Are you ready to take your garden to the next level? Whether you're a gardening enthusiast or just starting out, adding beautiful garden plants can instantly enhance the aesthetics of your outdoor space. In this blog post, we'll explore a variety of stunning garden plants that are perfect for beginners and those looking to add colour, fragrance, or low-maintenance options to their gardens. Get ready to transform your garden into a captivating oasis with these exceptional plant choices.
Best garden plants for beginners
If you are starting from scratch, our guide to low-maintenance plants for beginners covers how to build a first garden that survives its first summer. These three are the easiest places to start.
1. Lavender
Lavender is a versatile and aromatic garden plant that adds both beauty and functionality to your outdoor space. Its fragrant purple blooms attract bees, butterflies, and other beneficial pollinators, making it a great choice for a pollinator garden, a subject our guide to native plants that attract birds and pollinators explores in depth. Not only does lavender enhance the visual appeal of your garden with its vibrant colours and graceful form, but it also has a long history of use in herbal remedies and natural air fresheners.
Did you know that lavender is not only a beautiful addition to your garden, but it also attracts pollinators and repels pests?
2. Buxus microphylla japonica
Buxus microphylla japonica, commonly known as Japanese box, is another excellent garden plant for beginners. This evergreen shrub is known for its dense foliage, which provides year-round interest and serves as a versatile foundation plant for hedges, borders, and topiaries. Japanese box is low-maintenance and adapts well to pruning, making it easy to shape and maintain in your desired form. It also tolerates a variety of soil types and thrives in both sunny and shaded areas. Our English box and buxus care guide covers the spacing and twice-yearly clipping that keeps a box hedge crisp.
3. Philodendron Xanadu
Philodendron Xanadu is a popular choice for gardeners looking to add a touch of tropical beauty to their outdoor space. This plant features large, glossy, deeply lobed leaves that create a lush and vibrant appearance, making it a captivating addition to any landscaping project. Its low-maintenance nature suits seasoned gardeners and beginners alike, and it covers ground beautifully in shaded beds. Our full Philodendron Xanadu guide covers light, watering and the naming confusion around 'Winterbourn'.
Colourful garden plants
1. Roses
Roses are a timeless addition to any garden, offering beauty and fragrance in abundance. With their diverse range of colours and varieties, roses can be used as standalone focal points or incorporated into larger flowerbeds for an enchanting display. Whether you prefer classic red roses or modern hybrids with unique patterns, these versatile garden plants will elevate the aesthetic appeal of your outdoor space.
2. Metrosideros collina
Metrosideros collina, also known as New Zealand Christmas tree or pohutukawa, is a stunning garden plant that adds a pop of colour to your outdoor space. This evergreen features vibrant red or crimson flowers that bloom during the summer months, providing a striking contrast against its dark green foliage. The flowers attract birds and butterflies, adding to the liveliness of your garden. With its ability to tolerate coastal conditions and drought, Metrosideros collina is a resilient and low-maintenance choice for beginners.
3. Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas are versatile garden plants that add elegance and charm to any outdoor space. With their large clusters of colourful flowers, hydrangeas create a stunning focal point in gardens or as potted plants on patios and balconies. Available in various shades of pink, blue, purple, and white, these blooms suit everything from a traditional cottage garden to a modern minimalist design. The colour is not fixed either, and our guide to hydrangea colour and growth explains how soil pH lets you steer it towards blue or pink.
Low-maintenance garden plants
1. Succulents
Succulents are the perfect addition to any garden. With their unique forms and low maintenance needs, they add a touch of elegance and beauty to your outdoor space. From the spiky leaves of aloe vera to the rosette shapes of echeveria, there is a wide variety of succulent plants to choose from. Whether you have a small balcony or a sprawling backyard, succulents are versatile enough to thrive in different environments and can be grouped together for an eye-catching display. Our guide to the world of succulents covers the varieties that cope best outdoors in Australian conditions.
2. Ferns
Ferns are versatile and low-maintenance additions to any garden. Their lush foliage adds a touch of elegance to both indoor and outdoor spaces. Whether you choose the delicate maidenhair fern or the robust bird's nest fern, these perennials create a beautiful and serene atmosphere. They do have opinions about humidity and drainage, though, and our guide to ideal fern environments explains how to give each type what it wants.
3. Plumeria pudica
Plumeria pudica, also known as the evergreen frangipani, is a stunning low-maintenance garden plant that lifts the aesthetic appeal of any outdoor space. With its delicate white flowers and glossy green leaves, it adds tropical elegance to any garden. This plant is known for its long blooming period, with flowers appearing from spring through autumn. It is highly adaptable and tolerates a range of growing conditions, including both full sun and partial shade. Our complete guide to Plumeria pudica covers pruning and feeding in detail.
Fragrant garden plants
1. Jasmine
Star jasmine, with its delicate white flowers and captivating fragrance, is a timeless addition to any garden. This versatile plant thrives in both sunny and partially shaded areas, making it an excellent choice for various landscapes. Whether used as a climber against walls or trellises or planted in containers, jasmine adds an elegant touch to your outdoor space. Our guide to Trachelospermum jasminoides covers training and pruning it properly.
2. Gardenia
Gardenia plants are renowned for their lush green foliage and exquisite white blooms that emit a delightful scent. These shrubs thrive in warm climates and can be grown as standalone features or incorporated into hedges or borders. They are particular about soil acidity and feeding, so our guide to growing gardenias is worth reading before planting.
3. Camellia
Camellias are known for their stunning and vibrant flowers in a wide range of colours, including pure white. These evergreen shrubs add colour to the garden through the coldest, quietest months of the year. They grow readily in pots as well as in the ground, and the sasanqua types in particular carry a light fragrance. Our overview of camellia bushes explains the difference between the autumn-flowering sasanquas and the winter japonicas.
Drought-tolerant garden plants
If water is the limiting factor in your garden, our roundup of the top 10 drought-tolerant plants for a Brisbane garden widens this list considerably.
1. Cacti and succulents
Add a touch of desert beauty to your garden with these unique and low-maintenance plants. With their thick, fleshy leaves and ability to store water, cacti and succulents are perfect for dry climates or areas with limited watering. From the spiky elegance of the golden barrel cactus to the vibrant colours of the echeveria species, there is a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and textures available to suit any garden design.
2. Agave
Agave plants are well suited to dry and arid climates. These low-maintenance succulents come in a variety of shapes and sizes and add a unique, sculptural element to your garden. With their ability to store water in their leaves, agaves survive long periods without water, making them a great choice for drought-tolerant gardens. Our roundup of the best agave garden ideas covers how to place them so the spines never become a problem.
3. Yucca
Yucca plants are known for their striking architectural forms and ability to thrive in dry conditions. They add a dramatic, sculptural element to modern and minimalist landscapes, with sword-like leaves and tall flower spikes. They are also highly adaptable and tolerate a wide range of soil types. Our yucca care guide covers the varieties that suit indoors as well as out.
Putting it all together
The most satisfying gardens rarely contain the most plants. They contain a small number of well-chosen species, repeated often enough that the eye reads a pattern rather than a collection. Pick one or two structural evergreens such as box or Xanadu to hold the shape through winter, add a single flowering feature for seasonal colour, and finish with a fragrant plant positioned somewhere you walk past every day.
Start with the conditions you actually have rather than the garden you wish you had. Note how many hours of direct sun each bed receives, whether the soil drains after heavy rain, and how much time you genuinely want to spend maintaining it. Matching plants to those three answers does more for long-term success than any amount of fertiliser or good intentions.
Ready to plant?
Every plant on this list is grown at our nursery and delivered healthy and well-rooted right across Australia. Browse our outdoor plants collection to start building the garden you actually want.
