Australian Native Plants List, Hedges, Screens, Grasses & Ground Covers

Australian Native Plants

Australian native plants are the obvious choice for Australian gardens; they’ve grown in harmony with the Australian climate and conditions for millennia. And Ozbreed has used the most up-to-date technology to improve their growth and flowering characteristics even further.

We’ve put together this ultimate Australian native plants guide to help you choose the best plants for your needs.

Whether you’re looking for native hedging plants, screen plants, ground cover, dense shrubs, flowers attract bees, native birds, hardy plants that respond well to pruning or anything else you need, Ozbreed have the perfect plant.

Growing Australian Native Plants

It makes good sense to choose an Australian native plant for your garden because they are generally:

Hardy
Drought resistant
Low maintenance
Disease resistant
Beautiful

Australian native plants look great in mass plantings, as specimen trees, ground cover for weed control. Native plants often have striking forms and stunning flower displays that create powerful contrasts and variety in ornamental gardens or for lining driveways.

Australian natives are usually pretty easy to grow but you’ll always get the best results when you choose the right plant, right place – this Australian plants list will inspire your gardening vision and help you choose the best plant for your needs.

Hedge Plants

Choosing the right hedging plant for your hedge is not always so straightforward.

Not only do you need to think about soil conditions, light, drought and frost occurrence but you also need to consider the space, growth habit, and maintenance requirements.

Ask yourself, do you want a box hedge, a hedge for defining a border or a hedge for privacy and security?

Westringia

Check out one of the many beautiful Westringia cultivars.

The popular Westringia varieties feature fast growing dense foliage with delicate mauve to blue flowers that are highly attractive to native birds.

Westringia are hardy, drought tolerant and cope with a wide range of environments and soil conditions including coastal. Westringia do really well with regular pruning and so they make an ideal choice for box or topiary hedging.

Ozbreed supply a large number of Westringia cultivars ranging from 30cm high x 70cm wide (suitable for box hedging) up to 2.2m high x 1.5m wide for privacy hedging.

See the full range of Westringia here.

Callistemon

Callistemon (bottlebrush) varieties are another good choice for hedging.

Ozbreed have a number of Callistemon cultivars that are ideal for different settings.

Callistemon are hardy plants, drought and frost resistant and their stunning flower displays will attract the native birds. Use them for screening, hedges or as a feature for tight planting areas.

They tolerate drought and frost but plant them in full sun to part shade. They suit most soil types. Ozbreed Callistemon varieties are highly resistant to Myrtle rust. They range in size from box hedging plants up to 3m high densely leaved hedge plants.

Many of the Callistemon range thrive on regular pruning. This means some of the larger varieties can be pruned to produce smaller tighter growth habits.

See the Callistemon range here.

Waterhousea

Waterhousea floribunda or Weeping Lilly pilly can grow to be a big tree but with regular pruning it will make extremely effective and attractive hedges.

Sweeper® Waterhousea floribunda — 10m high x 5 – 8m wide. Its elegant rippled leaves and delicate white flowers make this a stunning choice as a boundary hedging plant. Plant in full sun to part shade. It is drought and cold tolerant but avoid hot and dry inland areas.

Hibbertia

Hibbertia provide a great choice for smaller hedges and borders. Take a look at Ocean Reef™ Hibbertia spicata.

Ocean reef is a great choice for coastal regions and limestone soils.

A compact Hibbertia with very glossy leaves
A slow growing shrub that does not tend to spread—grows to 50cm high by 25cm wide
Yellow buttercup flowers in spring

Native Hedges Resources and Links

Related Articles

Where to Buy Native shrubs and groundcovers

Screening Plants

Sometimes you just want to be able to screen the neighbours out, protect your own privacy, or simply cover up an unsightly wall or fence. But when you have limited space in your backyard you need to look for some special plants.

Ideally, you need plants that will grow dense foliage without growing too tall or wide; plants such as Lilly pilly that can fit in narrow spaces.

Lilly Pilly

Check out some of Ozbreed’s excellent and popular Lilly pilly cultivars. These are perfect for constricted planting areas such as along fences and driveways, and their beautiful berries will bring the native birds too.

Ozbreed Lilly pillies are highly Myrtle Rust and Psyllid resistant and are especially useful as fire retardant plantings.

Screening Plants Resources and Links

Related Information

Check out our Best Plants quick selection guide for Screening, or our Screening & Hedging Plants site
Look online for where to buy native shrubs or advanced trees

Ground Cover Plants

Grevillea

Grevilleas are tough fast growing ground cover plants with dense foliage. They will easily out-compete the hardiest weeds. Some Grevillea can spread 3 or 4 metres.

Correa

Correa, also known as the Australian fuchsia, are renowned for their exquisite flowers ranging from delicate pink to fire red. Their vigorous spreading growth habit makes them ideal for ground cover and keeping those pesky weeds at bay.

Correa are drought and frost tolerant. The Ozbreed range of Correa give you many options from delicate low mat coverings (as low as 25cm high) to 2m high shrubs.

Ozbreed also stocks a range of other ground cover plants that have remained close to the hearts of many Australian gardeners over the decades.

Rhagodia

Aussie Flat Bush™ Rhagodia spinescens — 30-50cm high x 1m wide.

This low growing, compact shrub with blue foliage is ideal for ground cover for roadsides and other landscapes in inland and coastal situations.

Carpobrotus

Aussie Rambler™ Carpobrotus glaucescens –20cm high x 2m wide.

Aussie Rambler’s large deep pink flowers in spring and autumn make a wonderful display in rockeries and mass plantings.

And this Carpobrotus works perfectly as weed controlling ground cover in inland and coastal positions. It’s also highly tolerant to drought, frost, salt and humidity.

Other excellent native Australian ground cover plants include:

MEEMA™ Hardenbergia violacea — 50cm high x 2m wide–copes with full sun to partial shade.
PURPLE FUSION™ Scaevola humilis — 20cm high x 1.5m wide–will flower throughout the year.
FREE FALL™ Casuarina glauca prostrate — 30-60cm high x 3-6m wide—a tough ground cover plant for retaining walls and slopes.
Blue Horizon™ Eremophila glabra prostrate — 25cm high x 1m wide–a great choice for dry conditions.
Yareena™ Myoporum parvifolium–10cm high x 1m wide—suits nearly all soil types and conditions

Ground Cover Plants Resources and Links

See our complete range of Native shrubs and groundcovers

Buy Native shrubs and groundcovers

Strappy Leaved Plants

Ozbreed Strappy Leaf Plants

Australia has a wide selection of strappy leaved plants.

These often work well as ground cover especially in combination with other plants.

Kangaroo paws are iconic Australian plants with the rich green leafy foliage contrasting beautifully against the iridescent flowers sitting atop the tall flower stems.

Dianella

Many of the Dianella family are native to Australia and their hardiness, long, deep green strappy foliage, and stunning flower displays create a magnificently colourful ground cover.

They are hardy drought and frost resistant plants that cope well in a wide variety of settings. Some of the Dianella family thrive in wet soil and shady conditions too.

You can see the full Dianella range here.

Kangaroo Paws

Every Australian garden needs some Kangaroo paws.

Their iconic brilliantly coloured flower sitting atop tall stems and their strappy green leaves make them an ideal choice for mass plantings, ground cover, and border plantings.

The Ozbreed range of Kangaroo Paw plants are bred for excellent Ink Spot resistance and drought and frost tolerance.

See the full range of Kangaroo paws here.

Lomandra

Lomandra are another tough, low maintenance, strappy leaved plant that thrives in most parts of Australia.

The rapid growth and dense mat-like habit of mass plantings will keep weeds at bay and add a touch of colour and form to border gardens, retaining walls, and rockeries.

The Lomandra are reasonably tolerant to shade and some, such as Katie Belles, cope with deep shade as well as wet heavy soil.

Lepidosperma

Lepidosperma are tussock type grasses that cope well with drought, frost and full sun to part shade.

They work equally well as ground cover plants or as single ornamental specimens in rockeries.

Strappy Leaf Plants Resources and Links

Related Articles

Where to Buy

Australian Native Grasses

Ozbreed Australian Native Grasses

Australia boasts a stunning array of native grasses that work well as ground cover, border planting or as gorgeous ornamental garden features.

Grasses give strong architectural shape and flow to garden design.

Native grasses are tough, grow in all soil conditions and cope with everything our tough climate can throw at them.

See the range here.

Australian Native Grasses Resources and Links

Related Articles

Where to Buy

Australian Native Flowers

Perfect for attracting bees, birds, and the wild life

Many of Australia’s native plants have developed their stunning flower displays to attract our native birds and wild life. Whatever your garden needs there is a native species that will fill that space and attract the native nectar lovers to your garden.

Check out:

Correa—flowers in winter/ early spring
Westringia—produces prolific amounts of delicate mauve to blue flowers throughout much of the year
Lilly pilly—the red or purple fruits are edible and especially good for attracting birds
Kangaroo paws—various shades of red, green, yellow, and black stand out in any garden
Grevillea— exuberant flower displays in colours ranging from crimson to golden yellow
Eremophila—produces lovely yellow flowers in the winter
Scaevola—flowers all year round

Australian Natives for Shady Areas

Dianella tasmanica (Tasman flax lily) grows naturally in the forests of Tasmania, Victoria and the NSW coast.

It’s tolerance for shade, moisture, and cooler temperatures make it a great choice for those wetter shadier locations.

Little Jess™ Dianella caerulea is another Dianella that thrives even in the heavy shade.

The Lomandra family, particularly Katie Belles and Great White, also cope well with shade.

TWILIGHT GREEN™ Lepidosperma is a tussock type plant that does well in the shade. Its deep green foliage is especially vivid in low light.

Specimen Trees

Ozbreed Australian Native Trees

Ficus

The native fig (Podium™ Ficus brachypoda) works well as a superbly shaped shade tree. It stands out with its lush green foliage, beautiful canopy shape, and low fruiting rates (less mess on pathways).

Eucalyptus

Australia is home to many Eucalyptus varieties but none as special as Vintage Red™ Eucalyptus cladocalyx.

It features deep purple red foliage and is an ideal specimen tree for larger gardens and land blocks in the Southern States (not suitable for north of Sydney). It is extremely drought resistant and will also tolerate mild frosts.

Australian Native Trees Resources and Links

Where to buy Australian native trees

Native Plant Guides

You can click on the links below to read detailed growing guides for everything you need to know about growing Australian plants.

Soils for Australian Natives

Most Australian plants will do well in a range of soil conditions from sandy to light clay although they prefer well drained soil. Creating raised planting beds can help encourage drainage.

If you have acidic soils choose plants such as the Grevillea or Kangaroo Paws – they prefer a well drained soil pH of less than 7.

Some plants, such as Lilly pilly and many of the ground cover plants including Aussie Flatbush, Aussie Rambler, and the Lomandra family, will do well in almost any soil from sandy to heavy clay. In fact, Katie belles™ Lomandra hystrix is really very happy in wet soil areas such as beside streams.

MEEMA™ Hardenbergia violacea is another excellent ground cover plant that will thrive in most soil types from light sandy to heavy clay soils.

Australian Native Plants List, Hedges, Screens, Grasses & Ground Covers