A pool surrounded by the right plants feels like a resort. A pool surrounded by the wrong ones feels like a part time job, with a skimmer basket full of leaves, roots lifting the coping and a hedge dropping flowers into the water every afternoon. Poolside planting is one of the few areas of gardening where what a plant does not do matters as much as what it does.
The good news is that the poolside shortlist is full of genuinely beautiful plants. Palms, cordylines, strappy natives and sculptural cycads all pass the tests below, and most of them thrive on the warm, reflected light a pool area provides. Here is how to choose, zone by zone.
The four tests of a pool friendly plant
Low mess: avoid anything deciduous or constantly shedding fine leaves, flowers or berries within a few metres of the water. Evergreens with large, infrequent leaf drop are far easier to live with than small leaved trees that shed year round.
Safe roots: pool shells, pipework and paving do not mix with aggressive root systems. Figs, rubber trees, poplars and willows have no place near a pool, however good they look in year one.
No spikes at body height: wet skin and barefoot traffic mean anything with rigid spines needs to sit well back from paths and coping.
Splash tolerance: plants in the first metre or two cop chlorinated or salt water splash. Most of the plants below shrug it off; soft ferny foliage generally does not.
Palms for height and privacy
The Golden Cane Palm from $52.95 is the definitive Australian pool palm for good reason: clumping habit, fibrous non invasive roots, golden stems and dense screening to 6m or more. Planted at 1 to 1.5m spacings it doubles as a privacy screen behind the pool fence. It holds its fronds rather than raining them down, and our golden cane palm care guide covers the feeding and watering that keep it lush rather than yellow.
Cordylines for colour
Cordylines deliver the tropical colour hit without any of the mess. Cordyline Red Sensation from $17.95 gives you burgundy strap foliage on a tough, drought tolerant plant, while Cordyline Rubra from $25.95 brings the deep red, broad leaved look straight off a Bali postcard. Plant them in drifts of three to five between palms for the layered resort effect. The cordyline care guide explains which types handle full sun.
Softening the edges
Strappy foliage plants tie the whole picture together at ground level. Lomandra Lime Tuff from $17.95 is a compact, fine leaved native that tolerates salt, splash, drought and neglect, which is exactly the resume you want beside a pool. For fragrance, Star Jasmine from $10.95 will clothe a pool fence or wall in glossy leaves and perfumed white flowers, and the groundcover form Star Jasmine Flat Mat from $16.95 spills neatly over retaining walls. See the star jasmine care guide for training tips.
Feature plants that earn their spot
Every pool area needs one sculptural moment. The Cardboard Plant from $52.95 is a cycad relative with firm, architectural fronds that handle coastal wind, reflected heat and splash without complaint; set it a step back from paths as the fronds are stiff to brush past. A frangipani is the other great poolside feature: non invasive roots, summer perfume and a bare sculptural form in winter that drops its leaves in one tidy autumn flush rather than all year. Our frangipani care guide covers planting position and pot culture.
What to keep away from the water
Aggressive roots: ficus of any kind, rubber trees, umbrella trees and large gums stay off the list entirely.
Heavy shedders: jacarandas, ornamental pears and other deciduous trees are wonderful elsewhere in the yard, just not upwind of the skimmer box.
Spikes near traffic: agaves and yuccas suit dry gardens better than pool surrounds, unless they sit well behind a garden bed where nobody brushes past.
Bee magnets at coping level: keep heavily flowering groundcovers a stride back from bare feet in midsummer.
Design the space in three zones
The easiest way to plan a pool garden is to work outward from the water. The first metre is the splash zone: keep it to paving, pebbles and the toughest low plants like lomandra, so nothing tender sits in the firing line and nothing sheds straight into the water. The next band is the frame, roughly one to three metres back, where cordylines, jasmine covered fencing and drifts of strappy foliage build the picture you see from the water and from the house. The back band is the screen zone, where golden canes or other clumping palms give you height, privacy from the neighbours and that enclosed resort feeling.
Repetition is what separates a designed pool garden from a plant collection. Choose one palm, one colour plant and one strappy filler, then repeat them in generous groups around the perimeter. Odd numbered groups of three and five read most naturally, and a limited palette also means every plant shares the same watering and feeding needs, which makes the whole area easier to run.
Planting and upkeep around a pool
Plant in spring once the water and soil have warmed, especially for golden canes and cordylines, which sulk if planted into cold ground. Improve each hole with compost, water in deeply and mulch with a coarse chunky mulch that will not blow into the pool on a windy afternoon. Through the first summer, deep soak twice a week; after that, most of this palette gets by on rainfall plus a weekly drink in heat waves. Feed palms and cordylines with a slow release fertiliser each spring, and trim jasmine after flowering to keep fence lines crisp. Total upkeep for a well planned pool garden is honestly less than the upkeep on the pool itself.
Frequently asked questions
Will chlorine or salt splash kill my plants?
Occasional splash is fine for everything recommended here. Avoid emptying backwash water into garden beds, and hose foliage down after a big pool party if plants sit hard against the coping.
How far from the pool should I plant a palm?
Golden canes can sit 1m from the shell thanks to their fibrous clumping roots. Single trunk palms and any tree of real size should sit at least 3m back, outside the pool's paved surround.
What should I plant along a glass pool fence?
Stay low and tidy: lomandra, compact cordylines or a flat mat jasmine kept trimmed. Anything that flowers or sheds directly onto the glass will keep you on squeegee duty.
Are golden cane palms messy?
They are among the tidiest palms available. Old fronds brown off gradually and stay attached, so you remove them on your schedule instead of fishing them out of the water.
Ready to plant?
Everything above and more lives in our poolside garden collection, with safe options for near the shell in non invasive root trees and the full resort kit in palms and tropical. Not sure where to start? The plant finder narrows it down in a minute.