Over-zealous pruning of shrubs in Wanganui's Kowhai Park is turning them into dull mounds when they could be a riot of golden flowers, ecologist Colin Ogle says.
The plants are Sophora molloyi, a kowhai from the shores of Cook Strait that flowers in midwinter.
Largely unpruned in Mr Ogle's own garden, it is covered in flowers and attracting birds.
Beside the Whanganui River in Kowhai Park, 70 of the same shrubs have barely a flower.
Mr Ogle said pruning was a waste of time and money.
