10 Australian native alternatives to popular ornamental plants
For several of the most widely sold ornamental plants in Australia, there is a native alternative that matches them closely in form, habit, flower colour or garden role. The majority also outperform in drought tolerance, longevity and wildlife value.
Blue-faced honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis) · Eastern Australia (native)
Some of the ornamentals on this list are environmental weeds. Others are simply exotics with a native equivalent available for consideration. The reward in making the swap is worth it for you, your garden and the animals and wildlife that shares it.
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Why ornamentals remain popular in Australia
Ornamental plants dominate most Australian nurseries for practical reasons. They have been bred and selected over generations for consistent performance, reliable flower colour, disease resistance and predictable size. Many are propagated at scale, which keeps them widely available and affordable. Gardeners can be confident of what they are getting.
Native plants have historically been harder to source in consistent quality and specific varieties, though this is changing rapidly.
1. Chinese fountain grass → Kangaroo grass
Replacing: Chinese fountain grass (Cenchrus alopecuroides)
Native alternative: Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra)
Chinese fountain grass is widely sold for its arching clumping habit, feathery purple-pink seed heads in autumn and the attractive way it moves in the wind. It is also a declared noxious weed or environmental weed across Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, where it escapes cultivation by seed and spreads aggressively into native grassland communities.
Chinese fountain grass (Cenchrus alopecuroides) · Eastern Asia
Kangaroo grass matches it almost exactly in habit. The foliage turns from green through tawny gold to a rich copper-red as temperatures drop, catching low winter light. It was once the dominant grass across most of southern Australia. Its seeds are eaten by finches and grassland birds and it supports the invertebrate communities that grassland-dependent butterflies require to complete their lifecycle.
Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra) · Australia (native)
Plant into free-draining, unamended soil in full sun using a hori-hori. Cut back hard to 10cm with secateurs in late summer each year to drive the strongest winter colour. See our guide to natives for degraded soil for companion plants that suit the same lean conditions.
2. Baby's tears → Pratia
Replacing: Baby's tears (Soleirolia soleirolii)
Native alternative: Pratia (Lobelia pedunculata)
Baby's tears is grown for its lush look and the fact it requires almost no maintenance. In temperate Australian climates it is invasive, escaping into creek lines and shaded garden edges where it is extremely difficult to remove once established. It spreads by runners as well as by seed, which makes containment unreliable even in managed gardens.
Baby's tears (Soleirolia soleirolii) · Western Mediterranean
Pratia forms a near-identical dense creeping mat in the same moist, shaded conditions. It also flowers: star-shaped flowers from spring through autumn that baby's tears does not produce. It is a host plant for several native butterfly species and a nectar source for small native bees. The visual effect in a shaded garden position is indistinguishable from baby's tears in terms of the unbroken ground layer it creates.
Pratia (Lobelia pedunculata) · Eastern Australia (native)
Plant into moist, well-draining soil in a shaded position using a slim trowel. Allow it to spread naturally with no fertiliser and no amendment. It combines well with native ferns for a varied shaded groundcover layer.
3. African iris → Native iris
Replacing: African iris (Dietes grandiflora)
Native alternative: Native iris (Patersonia occidentalis)
African iris is one of the most widely planted ornamentals in Australian gardens. It has upright strap foliage, architectural clumping form, white iris-like flowers on tall stems and a toughness that makes it almost unkillable. It originates in South Africa but in Australia it occupies garden space without ecological return.
African iris (Dietes grandiflora) · South Africa
Native iris provides the same upright strap foliage and architectural clumping form. The flowers are clear purple-blue, smaller than Dietes but produced in succession over several weeks in late winter and early spring. Each individual flower lasts exactly one day. The plant produces a continuous succession of new buds to extend the flowering period. It is frost tolerant and wide-ranging across temperate Australia.
Native iris (Patersonia occidentalis) · Australia (native)
Plant into free-draining soil in full sun to part shade using a hand fork. No fertiliser required. It forms larger clumps naturally over successive seasons. See our winter interest guide for companion plants that extend the late-winter display.
4. Daphne → Rice flower
Replacing: Daphne (Daphne odora)
Native alternative: Rice flower (Pimelea ferruginea)
Daphne is grown almost exclusively for fragrance. The intense scent of its late winter to spring flowers is one of the most recognisable in any cool-climate garden. As a plant it is genuinely difficult: short-lived in Australian conditions, highly susceptible to root rot in our soils, demanding about drainage and prone to sudden dieback.
Daphne (Daphne odora) · China and Japan
Pimelea ferruginea produces clusters of small tubular pink flowers in spring on a compact, evergreen shrub at the same scale as daphne. Pimelea has co-evolved with a specialist group of native moths and butterflies whose proboscis length exactly matches the floral tube. In the garden, pimelea is also significantly easier to grow than daphne as it has no root rot susceptibility or tendency for sudden dieback.
Rice flower (Pimelea ferruginea) · Western Australia (native)
Plant into free-draining soil in full sun to part shade using a hand fork. Do not fertilise as pimelea is sensitive to elevated phosphorus. Light tip pruning with secateurs after flowering maintains compact form.
5. Seaside daisy → Cut-leaf daisy
Replacing: Seaside daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus)
Native alternative: Cut-leaf daisy (Brachyscome multifida)
Seaside daisy is listed as an environmental weed in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, where it germinates by seed along creek lines and into native bushland, displacing the groundcover species that belong there. It is native to Mexico and Central America and its spread goes largely unnoticed until it has established widely, partly because it looks so natural in Australian garden settings.
Seaside daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus) · Mexico and Central America
Brachyscome multifida is visually almost indistinguishable from Erigeron in a garden setting: the same spreading low habit, the same small daisy flower form, an overlapping colour range from white through pink to purple. It is one of the most significant nectar sources for native bees, hoverflies and small butterflies. Brachyscome is also one of the largest native daisy genera in Australia with over sixty species.
Cut-leaf daisy (Brachyscome multifida) · Eastern Australia (native)
Plant into free-draining soil in full sun to part shade using a hori-hori. Drought tolerant once established. Trim lightly with flower snips after the main flowering flush to encourage dense new growth.
6. Pelargonium → Native stork's bill
Replacing: Pelargonium (Pelargonium spp.)
Native alternative: Native stork's bill (Pelargonium australe)
Pelargoniums are among the most widely planted ornamentals in Australian gardens as they are long-flowering, drought tolerant and available in an enormous range of colours. They are genuinely low maintenance and not invasive. The case for replacing them is the option of a direct native equivalent in the same genus that adds greater value for wildlife.
Pelargonium (Pelargonium spp.) · South Africa
Pelargonium australe is the native stork's bill: same genus, same distinctive lobed leaf shape that releases fragrance when crushed, similar flower form in pink to white, same drought tolerance and low maintenance character. It was used medicinally by Aboriginal communities and belongs to the same geranium family that makes exotic pelargoniums so immediately recognisable by leaf and scent. It supports native bees and small butterflies in ways the exotic cultivars no longer do reliably.
Native stork's bill (Pelargonium australe) · Australia (native)
Plant into free-draining soil in full sun using a trowel. Same planting conditions as exotic pelargonium. Drought tolerant once established. No fertiliser required.
7. Protea → Banksia and grevillea
Replacing: Protea (Protea spp.)
Native alternatives: Banksia (Banksia spp.) and grevillea (Grevillea spp.)
Proteas are grown for bold architectural flowers, long vase life and dramatic form. They belong to the family Proteaceae, the same family as banksia, grevillea, hakea and waratah, but they are South African rather than Australian. Australian honeyeaters have not co-evolved with them and the wildlife value of a protea garden compared to an equivalent banksia or grevillea planting is not comparable.
Protea (Protea spp.) · South Africa
Banksia and grevillea are the Australian answer to proteas: same family, same general flower architecture, often more dramatic at garden scale. Grevillea flowers are among the most important nectar sources for honeyeaters in Australia, relied upon by eastern spinebills, New Holland honeyeaters and lorikeets through winter and spring. Banksia cones provide months of structural interest and hold their seed for years, with some species releasing it only after fire. The diversity within both genera is considerable: there is a banksia or grevillea for almost every Australian climate and garden size, from prostrate groundcovers to canopy trees.
Firewood banksia (Banksia menziesii) · Western Australia (native)
Grevillea · Australia (native)
Plant into free-draining, low-nutrient soil in full sun with a planting spade. Never apply phosphorus-containing fertiliser. Use a buried olla for establishment through the first two summers. See our banksia guide and grevillea guide for species matched to your climate.
8. Olive → Native olive
Replacing: Olive (Olea europaea)
Native alternative: Native olive (Olea paniculata)
The olive is one of the most coveted ornamental trees in Australian gardens for its silver-grey foliage, edible fruit and drought tolerance that suits the dry summers of southern Australia. It is also one of the most serious environmental weeds on the continent. Olea europaea is listed as invasive across South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, where birds disperse the seed into native bushland and it establishes in the understorey, shading out native vegetation. Olive removal is one of the most expensive and labour-intensive bush regeneration tasks faced by land managers across southern Australia.
Olive (Olea europaea) · Mediterranean
Olea paniculata is the native olive, the only Australian member of the olive family Oleaceae and the same genus as the European olive. It provides similar silvery-green foliage and a comparable Mediterranean-feel presence without the weed risk. It produces small black fruit eaten readily by fruit-eating birds including pigeons and orioles. It occurs naturally in rainforest margins from Queensland to Victoria, making it one of the more ecologically versatile native trees for gardens in the eastern states.
Native olive (Olea paniculata) · Eastern Australia (native)
Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Prepare the planting bed with a wide-pronged fork before planting. Use a buried olla through the first two summers. Drought tolerant once established. No fertiliser required.
9. Lavender → Coastal rosemary
Replacing: Lavender (Lavandula spp.)
Native alternative: Coastal rosemary (Westringia fruticosa)
Lavender is grown for grey-green foliage, aromatic presence, compact mounding habit and the purple flower spikes that appear in summer. It performs reasonably well in Australian conditions but tends to be shorter-lived than in its native Mediterranean climate, requiring replacement every few years in most gardens. It is not invasive.
Lavender (Lavandula spp.) · Mediterranean
Westringia fruticosa flowers are white to pale mauve rather than purple, produced over a long season. Westringia belongs to the mint family Lamiaceae, the same family as lavender. The family resemblance in foliage texture, habit and flower form is not coincidence but shared evolutionary history. Westringia is significantly more drought tolerant in Australian conditions than lavender, longer-lived and a more reliable nectar source for native bees, particularly blue-banded bees.
Coastal rosemary (Westringia fruticosa) · Eastern Australia (native)
Plant into free-draining soil in full sun using a hori-hori. Tolerates coastal exposure and moderate frost. Tip prune lightly with secateurs after flowering to maintain compact form. No fertiliser required.
10. Marguerite daisy → Conostylis
Replacing: Marguerite daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens)
Native alternative: Conostylis (Conostylis candicans)
Marguerite daisy is known for its long flowering season, neat mounding habit and white and yellow daisy flowers. It is not invasive. It is widely planted across Australian gardens for the same reason most ornamentals are: it is reliably available, easy to grow and delivers colour with minimal effort. The native case here is not about ecological harm but about the existence of something better suited to Australian conditions.
Marguerite daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens) · Canary Islands
Conostylis candicans produces clusters of golden yellow flowers on wiry stems above distinctive silvery, woolly foliage from spring into early summer. The woolly coating on the leaves is a heat adaptation as the fine hairs reflect radiant sunlight and trap a layer of still air that insulates the leaf surface. It is longer-lived and a reliable nectar source for native bees. It is native to Western Australia and performs well across southern Australia in free-draining soils, including Adelaide and Perth gardens.
Conostylis (Conostylis candicans) · Western Australia (native)
Rake any debris from the planting area and loosen the soil surface before planting. Use a narrow trowel to plant into free-draining, unamended soil in full sun. No fertiliser and no additional watering once established.
How to check what you're buying at the nursery
Nursery labels are not always reliable guides to weed status. A plant may be sold freely in one state while listed as a declared weed in another. Some plants on the environmental weed lists are sold in Australian nurseries with no mention of their weed status on the label at all.
The most reliable check is the botanical name. Common names vary and can be misleading, but the scientific name is consistent. Once you have it, you can cross-check it against your state's declared weed list, which is published by each state government's agriculture or environment department. The Weeds Australia database, maintained by the CABI Invasive Species Compendium, is a useful national resource for checking weed status across all states and territories.
Making the transition
None of the switches on this list require a whole-garden renovation. The most practical approach is to replace plants as they reach the end of their natural life or need removal. When a lavender runs out after three years, plant westringia. When fountain grass appears in a new position, remove it and establish kangaroo grass instead. The garden changes gradually and at its own pace.
For more on planting natives successfully and working with Australian soil conditions, see our planting guide and soil care guide before you start.
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A Guide to Australian Native Gardening
How to plan, plant and care for a thriving native garden, whatever your experience level.
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