Do Lilly Pillies attract pollinators like birds, bees, and butterflies? What about beneficial predators and parasitoids like hoverflies and micro wasps?
Why Are Australian Native Plants Better?
Australian native plants have long been preferred options for home gardeners and landscapers alike. They are readily available in all forms for just about any application you can think of, and come with an exhaustive list of benefits that far outweigh most exotic varieties.
More Beautiful
One of the most stunning features of Australian natives is their striking looks and beauty. Many of our plants are strictly unique to Australia and are improved forms with tidier foliage, better flowers and usually a more compact form.
They are very distinctive when in bloom, providing beautiful seasonal colour and stunning flowers.
Another attractive benefit is that they offer a haven for our native wildlife, providing the right habitat and food for native animals, birds and insect populations.
This attracts nectar feeding birds, butterflies etc and brings a great amount of delight and joy to any garden.
Another attractive benefit is that they offer a haven for our native wildlife, providing the right habitat and food for native animals, birds and insect populations. This attracts nectar feeding birds, butterflies etc and brings a great amount of delight and joy to any garden.
Less Maintenance
Native plants have already adapted to our environment. This means that once a native garden is established, it requires much less water to maintain and keep looking healthy than other exotic gardens and plants.
Most natives also establish very easily, and generally require minimal ongoing maintenance throughout their lifecycle.
Native plants also have a tendency to not become weeds like some exotic plants and can be less susceptible to local pests and diseases.
Less attention, less maintenance, and less watering means a no fuss garden that continues to look great throughout the year.
More Versatile
Australian Native plants are readily available for just about any application you can think of: ground covers, shrubs for privacy, screening, rockeries and even soil stabilisation.
They are very easy to propagate and grow and can also be quite inexpensive to purchase. Native plants can tolerate local climatic extremes such as frost or periodic drought.
Choose plants that grow naturally in your local area as these will be well adapted to the local soil and climatic conditions and can provide solutions for any problem areas you have where nothing will thrive.
Better Breeding
Better breeding of new and innovative varieties are providing more versatile solutions to Australian gardens.
For example, the ever popular English Box which is a heavy water guzzling exotic, can be substituted for a newly bred form of Westringia called Grey Box™, which is a much more sensible compact hedge plant for the Australian climate.
Other examples of better bred natives include the hugely popular Tanika®, a fine leaf Lomandra that has proven to be one of the toughest and most reliable landscape plants available.
It is extremely versatile and provides a dense evergreen low growing native for most parts of Australia.
Further improved Lomandra Shara™ has been bred to be more Phytophthora tolerant, providing a fine leaf native Lomandra that will survive in previously unsuccessful regions, such as humid Queensland.
Ozbreed have pioneered many of these ‘better bred’ native varieties, and continues to do so into the future.
There are numerous benefits to be gained from growing Australian native plants, including the sheer enjoyment from their exquisite beauty.
But most importantly it should not be overlooked that Australian Native plants are an integral part of our heritage, and by continuing to grow and propagate them in our backyards and gardens, we are able to contribute to their preservation.
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