Planting local, naturally

By Terri Allen

IF YOU fancy local plants in your garden, vegetation suited to your soil and climate, look around, inquire, and see if you can add some of these plants to your garden.

Remember, shrubs can be clipped to keep them low and shapely; in fact, regular tip-pruning is recommended.  Some of these plants are hard to find in nurseries, but many will grow from tip cuttings.

Climbers
Small-leaved clematis (Clematis microphylla)
Mountain clematis (Clematis aristata)
Common  appleberry (Billardiera scandens)
Twining glycine (Glycine clandestina)
Blue love (Comesperma volubile)
Wonga-vine (Pandorea pandorana)

Ground cover/small lawn
Rounded noon-flower (Disphyma crassifolium)
Ivy-leaved violet (Viola hederacea)
Running postman (Kennedia prostrata)
Kidneyweed (Dichondra repens)
Trailing speedwell (Veronica plebeia)
Angled lobelia (Lobelia anceps)
Pennywort (Hydrocotyle sp)
Austral bugle (Ajuga australis)

Small flowers
Chocolate lily (Arthropodium strictum)
Guineaflower (Hibbertia sp)
Creamy candles (Stackhousia monogyna)
Bluebell (Wahlenbergia sp)
Tall lobelia (Lobelia gibbosa)
Grass trigger-plant (Stylidium graminifolium)
Button everlasting (Helichrysum scorpioides)
Clustered everlasting (Chrysocephalum semipapposum)
Milkmaid (Burchardia umbellata)
Austral stork’s-bill (Pelargonium australe)
Common bottle-daisy (Lagenophora stipitata)
Slender bottle-daisy (Lagenophora gracilis)

Grasses/sedges/lilies
Common tussock (Poa labillardierei)
Wallaby grass (Austrodanthonia sp)
Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra)
Spreading flax-lily (Dianella revoluta)
Paroo lily (Dianella caerula)
Coast flax-lily (Dianella brevicaulis)
Spiny-headed mat-rush (Lomandra longifolia)
Wattle mat-rush (Lomandra filiformis)
Small grass-tree (Xanthorrhoea minor)

Small shrubs
Myrtle wattle (Acacia myrtifolia)
Sweet wattle (Acacia suaveolens)
Prickly moses (Acacia verticillata)
Austral indigo (Indigofera australis)
Smooth parrot-pea (Dillwynia glaberrima)
Showy bossiaea (Bossiaea cinerea)
Pink bells (Tetratheca sp)
Hop goodenia (Goodenia ovata)
Cushion bush (Leucophyta brownii)
Dusty daisybush (Olearia phlogopappa)
Twiggy daisybush (Olearia ramulosa)
Snowy daisybush (Olearia lirata)

Shrubs
Sweet bursaria (Bursaria spinosa)
Golden spray (Viminaria juncea)
Large-leaf bush-pea (Pultenaea daphnoides)
Silver banksia (Banksia marginata)
Woolly tea-tree (Leptospermum lanigerum)
Coast pomaderris (Pomaderris oraria)
White correa (Correa alba)

Pond/water feature
Marshflower (Villarsia sp)
Swamp stonecrop (Crassula helmsii)
Streaked arrowgrass (Triglochin striatum)
Large purple-flag (Patersonia occidentalis)
Short purple-flag (Patersonia fragilis)