Foliage plants are the backbone of every well-designed Australian garden — the plants that provide structure, colour, and interest for 12 months of the year, long after seasonal flowers have come and gone. Whether you are looking for bold coloured leaves as a focal point, soft ornamental grasses for texture and movement, shade-loving understorey plants to fill a difficult corner, or a striking Japanese maple for autumn drama, you will find it in our foliage plants collection.

At Online Plants, our foliage range spans over 200 expertly selected varieties — from compact ground covers and strappy-leaf border plants to large screening trees and architectural specimen trees. Every plant in our collection is grown by our horticulture team for reliable performance across Australian climates, and delivered to your door across Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, and regional Australia.

Why Foliage Plants Are the Foundation of Great Australian Gardens

In Australian gardening, where harsh summers, periodic droughts, and unpredictable rainfall can challenge flowering plants, foliage plants deliver something invaluable: reliable, consistent beauty that doesn't depend on perfect conditions or a particular season. As any experienced garden designer will tell you, flowers are the bonus — foliage is the foundation.

Foliage plants earn their place in the garden through leaf colour, texture, form, and movement. A single well-chosen foliage plant — a deep burgundy Japanese maple, a silvery drift of blue fescue, or a bold stand of lime-green Lomandra — can define the character of an entire garden bed. Used together, foliage plants from different colour groups, textures, and heights create layers of visual interest that remain attractive in every season, regardless of what is or isn't in flower.

In the hands of experienced horticulturists, foliage plants also do important practical work: they suppress weeds, stabilise slopes, create privacy screens, provide understorey cover for wildlife, and form the structural bones that hold a garden together year after year.

Our Foliage Plant Range — Six Categories to Guide Your Selection

Trees & Large Foliage Shrubs

The structural anchors of any garden. Large foliage trees and shrubs provide height, canopy, seasonal interest, and year-round form. Our range includes:

•    Magnolia Little Gem and Magnolia Teddy Bear — Compact evergreen magnolias with large, glossy dark-green leaves and creamy white flowers. Outstanding for formal gardens, narrow spaces, and as feature specimens. Perform exceptionally in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide.
•    Betula pendula 'Alba' (Silver Birch) — Distinctive white-barked deciduous tree with light, dancing foliage and gold autumn colour. One of the most elegant landscape trees for cool-temperate Australian gardens.
•    Pyrus calleryana 'Capital' and 'Cleveland Select' (Ornamental Pear) — Upright to broadly spreading deciduous trees with brilliant autumn colour in reds, oranges, and purples. Among the most widely planted street and avenue trees in southern Australia. Highly tolerant of Melbourne's variable climate and Adelaide's dry summers.
•    Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' — A stunning small deciduous tree with large, heart-shaped deep burgundy-purple leaves that emerge before the flowers in spring. Outstanding autumn colour. One of the most striking foliage contrast trees available for cool-temperate gardens.
•    Ficus hillii 'Flash' (Hills Weeping Fig) — A vigorous evergreen screening and shade tree with large, glossy dark green leaves. Widely used in subtropical and warm-temperate gardens for privacy, shade, and windbreaks.
•    Elaeocarpus reticulatus (Blueberry Ash) — A beautiful native evergreen with glossy foliage, delicate white flowers, and bright blue berries. An outstanding garden tree for eastern Australian coastal and temperate gardens.
When choosing a large foliage tree, always consider its ultimate height and spread, its climate suitability for your region, and how it will interact with structures, drains, and other plants as it matures. Our horticulture team is available for free advice on species selection.

Ornamental Grasses & Strappy-Leaf Plants

Ornamental grasses and strappy-leaf plants are among the most widely used foliage plants in contemporary Australian landscaping — valued for their natural, flowing form, low maintenance, and ability to thrive in tough conditions.

•    Lomandra — Australia's hardiest and most popular ornamental grass genus, with varieties including Tanika, Seascape, Nyalla, Little Con, Silver Grace, and Lime Tuff. Lomandra tolerates drought, frost, waterlogging, salt wind, and poor soils. Widely used in mass planting, roadside landscaping, borders, and erosion control. Choose by height (compact varieties from 40cm to large forms reaching 1m+) and foliage colour (green, blue-green, gold, silver).
•    Liriope — Dense, clumping strappy-leaf plants producing attractive purple or white flower spikes in summer. Excellent ground cover beneath trees and in shaded borders. Varieties include Royal Purple and Amethyst. Tolerates full shade, making Liriope one of the most useful understorey plants for difficult positions.
•    Carex testacea (Orange Sedge) — Soft, arching foliage in warm orange-brown tones that intensify in cooler months. Provides warm, earthy colour contrast in garden beds and containers.
•    Festuca glauca (Blue Fescue) — Compact, silvery-blue tufts that form attractive mounds to approximately 30cm. Outstanding for mass planting, rock gardens, and container arrangements. Full sun, excellent drainage.
•    Pennisetum — Ornamental fountain grasses with soft, arching foliage and feathery flower heads. Varieties include Moulin Rouge (deep burgundy) and Purple Lea (rich purple). Provide movement, soft texture, and warm colour. Well-suited to warm and subtropical climates.

Most ornamental grasses and Lomandra varieties benefit from an annual or biennial cutback — either with a hedge trimmer or brushcutter — in late winter or early spring to remove old, tatty growth and promote fresh new foliage. This is one of the most important and most frequently overlooked aspects of grass maintenance.

Coloured, Purple & Bronze Foliage Plants

Coloured foliage plants — those with deep purple, bronze, burgundy, gold, lime green, or variegated leaves — are among the most impactful additions to any garden palette. Unlike flowers, their colour is present and reliable for the entire growing season.

•    Loropetalum 'Plum Gorgeous' — An outstanding evergreen shrub with rich plum-purple foliage and clusters of hot-pink flowers in spring and autumn. Excellent for informal hedging, container planting, and year-round colour contrast. Tolerates full sun to part shade. Hardy once established.
•    Acer palmatum (Japanese Maple) — Among the most loved foliage plants in Australian horticulture. Varieties including Osakazuki offer extraordinary autumn colour — turning from green to brilliant scarlet before leaf fall. Acer rubrum 'October Glory' delivers intense red autumn colour on a larger, faster-growing form. Japanese maples perform best in cool-temperate climates (Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide Hills, Sydney highlands) and prefer protection from hot afternoon sun.
•    Leucadendron 'Fireglow' — A dramatic South African proteaceous shrub with foliage that transforms from green to fiery red and orange as temperatures drop. Outstanding year-round colour, drought-tolerant once established. Well-suited to well-drained soils in Melbourne, Adelaide, and coastal areas.
•    Dichondra 'Silver Falls' — A cascading groundcover with soft, silver-grey rounded leaves. Outstanding in hanging baskets, retaining walls, and container edges. Provides the cool, neutral counterpoint that makes nearby coloured plants pop.
•    Casuarina glauca 'Cousin It' — One of the most distinctive and popular Australian native groundcovers. Cascading, bright lime-green foliage forms dense, low mounds. Drought and frost tolerant. Excellent along retaining walls and in large containers.
When designing with coloured foliage, consider warm vs cool tones. Warm foliage colours (reds, purples, bronzes, golds) pair naturally with warm-coloured flowers (oranges, reds, deep pinks). Cool foliage colours (silver, blue-grey, lime green) complement cool-toned plantings and provide calming contrast in vibrant mixed borders.

Shade & Understorey Foliage Plants

Shaded garden positions — beneath trees, along fences, in the shadow of buildings — present one of the most common challenges in Australian garden design. Fortunately, there are outstanding foliage plants that not only tolerate shade but thrive and flourish in it.

•    Clivia — One of Australia's most reliable and beloved shade-garden plants. Clivia miniata in orange and the rarer yellow form produce thick, strap-like dark green foliage and spectacular flower heads in late winter to early spring. Outstanding under established trees and in sheltered, frost-free gardens. Clivia prefer being slightly pot-bound, which actually reduces the need for frequent repotting.
•    Asplenium 'Birds Nest Fern' — A lush, architectural fern with bright, glossy fronds spreading outward from a central rosette. Thrives in warm, humid, shaded positions. Outstanding in courtyards, bathrooms, shaded patios, and as an indoor plant in bright indirect light. Frost-tender — protect in colder climates.
•    Michelia figo (Port Wine Magnolia) — A dense evergreen shrub with glossy deep-green foliage and small, intensely fragrant flowers. The scent of Port Wine Magnolia planted near an entrance or outdoor dining area is unmistakable. Tolerates part shade and performs well as an informal hedge or screen.
•    Arthropodium cirratum (Renga Lily) — A native New Zealand plant widely grown in Australian shade gardens for its arching strap-like foliage and delicate white spring flowers. Very hardy once established. Works beautifully as a border plant under deciduous trees.
•    Dietes iridioides (Butterfly Iris) — A tough, clumping plant with upright sword-shaped foliage and cheerful white flowers over a very long season. Tolerates sun or part shade. Extremely drought-tolerant once established. One of the most reliable low-maintenance garden foliage plants in southern Australia.

Deciduous Autumn Colour Foliage Plants

While Australia is often associated with evergreen native plants, some of the most spectacular foliage displays in Australian gardens come from deciduous trees and shrubs that deliver breathtaking autumn colour before the winter leaf fall.

•    Acer palmatum 'Osakazuki' — The undisputed benchmark for Japanese maple autumn colour. Leaves turn from green through to the most intense scarlet-crimson of any maple variety. A must-have for cool-temperate gardens in Melbourne, Canberra, and highland areas.
•    Acer rubrum 'October Glory' (Red Maple) — A larger, faster-growing deciduous maple with outstanding red autumn colour. Excellent as a large feature or shade tree for garden and street applications in southern Australia.
•    Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' — Rich burgundy-purple heart-shaped leaves through spring and summer, transitioning to orange-yellow in autumn before leaf fall. One of the most multi-seasonal foliage plants in our entire range.
•    Betula pendula 'Alba' (Silver Birch) — Butter-yellow autumn foliage on graceful, white-barked branches. Cool-temperate gardens only — does not tolerate prolonged heat or drought.
•    Malus floribunda (Japanese Crabapple) — A beautiful small deciduous tree with blossom in spring and yellow-orange autumn foliage. The small fruit are attractive to birds through winter.
For maximum autumn impact, group multiple deciduous foliage plants with different colour timings and tones — deep reds and scarlets (Japanese maple) alongside gold-yellows (ornamental pear, birch) create a layered autumn tapestry that changes daily through the season.

Screening & Hedging Foliage Plants

Many of Australia's most effective screening and hedging plants are chosen primarily for their foliage — its density, colour, texture, and year-round reliability.

•    Acmena smithii (Lilly Pilly) — The quintessential Australian evergreen for hedging and screening. Acmena smithii and its cultivar Cherry Surprise produce dense, glossy green foliage with dramatic flushes of deep red-pink new growth. Clips beautifully to any shape. Attracts native birds with its decorative berries.
•    Loropetalum 'Plum Gorgeous' — Dark plum-purple foliage that maintains its colour year-round. Excellent as an informal flowering hedge in sunny to part-shade positions.
•    Ficus hillii 'Flash' — A fast-growing evergreen for tall screening in warm climates. Large, glossy leaves create a dense, lush screen quickly. Best suited to frost-free and subtropical regions.
•    Michelia figo (Port Wine Magnolia) — A moderately fast-growing, dense evergreen with fragrant flowers. Excellent as an informal screen in part-shade.
•    Magnolia grandiflora (Bull Bay Magnolia) — A large, stately evergreen with enormous glossy dark-green leaves with russet-brown undersides. Excellent for formal, large-scale screening and as a landmark tree.

How to Choose & Care for Foliage Plants in Australia

Matching Foliage Plants to Your Climate

Australia's diverse climates — from cool-temperate Melbourne and Canberra to warm-humid Brisbane and subtropical coastal Queensland — require different foliage plant strategies. As a general guide: Japanese maples, birches, ornamental pears, and other cool-climate deciduous trees perform best in Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide Hills, and highland NSW. Ficus, clivias, birds nest ferns, and subtropical foliage plants thrive in Brisbane and coastal NSW. Lomandra, Liriope, Dietes, and drought-adapted ornamental grasses are among the most adaptable and will perform across most Australian climate zones. Always check the specific climate requirements for any foliage plant before purchasing — our horticulture team is available to advise.

Soil, Light & Watering

Most foliage plants listed here perform best in moist, well-drained soil enriched with organic matter. Ornamental grasses (Lomandra, Liriope, Carex, Festuca) are among the most adaptable — tolerating sand, clay, or loam — though all benefit from improved drainage in heavy soils. Shade-tolerant foliage plants (Clivia, Liriope, ferns, Arthropodium) should receive consistent moisture and protection from hot afternoon sun. Deciduous foliage trees (Japanese maples, birches) need the most attention to soil preparation and moisture consistency. In Melbourne and Adelaide where summer heat can stress deciduous trees, deep mulching (10cm of composted bark mulch) over the root zone in spring is one of the most effective things you can do to preserve summer foliage quality.

The Most Important Maintenance Task for Foliage Plants

For ornamental grasses and Lomandra: cut back hard (to 10–15cm above ground) every two to three years in late winter. This is the most frequently neglected maintenance task for these plants, and one of the most impactful — old, tatty grasses will rejuvenate dramatically with a firm cutback. Use a hedge trimmer or brushcutter for efficiency.

For deciduous foliage trees: minimal pruning is required. Remove dead, damaged, or crossing branches in late winter while dormant. For Japanese maples specifically, avoid heavy summer pruning — this is best done in late winter or very early spring before leaf burst.
For evergreen hedging and screening plants (Lilly Pilly, Loropetalum, Magnolia): clip to shape immediately after flowering if applicable, or at any time during the growing season for maintenance shaping. Regular light clipping produces denser, more attractive screens than infrequent heavy cutting.

Design Inspiration — Using Foliage by Colour Group

•    Silver & Grey Palette: Combine Festuca glauca (blue fescue), Dichondra 'Silver Falls', and Lomandra 'Silver Grace' with white or pale lavender flowering plants for a cool, refined garden. Particularly effective in coastal and Mediterranean-style gardens in Adelaide and coastal Victoria.
•    Purple & Bronze Palette: Deep drama using Loropetalum 'Plum Gorgeous', Leucadendron 'Fireglow', Pennisetum 'Moulin Rouge', and Acer palmatum. Stunning against a white or rendered wall. Plant in full sun for maximum colour intensity.
•    Gold & Lime Green Palette: Acacia 'Lime Magik', Acacia 'Limelight', Lomandra 'Lime Tuff', and Casuarina 'Cousin It' create a vibrant, energetic planting. Excellent in contemporary gardens against dark hardscaping or mixed with deep purple foliage for contrast.
•    Deep Green Structural Palette: Magnolia grandiflora, Acmena smithii, Ficus hillii, and Michelia figo for a formal, timeless, low-maintenance garden scheme that works in sun or shade. The foundation palette of many classic Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide gardens.
•    Autumn Fiesta: Mass-plant Japanese maples with ornamental pears and a groundcover of Carex testacea for a layered tapestry of autumn colour from March to May. Add Leucadendron for winter interest once the deciduous plants are bare.

Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

What is the difference between foliage plants and flowering plants?

Foliage plants are those chosen primarily for the ornamental quality of their leaves rather than their flowers. Many foliage plants do flower, but their flowers are secondary to their leaf colour, texture, or form. Flowering plants are chosen principally for their blooms. In garden design, foliage plants provide the lasting framework and structure, while flowering plants add seasonal highlights. Most well-designed Australian gardens rely on a foundation of foliage plants with flowering plants layered through them for seasonal punctuation.

What foliage plants grow well in Melbourne?

Melbourne's cool-temperate climate and variable soils support an exceptional range of foliage plants. Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), ornamental pears (Pyrus calleryana), silver birch (Betula pendula), Lomandra, Liriope, Clivia, Loropetalum, and ornamental grasses all perform reliably in Melbourne. In Melbourne's heavy clay soils, improving drainage before planting is the single most important step for success with any foliage plant — add gypsum and quality compost, and raise beds where needed.

What foliage plants are suitable for shade?

Outstanding foliage plants for shade in Australian gardens include: Clivia (sun to deep shade), Liriope (full shade), Asplenium Birds Nest Fern (warm humid shade), Arthropodium cirratum (part to full shade), Michelia figo (part shade), Dietes iridioides (sun to part shade), and many fern varieties. For dry shade under established trees — one of the most challenging positions — Liriope, Dietes, and Arthropodium are among the most reliable performers.

What are the best low-maintenance foliage plants for Australian gardens?

The most reliable low-maintenance foliage plants for Australian gardens are Lomandra (almost any variety), Liriope, Dietes iridioides, Acmena smithii (Lilly Pilly), Casuarina 'Cousin It', and Westringia. Once established — typically after one to two growing seasons — these plants require minimal watering, resist most pests and diseases, and need only occasional trimming to maintain their appearance.

Can I grow foliage plants in pots and containers?

Yes — many foliage plants thrive in pots and containers. Japanese maples, ornamental grasses (compact Lomandra, Festuca, Carex), Clivia, Liriope, Loropetalum, Birds Nest Fern, and Dichondra 'Silver Falls' all perform well in containers with quality potting mix and regular watering and feeding. For pots in full sun, choose heat-tolerant varieties and use a large pot (minimum 45cm diameter) to reduce moisture stress.

What foliage plants work well for privacy screening?

For fast, dense privacy screening with outstanding foliage: Acmena smithii Lilly Pilly (excellent across all climates), Ficus hillii 'Flash' (subtropical and frost-free), Magnolia grandiflora (formal, large-scale), Loropetalum 'Plum Gorgeous' (coloured informal hedge), and Michelia figo (fragrant, part-shade tolerant) are all excellent choices. Contact our team for advice on the right screening plant for your specific climate, soil type, and space dimensions.