What Are the Best Drought-Tolerant Plants for Australian Gardens?

There is a fairly important distinction between a drought-tolerant garden and a garden you simply don't water.

The plants know the difference.

We hear “drought tolerant” thrown around so often that it's easy to assume these plants can be put into dry ground, given a cheerful wave and left to sort themselves out. In reality, even some of Australia's toughest landscape plants need proper establishment before they can show you just how tough they are.

But once you've got the plant choice, soil preparation and establishment right, a water-wise garden can be remarkably beautiful. And it certainly doesn't have to look like a collection of prickly plants sitting in gravel.

Some of the best drought-tolerant gardens we've seen are full of soft grasses, grey foliage, flowering natives, spreading groundcovers and dense shrubs. The secret isn't finding plants that can endure misery.

It's choosing plants that are genuinely suited to the conditions.

What does “drought tolerant” actually mean?

Drought tolerance describes a plant's ability to cope with periods of limited water, but it's not an on/off switch.

Some plants tolerate short dry spells. Others are adapted to much longer periods without regular rainfall. Soil type, temperature, wind, humidity and the maturity of the plant all influence how well it handles dry conditions.

A plant growing in deep soil may have access to moisture long after the surface appears dry. The same variety planted into a shallow bed beside hot paving may experience a completely different level of stress.

And then there's establishment.

A mature plant with an extensive root system can explore a substantial volume of soil for moisture. A newly planted tube cannot.

That's why the phrase “drought tolerant once established” matters so much. New plants still need appropriate watering while their roots grow beyond the original root ball and into the surrounding soil.

If you're trying to create a genuinely water-wise garden, the aim isn't to stop watering on planting day. It's to establish plants well enough that they become less dependent on frequent supplementary watering later.

Start with foliage — it can tell you a surprising amount

One of the interesting things about plants adapted to dry environments is how often their foliage gives us clues.

Grey or silvery foliage is common among plants from hot, exposed environments. Fine leaves can reduce exposed leaf area. Some plants have hairy or waxy leaf surfaces. Others store water in thick succulent foliage.

These aren't decorative coincidences. They're adaptations.

That doesn't mean every grey plant is drought tolerant or every broad green leaf needs constant water, but once you start looking at plants through this lens, the garden becomes considerably more interesting.

You're not just looking at a pretty leaf.

You're looking at a survival strategy.

And one of the best examples in our range is Eremophila.

Eremophila Blue Horizon™ — grey foliage that earns its place

Blue Horizon™ Eremophila is exactly the sort of plant that makes people reconsider what a drought-tolerant garden can look like.

Its blue-grey foliage gives it a beautifully soft appearance, which is particularly useful in landscapes dominated by green. Rather than waiting for flowers to provide colour, the foliage itself creates contrast every day of the year.

That's a design principle worth stealing.

If every interesting moment in your garden depends on something flowering, there will inevitably be periods when not much is happening. Foliage colour gives you another layer to work with.

Blue-grey plants can look particularly striking beside deeper greens, golden foliage, stone, gravel and strappy plants.

Instead of treating a hardy plant as something you hide in the difficult corner, make it part of the design.

Eremophila Thriver™ — choose plants that actually enjoy the assignment

We often hear some variation of:

“I need something I can't kill.”

There is unfortunately no such plant.

Gardeners are extraordinarily inventive. 😂

But Thriver™ Eremophila is a good example of the sort of plant we'd consider when we're looking for toughness, attractive foliage and flowers in a hot, relatively dry landscape where its particular growing requirements are suitable.

And that's an important qualification.

Drought-tolerant doesn't mean plant anywhere.

Drainage still matters. Climate still matters. Sun exposure matters. Soil matters.

The goal isn't finding the toughest plant on earth.

It's finding the plant whose natural preferences most closely resemble the conditions in your garden.

That's what makes a garden genuinely lower maintenance.

Grey Box™ Westringia — drought-tolerant gardens still need structure

A water-wise garden needs more than a collection of tough plants.

It still needs design.

Grey Box™ Westringia brings a compact, structured shape into the planting, along with that useful grey-green foliage.

This is where Westringias become so valuable in landscape design. Different cultivars can perform very different jobs.

Grey Box can provide compact structure. Low Horizon™ takes the foliage lower and wider. Mundi™ gives you a broader spreading form.

They're all Westringias.

They aren't interchangeable.

And this is one of the biggest improvements you can make when choosing plants: stop shopping by genus alone and start shopping by growth habit.

Ask what shape the plant becomes.

A 40cm-high plant spreading over a metre performs a completely different job from an upright shrub of similar overall volume.

For a low-maintenance, drought-conscious landscape, that distinction is enormously useful.

Low Horizon™ Westringia — cover ground without creating height

Bare soil gets hot.

Really hot.

Particularly in exposed Australian gardens.

This is one reason lower, spreading plants are useful in water-wise landscaping. Once established and appropriately spaced, they can create foliage coverage over the soil rather than leaving large areas permanently exposed.

Low Horizon™ Westringia is a low-growing selection that can be used where you want spreading evergreen foliage without much height.

Think front of garden beds, around rocks, repeated through larger landscape areas or places where a conventional shrub would simply be too tall.

The important thing is to give spreading plants enough room to perform their intended job.

Don't buy a broad plant, squeeze it into a tiny space and then complain when it has the audacity to become broad.

Mundi™ Westringia — sometimes wider is exactly what you need

Gardeners tend to worry about plants getting too wide.

Sometimes that's completely justified.

Other times, width is exactly what we're paying for.

In a larger garden, bank or broad landscape bed, a plant that naturally covers substantial ground can reduce the number of individual plants required to visually fill the space.

Mundi™ Westringia is another lower, broader-growing option worth considering where its site requirements suit.

This is particularly relevant when you're designing a garden to become lower maintenance over time.

Rather than permanently maintaining enormous spaces between isolated shrubs, you can deliberately choose plants whose mature forms begin connecting the landscape.

Not overcrowding.

Not planting everything 20cm apart.

Just understanding what the plants will eventually become and designing accordingly.

Tanika® Lomandra — because water-wise doesn't mean stiff and spiky

One of the things I dislike about the phrase “drought-tolerant garden” is the picture it can create in people's heads.

Rocks.

Dust.

Three angry succulents.

Possibly a lizard.

😂

A water-wise garden can have enormous movement and softness.

Tanika® Lomandra is a perfect example of why strappy foliage works so well in Australian landscapes.

The fine, arching leaves move with the wind and provide contrast against more solid shrub forms. Used repeatedly, plants like Tanika can create rhythm through a large landscape without relying on flowers for the entire effect.

And no, Lomandra isn't technically a grass.

It just spends a lot of time being accused of being one.

The really important lesson here is repetition. One strappy plant sitting between six unrelated shrubs looks like another plant. A repeated group becomes part of the design.

Aussie Hedge Bush™ Rhagodia — tough plants don't have to be boring

Rhagodia is another group worth knowing if you're interested in hardy Australian landscaping.

Aussie Hedge Bush™ brings foliage structure and a distinctly Australian character to landscapes where its particular conditions are suitable.

And plants like this are useful because they broaden the idea of what a hedge or structural shrub needs to be.

It doesn't always have to be glossy dark green.

Silver and grey foliage can create structure too.

In fact, in a hot Australian landscape, those softer foliage colours can make the entire garden feel more connected to its environment.

Aussie Rambler™ — let the groundcover do some work

Groundcovers are one of the most useful tools in a water-wise garden.

Aussie Rambler™ Carpobrotus has thick succulent foliage and a naturally spreading habit, making it interesting for appropriately hot, exposed areas, banks and coastal-style landscapes.

Those fleshy leaves are also a wonderful little horticultural lesson.

Succulent foliage stores water.

The plant is literally carrying part of its water strategy around in its leaves.

Used in the right place, spreading plants like this can help cover soil and soften hard landscape edges while providing a completely different texture from Westringias and Lomandras.

That's how I'd design a drought-tolerant garden.

Not with 20 “tough plants”.

With layers.

How to design a drought-tolerant garden that doesn't look boring

Start with structure.

That might be compact Westringias or other appropriately sized shrubs.

Then add movement with strappy foliage such as Lomandra.

Bring in lower spreading plants such as Low Horizon or Mundi where you need evergreen ground coverage.

Use plants such as Aussie Rambler where a succulent groundcover suits the conditions.

Then introduce foliage contrast through Eremophilas, Rhagodia and other grey or silver plants.

You already have different heights, shapes, textures and foliage colours before you've counted a single flower.

That's the trick.

Build the garden with foliage. Let flowers be the bonus.

The result tends to look far more cohesive throughout the year.

Group plants with similar water needs

This is one of the simplest ways to make irrigation more sensible.

If one plant wants consistently moist soil and its neighbour prefers conditions much drier, somebody is going to be annoyed.

Possibly the plants.

Definitely you.

Grouping plants with similar water requirements allows you to manage irrigation more appropriately rather than trying to create completely different moisture conditions within the same tiny bed.

This principle is sometimes called hydrozoning: grouping plants according to their water requirements.

You don't need to use the fancy word.

Just don't plant the thirsty one beside the dry one and expect the hose to negotiate.

Soil preparation still matters

Drought-tolerant plants are not an excuse to ignore soil.

In fact, good soil conditions can be particularly important in helping plants establish the root systems they'll later depend on during dry periods.

But soil preparation should respond to the soil you've actually got.

Sandy soil behaves differently from clay.

Compacted building-site soil is different again.

And drainage deserves particular attention because many plants adapted to dry environments will struggle if their roots remain waterlogged.

It's perfectly possible to kill a drought-tolerant plant with too much water.

We see it more often than you'd think.

Mulch helps — but plants can eventually do some of the covering too

Mulch is extremely useful while a garden establishes. It can reduce evaporation from the soil surface, moderate soil temperature and suppress some weed growth.

But look at a mature natural landscape.

There isn't necessarily a neat ring of decorative mulch around every individual plant.

Plants overlap.

Groundcovers spread.

Leaf litter accumulates.

So when you're designing a water-wise garden, think beyond the first year.

Where appropriate, use spreading plants and sensible spacing so foliage eventually covers more of the soil surface.

The goal isn't to eliminate mulch.

It's to build a living garden rather than permanently displaying it.

How often should drought-tolerant plants be watered?

There is no useful universal answer.

A newly planted tube in sandy soil during a hot spring week may need very different watering from an established shrub in heavier soil after rain.

Check the root zone.

Water thoroughly enough to reach it.

Then monitor how quickly the soil dries.

As the plant establishes and roots move further into surrounding soil, watering frequency can often be reduced according to the needs of the species and local conditions.

The aim is not to train a new plant through neglect.

It's to establish a root system capable of coping with increasingly long periods between supplementary watering.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best drought-tolerant plants in Australia?

The best choices depend on your climate, soil, drainage, sunlight and available space. Eremophilas, selected Westringias, Lomandras, Rhagodias and suitable native groundcovers can all be useful in water-wise Australian landscapes where their individual requirements are met.

What plants survive hot Australian summers?

Plants adapted to your local climate, sun exposure and soil will generally perform better than plants selected simply because they're labelled “hardy”. Eremophilas, Westringias, selected Lomandras and other Australian landscape plants may suit hot gardens depending on local conditions.

What are the best drought-tolerant groundcovers?

Low Horizon™ Westringia, Mundi™ Westringia and Aussie Rambler™ are examples of spreading landscape plants worth considering for suitable dry or exposed sites. Mature spread and local growing conditions should always be checked before planting.

Do drought-tolerant plants need watering?

Yes, particularly while establishing. A newly planted drought-tolerant plant has a limited root system and generally requires supplementary water until roots establish into the surrounding soil.

Can you overwater drought-tolerant plants?

Yes. Plants adapted to relatively dry conditions may struggle in persistently saturated soil, particularly where drainage is poor. Match watering to the plant and actual soil moisture rather than following a fixed schedule.

What is a good drought-tolerant hedge?

Selected Westringias, Rhagodias and other hardy shrubs may be useful depending on the required hedge dimensions and site. Choose according to mature size, climate and soil rather than simply looking for the fastest-growing option.

How do I make my garden use less water?

Choose plants suited to your climate and site, group plants with similar water needs, establish plants properly, improve soil where appropriate, use mulch and reduce unnecessary areas of thirsty planting. Plant choice is only one part of creating a genuinely water-wise garden.

The most water-wise plant isn't necessarily the toughest plant you can find

It's the one that belongs where you're putting it.

A plant perfectly matched to your climate, soil, sunlight and available space shouldn't need you constantly intervening to keep it alive.

And that's really what we're trying to achieve.

Not a garden that survives despite us.

A garden where the plants are comfortable enough to get on with being plants.

Choose them well. Establish them properly. Give them room to become their mature size.

Then perhaps you can spend a little less time standing at the end of a hose.

And a little more time actually enjoying the bloody garden.