Flowering Plants

The difference between a garden with flowers and a flowering garden is planning: one has a big fortnight in spring, the other hands the baton from plant to plant all year. This collection is organised around that idea, helping you build a succession of bloom so there is always something opening as something else finishes.

Sketch your garden's flowering calendar before you buy, and buy to fill the gaps rather than to repeat the peaks. Spring looks after itself in most Australian gardens, so the real wins come elsewhere. For summer, lean on heat lovers that keep producing through January rather than shutting down. Autumn belongs to late perennials and repeat bloomers on their second wind. Winter is where most gardens go quiet, yet camellias, hellebore style shade plants and winter flowering natives can keep colour running through the cold months, and in frost free zones the tropical flowerers barely pause at all. As a rough target, aim for at least two or three different plants in bloom in any given month, and you will never look out the window at a green pause.

Colour succession has a practical bonus: a garden that flowers year round feeds pollinators year round, which means better fruit set on your edibles and more beneficial insects controlling pests. It also changes how you plant, favouring drifts of different bloom times woven together over blocks that all fire at once, and rewarding a few generous pickable plants near the house so bringing flowers inside never leaves a hole in the display.

Shrubby species doing double duty as hedges and structure get their own treatment on our flowering shrubs page. For two stars of the summer calendar, read our hydrangea care guide and hibiscus care guide. If you know the month you need filled but not the plant, our plant finder will shortlist options suited to your climate and spot.