Whangarei's city conservatory boasts one of New Zealand's largest public collections of native ferns. Within the Marge Maddren Fernery.an extensive collection of plants from around the mainland and our offshore islands is found in three shadehouses, ponds, a small waterfall and a courtyard area.� The fernery is named after Marge Maddren, a former president of the Whangarei branch of Forest and Bird, who raised funds to build the facility.
Some of the city's history has also been incorporated with kerb stones from the old-style Rathbone St edging many of the gardens and pools, bricks from the former Town Hall on Bank St used as paving and wall stones used around the town in the 1920s also forming part of the construction.