Metrosideros are often cultivated for their showy flowers, as street trees or in home gardens. The flowers are generally red, but some cultivars have orange, yellow or white flowers. Some names listed in horticultural catalogues and other publications, such as M. villosa and M. vitiensis, are actually the names of varieties or cultivars (usually of M. collina) rather than valid scientific species. The pōhutukawa of New Zealand has several cultivars grown in Australia, Hawaii and California and it has been planted successfully in the north of Spain and on the Scilly Isles off the south-west coast of Britain,BBC: Christmas tree, Pohutukawa but the species is considered an invasive pest in parts of South Africa and in the Azores.Governo dos Açores: "Government invests in fight against invasive exotic species" Metrosideros kermadecensis is recently naturalised in Hawaii, and has the potential to become a pest. In turn, various cultivars of M. collina and M. polymorpha are widely grown in New Zealand under various names. Metrosideros umbellata occurs naturally south of mainland New Zealand in the Auckland Islands at 50° South latitude, and is the hardiest member of the genus, and a few cultivated specimens are growing in Scotland.
