Gardening Plant Encyclopedia Vegetable New Zealand Spinach By Viveka Neveln Viveka Neveln Instagram Viveka Neveln is the Garden Editor at BHG and a degreed horticulturist with broad gardening expertise earned over 3+ decades of practice and study. She has more than 20 years of experience writing and editing for both print and digital media. Learn about BHG's Editorial Process Updated on November 14, 2019 Share Tweet Pin Email In This Article View All In This Article Pruning and Harvesting Garden Plans Like Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach is a great way to enjoy a tender green even in the heat of summer, when regular spinach doesn't grow well. In the warmest regions of the United States, it can be grown as a perennial, but in most regions it grows best as a warm-season annual.Its flavor is similar than regular spinach but a little milder. The plant grows quite differently from regular spinach. Instead of forming a bunch, New Zealand spinach branches and spreads like a vine. Harvest the interesting medium-green triangular leaves and silvery expanding leaves, and use them exactly as you would spinach -- raw in salads, sauteed, or cooked. New Zealand Spinach Overview Genus Name Tetragonia tetragonioides Common Name New Zealand Spinach Plant Type Vegetable Light Sun Height 1 to 3 feet Width 1 to 3 feet Propagation Seed Pruning and Harvesting Harvest tender growing tips of the plant from midsummer onward until frost. Cut several inches of stem to remove the tips and side leaves. The plant will branch and regrow from the cut stem. Garden Plan for New Zealand Spinach Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit