12 Australian native plants for a Hamptons style garden
A Hamptons style garden is clipped, restrained but relaxed: neat green structure, a palette of white, cream and soft blue against grey green and silver foliage, and loose planting that spills over the edges. It is usually built from boxwood, lavender, English roses, hydrangeas and white agapanthus.
An example of a classic Hamptons style garden, with a clipped low hedge, a white and green palette and loose, billowing planting. These are the ingredients this article borrows. None of the plants shown are Australian natives.
While there may not be an exact native alternative, natives can deliver the same look with a local feel. Clipped shapes come from shrubs that take a trim, pale colours come from native daisies, lilies and pea flowers and soft texture comes from fine foliage and grasses.
The plants below are organised by the role each one plays. Keep the structure plants clipped and tidy, and let the soft layer do the relaxed part. For coastal gardens, coastal heath planting follows many of the same ideas.
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Plant ideas
Clipped structure
Lilly pilly (Syzygium australe 'Resilience')
Lilly pilly is the closest native stand in for a boxwood style hedge, with dense foliage that clips into a clean green wall or a rounded shape. 'Resilience' was bred for firmer new growth, which makes it resistant to the psyllid damage that spoils many lilly pillies. White flowers are followed by pink edible berries.
Plant about 1m apart for a hedge. It reshoots from old wood, and it prefers full sun for the densest growth. It tolerates light frost once established, but cold inland gardens and hard frost areas need shelter. Our guide to protecting natives from frost covers the options, and our guide to native plants that can be shaped and clipped has more plants that take a trim.
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Coastal rosemary (Westringia fruticosa 'Grey Box')
Coastal rosemary is the nearest thing a native garden has to lavender, with fine grey green leaves and small white flowers on and off through the year. 'Grey Box' is a compact form that suits a low clipped hedge or a row of rounded mounds along a path.
Plant about 50cm apart for a low hedge and clip lightly and often through the warmer months. Two or three light trims hold a formal shape. Avoid cutting into bare old wood, which is slow to regrow. On heavy clay, mound the bed so that water drains away from the roots. The species tolerates salt spray and is naturalised in Victoria and Queensland, so keep it away from bushland edges if you garden in those states.
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White correa (Correa alba)
White correa has thick grey green leaves with a felted underside and small white bells through autumn and winter. It is salt and wind tolerant, which makes it a natural choice for a coastal feel, and it clips into a soft rounded hedge. It also brings flower to the structure layer when most of the garden is quiet.
Trim lightly after flowering. A hard cut often leaves a permanent gap, so keep the shaping gentle. It is frost hardy and drought tolerant once established, and it prefers poor, free draining soil over rich ground.
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The soft planting layer
Twiggy daisy bush (Olearia ramulosa)
Twiggy daisy bush is covered in masses of small white daisy flowerheads with cream to yellow centres, and it flowers for a long stretch from October to May. Narrow, crowded dark green leaves with downy white undersides, and white cottony young stems, give it a soft silvery look against the green.
In the wild it grows along coastlines in sand dunes and in woodland across Victoria, often in gullies of heathy open forest. It prefers semi shade and well drained soil, which makes it useful under existing trees.
Rice flower (Ozothamnus diosmifolius 'White Horse')
Rice flower carries clusters of white flowers in spring, a good native answer to a white hydrangea. It suits a loose, informal position in front of the clipped plants.
Prune straight after flowering, removing about a third each year, and never cut into leafless stems. Water weekly through the first summer, then it is drought tolerant. Feed only with a low phosphorus fertiliser. It is short lived, at about five to seven years even with annual pruning, so plan to replace it. It has escaped gardens and naturalised in Western Australia, so check local advice before planting there.
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Pale vanilla lily (Arthropodium milleflorum)
Pale vanilla lily sends up small, pale, vanilla scented flowers above grass like leaves. It is the softest plant on this list, and it gives the delicate, slightly wild look that English perennials give a Hamptons border.
It grows best in moist but well drained soil in full sun, and it regrows from its tubers each year. Plant it in drifts at the front of the border.
Tall bluebell (Wahlenbergia stricta)
Tall bluebell supplies the soft blue that a Hamptons garden usually takes from lavender and agapanthus, although the flowers are much smaller. It dies back to a thick taproot in autumn.
It tolerates some dryness and looks best planted in drifts through a small garden or under trees.
Tall daisy (Brachyscome diversifolia)
Tall daisy has white petals on stems that rise at an angle, which gives a loose, cottage like softness. It flowers for a long stretch, from late winter into early autumn. In the wild it grows in eucalypt woodland, often on rocky ground. Our guide to growing native daisies by colour and climate covers more white daisies.
Silvertop wallaby grass (Rytidosperma pallidum)
Silvertop wallaby grass forms dense weeping clumps of fine bluish green leaves. In late spring and summer it sends up straw coloured flowers with bright orange red anthers. It plays the role of the ornamental grasses that soften a Hamptons border.
It prefers dry, well drained soil and tolerates frost. Use it in front of clipped shrubs, in a rockery or as underplanting.
Climbers
White hardenbergia (Hardenbergia violacea 'White Out')
White hardenbergia is the native stand in for a white wisteria, with pure white pea flowers for about six weeks in late winter and early spring. The species is usually purple, so 'White Out' is the form to choose for this palette. Train it over a fence, an arbour or a trellis.
Tie the leaders to the support while the plant is young, and plant about 1m apart if covering a longer fence. Water weekly through the first summer. It is frost hardy, drought tolerant and salt tolerant once established. Feed once in early spring with a low phosphorus fertiliser.
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Wonga wonga vine (Pandorea pandorana)
Wonga wonga vine is a vigorous climber with long weeping sprays of cream flowers marked with maroon. It is the large scale option for a strong trellis, a pergola or an established tree, and it gives the draped, billowing look of a climbing rose without the fuss.
It tolerates light frost. Keep the roots cool with thick mulch, and see our guide to mulching natives for how to do it properly. For more climbers, see our guide to underused native vines and climbing plants.
The anchor tree
Silver-leaved mountain gum (Eucalyptus pulverulenta 'Baby Blue')
Silver-leaved mountain gum is a eucalypt grown mainly for its round, silver blue leaves, which sit in pairs along the stem. It is valued for its foliage more than its flowers. It brings the silver foliage that a Hamptons garden relies on, in a more compact form than the species.
'Baby Blue' is a compact selection of the species, but suppliers describe its mature size differently, so check the expected height and spread with your nursery before planting and allow room across as well as up. It needs full sun and adapts to a range of garden soils, with good drainage giving the best results. The species is rare and threatened in the wild, occurring only in New South Wales, though it grows well in gardens.
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A note on clipping natives
Most native shrubs reshoot well from green growth but poorly from bare old wood. Clip lightly and often rather than cutting hard once a year, and never cut into leafless stems. Correa, rice flower and westringia in particular can be slow to recover or leave a permanent gap if cut too hard.
Putting it together
Start with the structure. Plant the anchor tree first, then run a low hedge of lilly pilly, coastal rosemary or white correa along the edges of a path or lawn, and keep it clipped. In front of it, plant the soft layer in drifts, with twiggy daisy bush, rice flower, tall bluebell, tall daisy, vanilla lily and wallaby grass overlapping so the hedge line is blurred. Finish with a white climber over a fence, arbour or trellis.
Keep the palette tight. White, cream and pale blue against grey green foliage is what makes it read as Hamptons, so resist adding bright colours. The look will be a little looser than the original, and a little more Australian. Several of these plants also suit a cottage garden, which is no surprise, as the two styles share a soft, informal base.
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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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