Native Plants for Formal Gardens
Episode: # 29 15/12/07
Presenter: Dean Boone
This week Dean wanted to make you think about how you look at native plants and how you use them in your garden. Dean is always getting comments about how people don’t like natives in their garden because they think they are scrappy, messy and dull. Dean proves nothing could be further from the truth. This week he showed off some native plants that can be used in a formal garden design and will also be really water wise.
Formal, neat and colourful can all be achieved in a native garden. It’s all about choosing the right plant for the right place. Hedges are a great place to start, every formal garden has them and lillypillies are all excellent examples. Tall or tiny, just choose the one that will grow to the height you need.
Topiary are another common occurrence in formal gardens. Again, lillypillies are a great choice, they come in wonderful cone shapes and it doesn’t get much more structural and neat than that. They come in all shapes and sizes so again you will find a topiary plant to suit your garden needs.
Now let’s think about some feature trees. The Tree Waratah it’s bursting with bright orange flower colour this time of year and will stop you in your tracks, or perhaps you prefer the smaller Native Hibiscus. It comes in a yellow, pink or a purple flower form and it’s really fast growing. Still not quite right, then how about a grafted weeping Cootamundra hybrid, they are soft and spectacular.
In formal garden designs I always try to create foliage contrast and texture so things like these strappy foliage plants are ideal. Any one of these Dianellas or perhaps this purple flowering Patersonia will give you the structure and flower colour you’re looking for.
Perennial garden beds are of course the softer element in any formal garden and there is a huge range of colour and contrast you can create with native perennials. Favourites would be the brachycome or the native Ajuga. Ajugas are great for year round foliage contrast as well as having a mass of small blue flowers.
Every garden needs some strong focal plants and the Gymea Lily is a stunner with its magnificent red flower spikes. Perhaps you could go for a weeping standard like great new ones available using grevilleas and casuarinas.
With all of these plants, there are absolutely endless combinations and you can be sure they’ll also be water wise and they all do well in poor soils, dry conditions and everything else the Aussie climate has to offer. A native garden doesn’t need to be boring or messy and it can
have all the hallmarks of more European garden styles, but because of plant selection it’s a garden that is hardier and friendlier to the environment. Your local native birds and native bees are going to love it.
Featured Plants:
Dwarf Lilly Pilly (Syzygium australe cv.)
Tree Waratah (Alloxylon flammeum)
Native Hibiscus (Alyogyne huegelii)
Grafted Weeping Cootamundra Wattle (Acacia baileyana cv.)
Native Ajuga (Ajuga australis)
Gymea Lily (Doryanthes excelsa)
Garfted Weeping Casuarina (Allocasuarina sp.)
Presenter: Dean Boone
This week Dean wanted to make you think about how you look at native plants and how you use them in your garden. Dean is always getting comments about how people don’t like natives in their garden because they think they are scrappy, messy and dull. Dean proves nothing could be further from the truth. This week he showed off some native plants that can be used in a formal garden design and will also be really water wise.
Formal, neat and colourful can all be achieved in a native garden. It’s all about choosing the right plant for the right place. Hedges are a great place to start, every formal garden has them and lillypillies are all excellent examples. Tall or tiny, just choose the one that will grow to the height you need.
Topiary are another common occurrence in formal gardens. Again, lillypillies are a great choice, they come in wonderful cone shapes and it doesn’t get much more structural and neat than that. They come in all shapes and sizes so again you will find a topiary plant to suit your garden needs.
Now let’s think about some feature trees. The Tree Waratah it’s bursting with bright orange flower colour this time of year and will stop you in your tracks, or perhaps you prefer the smaller Native Hibiscus. It comes in a yellow, pink or a purple flower form and it’s really fast growing. Still not quite right, then how about a grafted weeping Cootamundra hybrid, they are soft and spectacular.
In formal garden designs I always try to create foliage contrast and texture so things like these strappy foliage plants are ideal. Any one of these Dianellas or perhaps this purple flowering Patersonia will give you the structure and flower colour you’re looking for.
Perennial garden beds are of course the softer element in any formal garden and there is a huge range of colour and contrast you can create with native perennials. Favourites would be the brachycome or the native Ajuga. Ajugas are great for year round foliage contrast as well as having a mass of small blue flowers.
Every garden needs some strong focal plants and the Gymea Lily is a stunner with its magnificent red flower spikes. Perhaps you could go for a weeping standard like great new ones available using grevilleas and casuarinas.
With all of these plants, there are absolutely endless combinations and you can be sure they’ll also be water wise and they all do well in poor soils, dry conditions and everything else the Aussie climate has to offer. A native garden doesn’t need to be boring or messy and it can
have all the hallmarks of more European garden styles, but because of plant selection it’s a garden that is hardier and friendlier to the environment. Your local native birds and native bees are going to love it.
Featured Plants:
Dwarf Lilly Pilly (Syzygium australe cv.)
Tree Waratah (Alloxylon flammeum)
Native Hibiscus (Alyogyne huegelii)
Grafted Weeping Cootamundra Wattle (Acacia baileyana cv.)
Native Ajuga (Ajuga australis)
Gymea Lily (Doryanthes excelsa)
Garfted Weeping Casuarina (Allocasuarina sp.)
AS SEEN ON 
