Native Flowers That Will Keep Your Garden Vibrant All Year

Planting native flowers is a no brainer right?! Native plants are low maintenance and thrive simply because they are in the environment that they have learned to survive in. Once established they need little watering and provide habitat for local animals. So naturally I’m continuing to plant more native flowers in my garden.

Like all gardens, my new one (it’s still new even though we moved here two years ago) is always evolving. When we first moved in my goal was to replace all the grass and viburnum hedges with gardens and significantly increase the biodiversity. Naturally, native flowers were high on this list. We currently have Grevillea trees that birds visit, but bees and butterflies don’t tend to stop. So I’m looking to add some smaller flowers.

After moving to our new home, we got our favourite landscape gardener in straight away. We built a vegetable garden, chicken run, native garden and succulent garden. But my need for green space doesn’t stop there, so I’m gradually purchasing perennial flowering plants, including native flowers for what is now my flower garden.

My go to local nursery for native plants is Harvest Seeds and Native Plants at Terrey Hills. They have a great range, helpful, friendly staff, and if you’re as lucky as I was on my last visit you might see a red tailed black cockatoo.

Planting for Native Flowers

This week I’m planting three different species of native Australian plants that will flower throughout the year. As I say in the video, I only purchase a few plants at a time these days. This gives me time to plant them out on the same day as buying them so they stay healthy.

The Winged Everlasting (Ammobium alatum) is a great perennial native flower that will grow to 1.5m high. It has silver foliage and papery white flowers. It makes a great cut flower and can also be dried. So I’m really excited to work with this flower. The Winged Everlasting is a food source for the painted lady butterfly-image from Backyard Buddies. I used to see these in my Waterview Street garden regularly, but so far I’ve only seen black and white spotted butterflies in our new garden. They are probably Dainty Swallowtail Butterflies.

The Native Fuchsia (Correa reflexa) is a low shrub that will flower throughout the year. It’s long, tubular bell shaped red flowers are very attractive to nectar lovers. Native Fuschia image from Northern Beaches Council. According to the signs at Harvest Seeds and Native Plants this plant will survive if neglected. I’m hoping I prioritise fun in the garden this year and don’t test this theory.

Native Flowers Ground Cover

Yellow buttons (Chrysocephalum apiculatum) are one of my favourite flowering native plants. I first came across them on a neighbourhood walk. When the owner of the home spotted me eyeing off this sprawling ground cover I asked her if she minded if I took a bit and tried to propagate it. She seriously encouraged me to take a few cuttings and joyfully told me how both her and her mother are “bower birds”. Gardening has a magical way of bringing the best out of people.

When not in flower the low growing silver foliage is stunning. Then when the yellow flowers come into bloom they create joy that invites all sorts of insects such as bees and butterflies. Lizards also like to slither around the grey foliage between sunning themselves on rocks close by since Yellow Buttons love growing in rocky areas.

Image from Brookfield Gardens.

Hopefully these plants with gorgeous native flowers will all settle in nice and quickly to my flower garden and I will be able to show you a stunning native garden in full bloom soon. It will be even better if I can capture insects visiting.

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