Every time we hear about gardening, you hear water wise. While this in itself is a good thing, the other word that is usually associated with water wise gardens is native. Personally I am a little over the whole idea that the only way to have a water wise garden is to use Australian Native plants, because this is simply not the case.
There are many exotic plants that are just as water efficient (if not more so) than Australian natives. The secret to success is to plant to your environment, which varies greatly in Australia. For example in far North Queensland you can plant tropical plants without any worry, but in the South West of WA it is unwise as they require far more water than is readily available.
I have put together my top 10 water wise exotic plants:
- Proteas (any plant from the Proteaceae family as these developed in Africa’s dry environments)
2. Cactus and Succulents (they store their own water for dry times)
3. Pigface (a type of annual or perennial succulent that has masses of beautiful flowers, great as a groundcover)
4. Agave
5. Grasses (Mondo, blue grass etc)
6. Echium (beautiful silver foliage, with large flower spikes from later winter)
7. Alstroemeria (Princess Lilies are a great cut flower as they last for over a week in a vase)
8. Day Lilies (huge range of flower colours)
9. Frangipani (flowering shrub/tree)
10. Jacaranda (flowering tree)
These are just some of the beautiful exotic plants that are water wise and grow in most areas of Australia. In order to find the right plants for an area it is always useful to go for a walk around the neighbourhood to see what is growing well in other people’s gardens. In addition to this most states in Australia now have websites that list suitable water wise plants for each area.
ecoeffect 