Create an Australian border garden: 12 natives that work together
A garden border is often the most visible part of a garden and benefits from a bit of planning, considering height order and how plants relate to each other through the seasons.
The twelve plants below are chosen to work together as a complete composition. Silver-grey foliage threads through all three layers. Flower colour moves from blue and mauve at the front through pink and yellow in the middle to deep red and mauve-purple at the back. There is something in flower across most of the year.
Use one or two plants from the list if that is what your space needs. Or use all twelve and follow the full border plan.
Shop Tools for Australian Gardeners
Everything you need in your garden.
Front of the border
1. path and bed edges
The front of a border is what you see first and what you walk past most closely. These four plants all stay under 40cm, don't sprawl aggressively and produce beautiful flowers.
Cut-leaf daisy (Brachyscome multifida)
Cut-leaf daisy is one of the most reliably flowering plants available for the front of a native border. The finely divided, ferny foliage forms a soft spreading mound and the small daisy flowers are produced for most of the year. It self-seeds readily into the cracks and edges of paths.
Plant with a trowel at 30–40cm spacings at the very front of the border, where the foliage spills naturally over path edges. Trim lightly after the main flowering flush with flower snips to encourage fresh growth.
Rock isotome (Isotoma axillaris)
Rock isotome flowers are small but produced in such quantity that the plant reads as a consistent blue haze from the front of the border through the main flowering season. It is one of the most reliable blue-flowering plants available for the front of a native border.
Plant into free-draining, low-nutrient soil in full sun. Use a hori-hori to set plants at the correct depth without disturbing the surrounding soil. Note that all parts of the plant are toxic if ingested — wear gloves when handling.
Bear's ears (Cymbonotus lawsonianus)
Bear's ears forms a flat, spreading rosette of broad, silver-grey woolly leaves — the texture is genuinely soft and tactile, quite unlike most native groundcovers — and in winter and spring produces yellow daisy flowers on short stems above the foliage.
Allthingsnative, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It grows naturally in disturbed ground, roadsides and grassland margins, the kinds of edge environments that a garden border replicates, and is tolerant of poor soils, moderate drought and frost. Mulch lightly between plants until coverage is established. If you cannot source this plant, yellow buttons (Chrysocephalum apiculatum) offers a similar silver-grey foliage and yellow flower combination.
Matted lobelia (Lobelia pedunculata)
Matted lobelia forms a low, dense mat of small leaves that spreads steadily along path edges and between other plants without becoming invasive. It is naturally at home along the margins of moist grassland and open woodland — the kind of transitional edge environment that a garden path replicates.
Plant using a hand fork into well-prepared soil and water in well. It benefits from deep, slow watering at the root zone through dry periods rather than light surface watering.
Middle of the border
2. visual mass and colour
The middle layer does the most work in a border. It provides the visual mass and seasonal flower colour that gives the border its character through the year. These four plants range from 30cm to just over a metre.
Slender rice flower (Pimelea linifolia)
Slender rice flower produces tight rounded clusters of small white flowers with a light fragrance in late winter through spring. The plant has a fine, open, slightly transparent quality. In the border composition it provides the white tone that separates the warmer colours on either side.
John Tann from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It grows in low-nutrient, free-draining soils without amendment and declines if fed. Trim lightly after flowering with secateurs to maintain a compact form. Its fragrant flowers make it particularly effective near a path.
Pinnate boronia (Boronia pinnata)
Pinnate boronia is one of the most beautiful mid-border plants. In the composition it provides the pink-warm transition tone between the white of the rice flower and the yellow of the guinea flower — a colour that prevents the mid layer from reading as simply pale and neutral.
It grows best in well-drained, slightly acidic soil with some organic matter and prefers a cool root run — a generous layer of coarse mulch over the root zone is essential. Position in dappled light rather than full exposure. Prune lightly after flowering with secateurs — never cut into old wood.
Black-anther flax lily (Dianella revoluta)
Black-anther flax lily's upright leaves provide a vertical element that the flowering plants on either side lack, and the deep blue-black berries that follow the spring flowers extend the plant's visual contribution well into summer and autumn. The berries are taken by silvereyes, wrens and other small birds, which adds wildlife value.
It is one of the most adaptable plants in the Australian flora tolerating everything from full sun to full shade, clay to sand, drought to moderate waterlogging. Divide established clumps every few years with a hori-hori.
Grey guinea flower (Hibbertia obtusifolia)
Grey guinea flower is a compact, mounding shrub with soft grey-green foliage and yellow flowers produced prolifically from spring through summer. The grey-green foliage provides a foliage tone that links the silver-grey of the bear's ears at the front with the grey-green of the westringia at the back.
Allthingsnative, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It grows in free-draining, low-nutrient soils and handles moderate drought and frost once established. Plant using a hori-hori and mulch well from the outset. Trim lightly after the main flowering flush to maintain the compact mounding form.
Planting in layers
When planting a layered border, work from the back to the front. This sequence means each layer establishes in the conditions it will actually grow in — the front in full light, the mid in the partial shelter of the back — rather than being planted into open ground and then progressively shaded. See our guide to planting natives for the best success.
Back of the border
3. Along fences and property lines
The back layer defines the border's height and provides its structure year-round. These four plants range from 1m to 2m — with sweet bursaria reaching higher and working best as a true boundary plant. The colour palette at the back moves from deep red through mauve-purple to white, with all four plants providing fine to medium texture.
Dwarf bottlebrush (Callistemon subulatus)
Dwarf bottlebrush's vivid red bottlebrush spikes appear in spring and again in autumn, providing two distinct flowering peaks through the season. In the border composition the red is the strongest colour anchor.
It tolerates a wider range of soil moisture than most callistemons, handling both moderately dry and periodically wet positions. Prune lightly after each flowering flush with loppers or secateurs to maintain density and encourage the next flowering cycle.
Mauve honey myrtle (Melaleuca thymifolia)
Mauve honey myrtle is one of the most floriferous small shrubs in the eastern Australian flora. The mauve to deep purple flowers — fluffy, with prominent stamens — are produced so densely along the stems from spring through summer that the fine foliage is barely visible beneath them.
It grows naturally in seasonally wet conditions and is more tolerant of poorly drained positions than most border plants — a useful quality at the back of a bed where water may pool. Prune lightly after flowering with secateurs to maintain a compact form.
Coastal rosemary (Westringia fruticosa)
Coastal rosemary is one of the most reliably structured plants available for the back of a native border. The white to pale lilac flowers appear through most of the year in mild climates, providing a continuous low-level contribution rather than a single dramatic flush.
It is one of the most adaptable back-of-border plants available, tolerating coastal exposure, alkaline soils, clay, drought and moderate frost. Trim with secateurs once or twice a year to maintain form. See our guide to natives for screening for its use as a hedge.
Sweet bursaria (Bursaria spinosa)
At 2–5m it exceeds the height of the other back plants and is best used along a fence line or property boundary where its height is an asset rather than a problem. In summer it produces masses of small white flowers with a sweet, honey-like fragrance. It is a known larval food plant for several rare butterfly species and one of the most wildlife-rich flowering plants at its scale.
The thorny habit makes thorn-proof gloves essential when planting and maintaining. Use a hand fork to prepare the planting hole. It can be pruned to maintain a lower form. See our guide to natives for fences and structures.
The full border: how these plants work together
Used individually, each of these plants is a strong performer. Used together, they form a border with a colour logic, a foliage thread that runs through all three layers and something in flower across every month of the year.
The colour moves from blue and mauve at the front into the white and pink of the mid layer to the deep red and mauve-purple of the back. The white of the coastal rosemary and sweet bursaria closes the sequence without competing with the stronger colours on either side.
If you are adding to an established border
Front only: Cut-leaf daisy, rock isotome and bear's ears give you a low, continuous blue-mauve-yellow edge that works along any path without height or maintenance demands.
Front and mid: Add slender rice flower and grey guinea flower behind the low plants. Dianella adds an upright structural element.
Back only along a fence: Dwarf bottlebrush, mauve honey myrtle and coastal rosemary give you a 1–2m flowering screen with red, mauve-purple and white across most of the year.
A general rule
A border works when you can find the same tone in more than one place. The silver-grey thread in this planting — bear's ears at the front, grey guinea flower in the middle, coastal rosemary at the back — is what makes the three layers feel like a single composition rather than three separate rows of plants. When you choose plants for your own border, look for one foliage tone that you can repeat across all three layers and build from there.
Colour works best when it moves in one direction. Cool colours — blue, mauve, purple — at the front create depth and draw the eye in. Warmer colours — red, orange, deep pink — at the back stop the eye and give the border a sense of enclosure.
Finally, vary the flowering times rather than trying to have everything flower at once. A border with one plant in peak flower at any given time, and others contributing foliage, structure or past-season seed heads, is more interesting across the year.
keep reading
A Guide to Australian Native Gardening
How to plan, plant and care for a thriving native garden, whatever your experience level.
Read the guide →
.jpg){kind=link}
