16 Australian native plants for a beautiful rockery garden
A dry, rocky slope, a hot exposed bank, a patch of poor thin soil: these are challenging spots in any garden. But build a rockery there and you are matching the conditions that many Australian natives evolved in.
A natural rocky landscape in Western Australia, the kind of lean, sharply drained ground a great many Australian natives evolved on.
These sixteen plants are grouped by where they belong in the structure of a rockery:
- Hot, dry upper slopes
- Vertical crevices and gaps
- Cool, shaded base
- Cascading over rock faces
Southern tiurndin (Tribonanthes australis), one of the small native species that seats naturally among rock.
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Where a rockery works in a garden
The classic position is a slope, where rocks terrace the fall of the land, slow run-off and create planting pockets. A rockery also solves the hot, dry spot against a wall, the strip beside a driveway where reflected heat bakes the soil and the awkward corner of poor, stony ground that resists cultivation. In a small courtyard it brings height, structure and interest to a tight space.
Rocks used to build beds and boundaries, terracing the fall of the land and creating planting pockets.
Wherever water runs off quickly and the ground is poor, you have the makings of a rockery and a palette of natives that will be happier there than in a rich, watered bed, provided you have prepared the ground properly. If your site is naturally damp or heavy clay, a rockery is still possible, but it needs building up with free-draining material.
Planting in layers down a rockery, from the exposed crown through to the cooler, moister base.
Why a rockery is genuinely low-effort
A well-built native rockery is one of the lowest-maintenance features you can plant because the conditions do the work. If you select the right plants, once established they need little or no supplementary watering and no feeding beyond a light application of a low-phosphorus native fertiliser.
One-sided bottlebrush (Calothamnus quadrifidus), a tough west-coast shrub for the drier, sunnier reaches of a rockery.
The rocks themselves are working for you too. They suppress weeds by covering bare ground, shade the root zone and keep it cool and draw down overnight moisture that plants can use through the following day.
Prostrate lemon-scented myrtle (Darwinia citriodora) spilling low over stone, its foliage aromatic when brushed.
The hot, dry top and upper slopes
The crown of a rockery is the harshest position: full sun, the sharpest drainage and the greatest exposure to heat and wind. It suits sun-loving, drought-hardy plants.
1. Yellow buttons (Chrysocephalum apiculatum)
Yellow buttons is one of the most adaptable natives you can plant. Its silver-grey foliage carries clusters of small golden button flowers through spring and summer. It occurs naturally in every Australian state and territory across an enormous climate range and it is both frost-hardy and drought-tolerant.
Yellow buttons (Chrysocephalum apiculatum) massed in flower, silver-grey foliage carrying clusters of golden buttons through spring and summer.
Rockery position
The sunny upper slopes and crown, in the leanest, best-drained soil you have. It is short-lived by nature, living a few years, but self-renews readily. A light trim after the main flush keeps it compact.
2. Muntries (Kunzea pomifera)
Muntries spills attractively over rock with small dark leaves and white spring flowers, and it produces edible berries in late summer with a spiced, apple-like flavour that are a sought-after bush food. It suits Mediterranean and warm temperate gardens with dry summers.
Muntries (Kunzea pomifera), a trailing groundcover bearing edible spiced berries in late summer.
Rockery position
The upper slopes where it can trail across and between rocks in full sun. Give it room to spread. A position at the top of a low wall lets the berries hang where they are easy to pick.
3. Parakeelya (Calandrinia species, many now Rumicastrum)
Parakeelya is a low succulent-leaved herb of the dry inland that stores water in fleshy foliage and throws up vivid magenta to pink flowers after rain. A botanical note worth knowing: most of the Australian species long called Calandrinia have been moved to the genus Rumicastrum, so you may find it sold under either name, or simply as parakeelya.
Parakeelya (Calandrinia balonensis), a succulent-leaved herb of the dry inland that flowers vividly after rain.
Rockery position
The hottest, driest, sandiest part of the crown, in full sun. This is a specialist for dry inland and semi-arid gardens rather than humid coastal ones, where it is likely to struggle.
4. Grey cushion bush (Leucophyta brownii)
Grey cushion bush is a coastal plant grown for its form and colour. It develops a tight, rounded mound of silver-white tangled stems that read well against dark rock. It is exceptionally tough, handling salt, wind, heat and drought, which makes it a natural for an exposed rockery crown in southern and coastal gardens.
Grey cushion bush (Leucophyta brownii) forms a tight silver-white mound that reads as sculpture against dark rock.
Rockery position
A featured position on the sunny crown where its silver form contrasts with the stone. It resents humidity and wet feet, so it suits drier southern gardens better than the subtropical east.
Vertical crevices and gaps between rocks
The gaps between rocks are a niche all their own. Roots run down into cool, shaded, sharply drained fissures while the foliage sits in the light. Small tufting and cushion-forming plants seat into these gaps perfectly.
5. Cushion bush (Scleranthus biflorus)
Cushion bush, also sold as Australian astroturf, is the definitive native crevice plant: a dense, bright green, moss-like cushion that mounds over and pours into gaps between rocks. It is frost and drought tolerant, takes full sun to light shade and adapts to sandy, rocky or loamy soils as long as drainage is sharp.
Cushion bush (Scleranthus biflorus), the definitive native crevice plant, mounding and pouring into gaps between rocks.
Rockery position
Seated into a gap or spilling over the shoulder of a rock, where its cushion form can round out over the stone. Excellent between stepping stones as well.
6. Native bluebell (Wahlenbergia species)
Native bluebell is a fine, tufting perennial that self-seeds gently into cracks and gaps, threading delicate sky-blue to violet bell flowers. Its light, wandering habit is exactly what a crevice planting wants, softening hard edges without overwhelming. The genus spans a broad climate range across most states, and it is one of the easiest ways to add colour to gaps between rocks.
Native bluebell (Wahlenbergia stricta) threads delicate blue bell flowers through cracks and gaps, self-seeding gently as it goes.
Rockery position
Sown or planted into crevices in sun to light shade, where it will seed itself into neighbouring gaps over time. It is not aggressive, so the self-seeding fills the rockery rather than taking it over.
7. Rock isotome (Isotoma fluviatilis)
Rock isotome, or swamp isotome, is a very low creeping plant that studs a fine mat of foliage with small pale blue star flowers through the warmer months. Unlike most plants on this list it tolerates a little more moisture, which makes it useful for a crevice that sits lower down where damp collects.
Rock isotome (Isotoma fluviatilis) studs a fine creeping mat with small pale blue star flowers, tolerating a little more moisture than most rockery plants.
Rockery position
Cooler, slightly moister crevices and the gaps between stepping stones, in sun to part shade. A good transitional plant between the dry crown and the shaded base.
8. Cut-leaf daisy (Brachyscome multifida)
Cut-leaf daisy seats into a gap and flowers for months, throwing mauve to violet daisies over ferny foliage. It is one of the most rewarding small plants for a rockery and benefits from a trim roughly twice a year to keep it dense. It is very long flowering.
Cut-leaf daisy (Brachyscome multifida) seats into a gap and flowers for months over ferny foliage.
Rockery position
Tucked into gaps and pockets in full sun to light shade, where its dainty flowers carry the rockery through the warmer months. Cut it back after the main flush to prevent it going woody and open in the centre.
Planting into a crevice
When you build the rockery, backfill the gaps between rocks with a free-draining, gritty soil mix so there is a cool, moist channel for roots to follow down. Plant small, water in well, and wedge a flat stone or two over the surface of the root zone to hold moisture and keep the crown cool while the plant settles.
The foot of a rockery, and the shaded side of larger rocks, is cooler and holds more moisture than the crown.
9. Rock felt fern (Pyrrosia rupestris)
Rock felt fern is a small, tough fern that clings directly to rock in the wild, growing on shaded outcrops and tree trunks up the eastern seaboard from Victoria into Queensland. It is genuinely lesser-known as a garden plant and carries the warmer, more humid end of this article's climate range.
Rock felt fern (Pyrrosia rupestris) clinging directly to shaded rock, its rounded leathery fronds spreading slowly across the stone.
Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rockery position
A shaded, moist rock face or the cool base of the rockery, ideally where it can creep across stone. It wants humidity and shelter, so it suits temperate to subtropical eastern gardens rather than dry inland ones.
10. Native violet (Viola hederacea)
Native violet is a familiar groundcover, and it appears in our groundcover and living mulch guides, but it earns its place here for the specific job of carpeting the damp, shaded foot of a rockery where little else will flower.
Native violet (Viola hederacea) carpets the damp, shaded foot of a rockery where little else will flower.
Rockery position
The shaded, moist base and the cool side of larger rocks. In consistently damp conditions it spreads freely, so give it a defined area or an edge it cannot easily cross.
11. Native fuchsia (Correa reflexa)
Native fuchsia is the small shrub for the lower slopes, giving a rockery some height and structure among the low mats and cushions. Its pendulous tubular flowers, in green, cream, pink or red are a magnet for small nectar-feeding birds. It takes part shade happily.
Native fuchsia (Correa reflexa), whose pendulous tubular flowers feed small nectar-feeding birds through the cooler months.
Rockery position
The lower and mid slopes where a little height is wanted, in sun to part shade. Its winter flowering fills the seasonal gap left by the summer-flowering plants higher up.
12. Kidney weed (Dichondra repens)
Kidney weed forms a dense low mat of rounded leaves that knits between and around the lower rocks, filling the cool gaps that would otherwise sit bare. It roots as it spreads, takes light foot traffic and occurs naturally across every mainland state and Tasmania, making it one of the most climate-flexible plants on the list.
Kidney weed (Dichondra repens) knits between and around the lower rocks, filling cool gaps that would otherwise sit bare.
Rockery position
Filling gaps at the cool base and lower slopes in sun to part shade. It prefers even moisture and some afternoon shade in hot climates.
Cascading over rock faces
Plants set at the top of a wall or the shoulder of a large rock and left to spill down are what give a rockery some impact. These are the trailers and prostrate shrubs that pour over stone.
13. Prostrate grevillea (Grevillea lanigera, prostrate forms)
The prostrate forms of woolly grevillea, such as the Mt Tamboritha form, spill densely over rock with soft grey-green foliage and pink-and-cream spider flowers through the cooler months, feeding honeyeaters as they go. A prostrate grevillea is one of the most reliable cascading natives for a temperate rockery, dense enough to exclude weeds beneath it and controllable with a light prune using sharp secateurs.
Prostrate grevillea (Grevillea lanigera 'Mt Tamboritha') spills densely over rock, flowering for honeyeaters through the cooler months.
Rockery position
Planted at the top of a rock face or wall to cascade down, in full sun to light shade with sharp drainage. Give it room and keep it clear of paths where it can sprawl.
14. Running postman (Kennedia prostrata)
Running postman is one of the classic cascading natives for a dry, sunny rockery, hardy and adaptable and not aggressive, dying back manageably rather than swamping its neighbours. It also appears in our weed-suppression guide, where it does the same trailing job on a bank.
Running postman (Kennedia prostrata) trails scarlet pea flowers down a dry sunny face, fixing nitrogen as it grows.
Rockery position
Set high on a dry, sunny face or wall to cascade down. Its modest spread makes it a good partner to a larger prostrate grevillea, filling the smaller gaps around the edges.
15. Trailing guinea flower (Hibbertia scandens)
Trailing guinea flower carries the warm, subtropical and tropical end of this list. A vigorous scrambler with glossy leaves and large bright yellow open flowers through much of the year, it will pour down a rock face or wall in a coastal or subtropical garden.
Trailing guinea flower (Hibbertia scandens) pours down a rock face with large yellow flowers, carrying the warm and subtropical end of this list.
Rockery position
A larger rock face or wall in a warm-temperate to tropical garden, in sun to part shade. Give it space, as it is the most vigorous plant on this list, and trim to keep it in bounds.
16. Native pigface (Carpobrotus rossii)
Native pigface pours a thick succulent mat over hot, sandy, sun-baked rock and smothers it in vivid pink flowers through spring and summer, followed by edible fruit. It is the cascading choice for the hottest, driest, most exposed rock faces, where reflected heat would stress almost anything else.
Native pigface (Carpobrotus rossii) mats thickly over hot sun-baked rock and flowers vivid pink through spring and summer.
Rockery position
The hottest, driest, sunniest rock faces, especially in coastal and sandy gardens. It will rot in shade or heavy wet soil, so keep it to the sun-baked positions it was built for.
The wildlife and human benefits of a rockery
The stones themselves are the draw for wildlife: they hold warmth, giving lizards and skinks the basking sites they need. The crevices between offer shelter and cool refuge for native bees and beneficial insects. The flowering plants layered through the rockery, from the winter flowers of correa to the long summer display of the daisies, provide nectar and pollen for pollinators and small nectar-feeding birds.
A Cunningham's skink (Egernia cunninghami) basking on warm stone. Rocks hold heat and offer crevice shelter, which is much of a rockery's wildlife value.
The benefits to the gardener are just as real. A rockery turns an awkward slope, a hot dry corner or a patch of poor ground into a feature rather than a problem. It gives year-round structure from the rocks and the evergreen cushions and mats and it demands very little maintenance.
Native grasses softening a cascade of layered rock, giving year-round structure and movement.
For a small courtyard or a site where a lawn or conventional bed would fail, a native rockery is one of the most rewarding and least demanding features you can build.
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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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