Alternative Hedging Plants

Top Alternative Hedging Plants for a Unique and Beautiful Garden

Hedges don’t have to be boring. While popular choices like Lilly Pilly, Murraya, and Buxus dominate suburban gardens, there’s a world of exciting, hardy, and low-maintenance alternatives that can give your landscape a fresh look, better performance, and even seasonal colour.

Whether you're after a tropical feel, bird-attracting foliage, or drought-tolerant structure, this guide introduces the best alternative hedging plants for Australian gardens.

Why Choose an Alternative to Traditional Hedges?

While classics like Murraya paniculata or Lilly Pilly Resilience are popular for a reason (fast-growing, evergreen, and tidy), they may not suit every garden. Our lilly pilly hedge comparison sets out where the standard choices fall short. Some gardeners seek:

• Less pruning

• More colour

• Better resistance to pests (e.g., psyllid)

• A softer, more natural appearance

• Better performance in shade, full sun, or poor soils

Below are our top picks for non-traditional hedging plants that are just as functional, but far more interesting.

1. Viburnum odoratissimum (Sweet Viburnum)

A lush, fast-growing screen that tolerates both full sun and partial shade. We stock Sweet Viburnum in a range of sizes, delivered Australia wide.

• Height: 3 to 4m (can be pruned lower)
• Growth rate: Fast
• Foliage: Glossy green, dense
• Bonus: Mildly fragrant white flowers in spring

Ideal for creating tall privacy screens with a softer, more tropical look than Murraya, and covered further in our guide to Viburnum odoratissimum.

2. Syzygium 'Straight and Narrow' (Psyllid-resistant Lilly Pilly alternative)

A narrow, upright form of Lilly Pilly bred to resist common pests.

• Height: Up to 5m
• Width: 1 to 1.5m
• Growth: Fast, columnar
• Foliage: Tight, evergreen, with bronze new growth

Perfect for tight spaces where you want height without bulk. You can buy Straight and Narrow Lilly Pilly online.

3. Callistemon 'Slim' (Narrow Bottlebrush)

An Aussie native with striking red flowers and a compact form.

• Height: 3m
• Width: 1.2m
• Growth rate: Moderate to fast
• Light: Full sun
• Bonus: Bird and bee magnet

Use it for colour, screening, and tough performance in dry conditions. Callistemon SLIM is available online, delivered Australia wide.

4. Metrosideros 'Fiji Fire' or 'Little Dugald' (NZ Christmas Bush)

A vibrant, compact shrub with glowing red flowers and small leaves.

• Height: 1.5 to 3m
• Light: Full sun
• Soil: Coastal and sandy soil tolerant
• Foliage: Neat, rounded, evergreen

Excellent for coastal gardens, low hedging, or a formal look with flair.

5. Escallonia 'Pink Elle' or 'Iveyi'

A European favourite gaining popularity in Australian gardens.

• Height: 1.5 to 2m
• Foliage: Glossy and evergreen
• Flowers: Masses of pink or white blooms
• Climate: Prefers temperate zones

Great for medium hedges with seasonal interest and pollinator appeal.

6. Westringia fruticosa (Coastal Rosemary)

A tough, drought-resistant native shrub with pale mauve flowers.

• Height: 1 to 2m
• Light: Full sun or part shade
• Foliage: Silvery-grey, ideal for softening hard landscaping

Excellent for coastal, low-maintenance, and native gardens; our westringia care guide covers clipping it into a formal shape.

7. Photinia 'Red Robin'

Known for its fiery red new growth and fast hedge formation.

• Height: 3 to 4m (or kept low with pruning)
• Growth: Fast
• Best for: Cooler climates or higher elevation areas

Best used in formal or semi-formal gardens where colour contrast matters, and detailed in our photinia care guide.

8. Diosma (Coleonema pulchellum)

A soft, fine-leaved shrub with a cloud-like appearance and pink blooms.

• Height: 1 to 1.5m
• Foliage: Fine, aromatic
• Flowers: Tiny pink blooms from winter to spring

Perfect for a fragrant, low border or soft edging hedge.

9. Lomandra hystrix or ‘Tanika’

Technically a strappy grass, but works beautifully in massed borders or edging.

• Height: 60 to 80cm
• Drought-tolerant: Very
• Best for: Contemporary or native-style hedging

Use in combination with other hedges for a layered look.

10. Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’ or ‘Lady O’

Fast-growing natives with long flowering periods and bird-attracting blooms.

• Height: 1.5 to 2m
• Light: Full sun
• Growth: Fast
• Bonus: Flowers most of the year in warm climates

Perfect for informal hedges or natural screens in native gardens.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Hedge Alternative

Before you plant, ask yourself:

• How tall do I want it to grow?
• How much sun does the area get?
• Do I need evergreen coverage?
• How often am I willing to prune?
• Do I want flowering, native, or tropical styling?

Mixing different hedge species (e.g., flowering and foliage plants) can add visual interest and ecological benefit without losing structure or privacy. If speed is the priority, compare our picks for fast growing hedges.

Why look beyond the usual three

Lilly pilly, murraya and viburnum account for the overwhelming majority of hedges planted in Australia, and they are popular for good reason. But a whole street of identical lilly pilly is both visually monotonous and biologically fragile - a single pest or disease moving through a monoculture takes out every hedge at once. Myrtle rust, now established across eastern Australia, is exactly that kind of risk for the Myrtaceae.

Alternatives that genuinely work here

Plant	Height	Best for
Sweet viburnum	4-5 m	Cold-hardier than lilly pilly; frost-prone districts
Westringia	1-2 m	Coastal, dry, low-maintenance native hedging
Teddy Bear magnolia	4 m	Dense screen needing almost no clipping
Native gardenia (Randia)	4-6 m	Fragrant subtropical native screen
Pittosporum	3-5 m	Cool climates, formal clipped hedges
Brown pine (Podocarpus)	3-10 m clipped	Native conifer, formal, coastal tolerant
Clumping bamboo	4-7 m	Very fast tall screening, narrow footprint
Callistemon 'Little John'	1 m	Low native hedge, bird attracting
Japanese box	0.5-1 m	Classic low formal edging

Choosing by the problem you have

• Frost, where lilly pilly struggles - sweet viburnum, pittosporum, photinia or Teddy Bear magnolia. All handle Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide winters comfortably.
• Coastal salt exposure - westringia, coast banksia, tuckeroo or brown pine. Westringia in particular grows naturally on exposed New South Wales headlands.
• Dry, no irrigation - westringia, olive, rosemary or callistemon.
• You want fragrance - native gardenia in the subtropics, murraya in warm climates, or star jasmine trained on wires.
• You want native - westringia, callistemon, brown pine, native gardenia, or a compact lilly pilly cultivar.
• Minimal clipping - Teddy Bear magnolia is naturally dense and needs only light shaping.

The rule that applies to all of them

Keep the base wider than the top. A hedge clipped with vertical sides shades its own lower foliage, which thins and dies, leaving a bare base exactly where the screening was wanted. This is the most common hedge fault in Australian gardens and it is entirely a pruning decision, not a plant problem.

One important exception: conifers, including brown pine and the cypresses, generally will not reshoot from bare old wood. Trim those lightly and often, always staying within the green growth, and never let them get away to the point where a hard cut would be needed.

Mixed hedging

Worth considering. A mixed or "tapestry" hedge of two or three compatible species is more resilient to pest and disease outbreaks, supports more wildlife, and reads as far less institutional than a single-species wall. Choose species with similar growth rates so one does not overwhelm the others, and repeat them in a deliberate pattern rather than scattering randomly.

Final Thoughts

You don’t have to settle for the usual hedging suspects. There are dozens of versatile, beautiful hedging alternatives that offer:

• Year-round greenery
• Bird-attracting flowers
• Natural pest resistance
• Drought and coastal tolerance
• Less maintenance with more personality

Whether you’re after a compact border, lush privacy screen, or a bold flowering hedge, there’s a plant that fits your needs.

Explore our full range of hedging plants and screening shrubs online and find the perfect plants for your space, all with expert advice, fast delivery, and our 30-day healthy plant guarantee.