About Us

Oderings is a 100% New Zealand privately owned family business of six generations spanning almost 94 years. We currently have seven retail stores nationwide, five in Christchurch and two in the North Island, along with three Wholesale growing nurseries, two located in Christchurch and one in Hawke's Bay. Oderings employ over 180 staff nationwide and up to 300 during our peak period in Spring.

Oderings History

Oderings was started in 1929 by Alfred Odering, a builder and bricklayer, and his son Raymond when they purchased an empty section in Stourbridge Street, Spreydon, Christchurch. This was at the start of the Great Depression.

The building industry collapsed, and the Oderings building came close to ruin. Alf and Ray built a small glasshouse on the section, which is part of today's Stourbridge Street Nursery and Garden Centre. Tomato plants and fruits were their first crops, followed later by ferns, cut flower crops, begonias and lily bulbs.

Raymond Odering was the driving force behind the rapid progress until the 1950s and beyond. It meant that Oderings had grown and become prominent florists in Christchurch. It was not unusual to have 50 wreaths and sprays for a single funeral or have wedding flowers to make for seven Saturday weddings. Oderings also supplied bedding and veggie bundles to Woolworths and McKenzies.

By 1950 Oderings were arguably the largest grower of bedding plants in Christchurch, and in this year, Raymond's son, Donald, joined the family business, eventually taking over as Managing Director in 1956. 

In the 70s, 80s and 90s, Donald and Isobel's children became involved in the business and worked in tandem with him in opening Oderings retail stores. We opened our first Oderings Retail store in 1972 at Stourbridge St in Christchurch. In 1986, Oderings opened its second retail garden centre in Christchurch at Philpotts Road.  

Oderings opened another six stores throughout the 80s and 90s, including venturing into the North Island. We currently have two stores in the North Island located in Palmerston North, and Havelock North.  

In Christchurch, our two largest branches, Stourbridge St and Philpotts Rd, continue to trade. And we now have an additional three stores operating in Christchurch at Cashmere Road (1988), Yaldhurst (1996) and Linwood (opened 2005 which replaced our Ferry Rd store).

To this day, Isobel still works in the company, and two of Donald and Isobel's five children, Angela and Julian, still work in the business. Seven of the fifth generation are within the business today – Daniel, Pamela and Davinia, Olivia and Jeremy, and Michael and Alex. And we are now starting to see several sixth-generation family members in the business.  

Oderings have a straightforward philosophy of applying our experience growing and selling plants to our customers and ensuring that we offer the best advice for all planting needs and post-purchase care whilst maintaining a family-owned business.

Our Core Purpose is Growing today for tomorrow's generations, something that has been the driving force behind our business since the beginning. This refers not only to generations of family members within the business but also to the generations of our team members and customers. So many of today's customers remember shopping with us as very young children. We believe this philosophy has worked well in the past, and we are confident it will be a success in the future.

We'll celebrate our 100^th anniversary in 2029 and look forward to growing another 100 years of Inspired Gardeners in the future.