Native Plants for Bees and Pollinators in South-East Queensland

Why Grow Native Plants for Bees and Pollinators?

Flowering native plants provide food for visiting insects and can help create a more diverse garden. Combining plants with different flower shapes, growth habits and flowering seasons provides a wider range of resources than relying on one species.

In South East Queensland, a mixed native planting can support stingless bees, solitary native bees and other flower-visiting insects. Suitable plants also add colour, shelter and structure to gardens, courtyards and spaces beside vegetable beds.

These plantings also bring practical garden benefits. Low-growing daisies can soften edges, flowering shrubs can provide screening, and native climbers can add flowers to fences and trellises. Choosing an appropriate mature size makes it easier to combine wildlife value with the way you use your garden.

Bee Aware’s native bee guidance identifies native peas, daisies, banksias, eucalypts, wattles and bursarias among useful bee forage plants, alongside the importance of nesting habitat and minimising pesticide use.

Native Plants to Consider for South East Queensland

The best native plants for bees and pollinators depend on your garden’s sunlight, soil, drainage and available space.

Low-growing daisies provide flowers near ground level, shrubs add longer-term structure, and native climbers make use of fences and trellises.

Everlasting Daisy — Xerochrysum bracteatum

Everlasting daisy is a colourful Australian native also known as strawflower or golden everlasting.

Its distinctive flower heads have firm, papery bracts surrounding a central cluster of small true flowers. The bracts retain their colour and texture as they dry, making everlasting daisies useful for both fresh and dried flower arrangements.

Garden selections are available in yellow, white, pink, orange and red shades. Growth habit varies from compact forms to taller, upright plants, so the selected variety determines where it fits in a garden bed.

Annual and perennial forms occur. Seed-grown varieties can provide seasonal flowers among slower-growing native shrubs, adding colour while the permanent planting develops.

The central florets offer feeding opportunities for visiting insects. For a pollinator planting, choose flowers with accessible centres and leave some blooms in the garden rather than harvesting every stem.

Everlasting daisies are particularly useful in sunny borders, mixed flower beds and containers. Taller selections can also be grown in a dedicated cutting patch.

Explore Everlasting Daisy Mixed Seeds.

Yellow Buttons — Chrysocephalum apiculatum

Yellow buttons, also called common everlasting, is a spreading native perennial with clusters of small, bright yellow flower heads.

Its foliage is often grey-green or silvery, providing a soft contrast with the yellow flowers and the greener foliage of surrounding plants.

Many forms grow to approximately 30 cm tall and spread around 50 cm to 1.5 metres wide. Some spread by suckering, so allow enough room for the particular form being planted.

The low growth habit makes yellow buttons useful along garden edges, between larger plants and beside paths where its flowers can be seen easily.

Flowering is commonly strongest in summer and autumn, although flowers may appear at other times under suitable conditions. This can help extend a mixed garden’s flowering display beyond spring.

Yellow buttons is included in Brisbane City Council’s pollinator garden guidance. It offers a low-growing flowering layer beneath shrubs and complements native daisies with larger flower heads.

Because the species occurs across a wide range of Australian environments, select material suited to local conditions. Good drainage is especially important when growing it through humid, wet summers.

Cut-leaf Daisy — Brachyscome multifida

Cut-leaf daisy is a low, spreading perennial native to parts of southern Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

It produces small daisy flowers above finely divided foliage. Flower colour varies between forms and includes mauve, blue, pink and white.

The branching stems form a dense, spreading mat, making it useful as a flowering groundcover. It can also trail over the edges of pots, hanging baskets and retaining walls.

Plants in a suitable sunny position can flower over a long period, sometimes throughout the year. This makes cut-leaf daisy useful where ongoing flowers are wanted alongside shrubs with shorter flowering seasons.

Its open daisy flower heads provide accessible feeding surfaces for flower-visiting insects.

Cut-leaf daisy can grow in semi-shade, although a brighter position generally supports a stronger flowering display. Maintain moisture during establishment and monitor container plants during hot weather.

It is a different species from Swan River daisy, Brachyscome iberidifolia. Named cut-leaf daisy cultivars should be propagated from cuttings to retain their particular flower colour and growth habit.

Bottlebrush — Callistemon Species

Bottlebrushes are woody native shrubs and trees recognised by their cylindrical flower spikes.

Each spike contains many individual flowers. Their long, colourful stamens create the familiar bottlebrush appearance, with colours varying between species and forms.

The flowers attract nectar-feeding insects and birds, making bottlebrush useful as a larger flowering component in a mixed pollinator garden.

Crimson bottlebrush, Callistemon citrinus, produces bright red flower spikes and commonly develops into a substantial shrub around 4 metres tall. It is useful where a flowering shrub is wanted and sufficient space is available.

Willow bottlebrush, Callistemon salignus, has narrow foliage, pale flower spikes and attractive papery bark. It can develop into a tree approximately 5–12 metres tall, making it more appropriate for larger gardens than a small flower bed.

Different bottlebrush species tolerate different soil and moisture conditions. Many cope with periods of damp soil, but their requirements should be checked individually.

Bottlebrush can be grown from seed, although seedlings may vary. A seed-grown plant should not be expected to reproduce the compact habit of a named dwarf cultivar.

Explore Crimson Bottlebrush Seeds and Willow Bottlebrush Seeds.

Tea Tree — Leptospermum polygalifolium

Leptospermum polygalifolium is an eastern Australian tea tree occurring in Queensland and New South Wales.

It commonly forms a rounded shrub with small leaves and masses of white flowers. Typical forms grow approximately 1–4 metres tall and 1–3 metres wide, although lower-growing forms also occur.

The flowers are generally around 1–2 cm across and appear mainly in late spring and summer. Their open shape provides a different flower structure from the dense spikes of bottlebrush or the pea flowers of native climbers.

Tea trees are useful for adding a permanent shrub layer to a garden. Their branching growth can provide structure behind lower-growing daisies and help create a more varied planting.

The species is variable, and some forms flower more heavily than others. Choose a locally proven form or suitable seed provenance rather than assuming all plants will have the same size and flowering performance.

Seed-grown plants can be useful where variation is acceptable. If a particular compact or weeping form is required, choose nursery stock propagated to maintain those characteristics.

Purple Coral Pea — Hardenbergia violacea

Purple coral pea, also called native sarsaparilla, is a native pea-flowered plant that usually grows as a twining climber.

Its stems wind around nearby supports, while dark green leaves provide a leafy backdrop to clusters of small flowers.

Flowers are usually violet-purple, although pink and white forms also occur. Flowering is concentrated in winter and spring, making it useful alongside plants that bloom mainly during the warmer months.

Native pea flowers provide a different feeding opportunity from open daisies, helping broaden the range of flowers available to visiting bees.

Climbing forms can be trained over a trellis or fence, allowing gardeners to add flowers without using the same ground space as another shrub. Shrubby and trailing forms also exist, but their growth habit should be confirmed before planting.

Sunnier positions generally produce better flowering. Select material from a similar climate, as forms originating in different environments can perform differently in humid subtropical conditions.

The seed has an impermeable coat. Suitable pretreatment allows water to enter and helps initiate germination. Follow the supplier’s instructions for the specific seed lot.

Native Pollinator Plant Comparison