or take over the family business? 

Very simply: get advice. Work on a plan. Don’t take the very first advisor that crosses you path, but get some references and then decide. Get a strategic plan, make sure you have it on your desk or nearby and review it regularly, sit in a room with your stakeholders. Very important. It is too easy to make a decision on buying something shiny without thinking it through. Our advisor will sit in a board meeting and anything over a certain amount we have to justify which is good. Everyone knows what you are doing in a family business.

What does the future hold?

There are a few challenges for our business: Urban Sprawl is right on our boundary, which is a pain in the bum, and secondly, there is the sustainability angle, dealing with replacement of fossil fuels to heat glasshouses and the skyrocketing of natural gas prices. We hope to keep on modernizing, expanding in the future, and delivering the best product we can whilst remaining up to date and on-trend.  My dream would be to move the nursery further out of town!  Relocate to one huge site where we can be more efficient, more automated and sustainable. The challenge there of course is making sure we can get a decent enough return out of moving to a new site. I think I am up for that challenge. 

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