It was supposed to be a gift to the community.

Volunteers from Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology and Comvita joined Tauranga City Council staff to plant several corokias at Memorial Park last month.

The little plants were arranged to form 12 letters – ‘Memorial Park' – which would grow into a new feature hedge in years to come.

But the fledgling hedge has been ruined thanks to vandals, who tore most of the plants out a couple of days ago.

Toi Ohomai tutor Steve Webb, who helped plant the corokias along with his horticulture students, says most of the plants were pulled out and ‘kicked around'.

'City Care dropped all of the plants off at Toi Ohomai, where they were kept in wheelbarrows of water.

'The students then healed them in this morning, trying to re-establish them here on campus. Hopefully we'll be able to replant them again in the autumn.”

Students replanting the corokias at Toi Ohomai's Windermere campus.

The project cost around $9000, and Steve says there are 245 plants in total.

Some of them still have bright green leaves and big roots, which suggests they may survive.

But others are very dry with small roots, and it's possible they might not make it to the autumn.

Planting will have to wait until after summer, as there's no irrigation at the site to water the plants.

'We put them in just before a lot of rain, which allowed them to take root. Now with the winds we have and the dry weather, planting them when they're already stressed means they wouldn't survive.”

'It's pretty devastating,” says student Keith Pouwhare, who helped with the initial planting.

'We put a lot of work into planting them – around three or four hours.”

Fellow student Luke Moules agrees.

'It was such an awesome idea, and something for the community. I'm not sure why anyone would want to rip them out.”

Tauranga City Council parks and recreation manager Mark Smith says the vandalism is disappointing.

'This was a community initiative, so it's disappointing – especially for the 25 volunteers who put in the hard work to plant this hedge.”

Half an ‘M' is all that remains of the would-be Memorial Park hedge.