Australian Shrubs

For those who yearn to travel to far-flung places, but are hindered by life’s circumstances from satisfying those longings, try my approach: bring those distant worlds to your doorstep by adding plants from those countries to your garden. Lately, I’ve been enjoying a virtual sojourn in Australia, where the mediterranean climates of the southern and southwestern parts of the continent offer a wealth of plants suitable for the San Francisco Bay Area and coastal California. The regions around Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth are an especially rich source of flowering shrubs, many of which have made their way into the nursery trade—and into my own Oakland garden.

The flora of the mediterranean-climate and adjoining semi-arid regions of Australia is far ranging and varied, but there are a few common qualities that help the shrubs from these regions stand apart, and make them of particular value to California gardens. They are almost universally tough plants, not only drought tolerant but adapted to nutrient-poor soils. Many are accustomed to harsh conditions of heat, drought, and coastal wind, and have developed successful survival strategies, such as leathery or waxy leaves, slend...