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Tropical Plants - Australia

Tropical plants to attract the birds

20 years ago

We've got a tropical garden which includes cordylines, ferns, bromeliads, gingers and soon to be some haleconias. We've also just added a golden penda in the back corner and have a poinciana and large frangipani which create a canopy over the yard. We've got a well established large pond and also a bird bath in the yard but we'd really like to plant some shrubs (that's about all we have space for) to attract some honeyeaters and lorikeets (we seem to have plenty of magpies). We'd like to keep the tropical theme and wonder if anyone has any suggestions for tropical plants the birds will love? Or any plants that may look okay with our tropical theme. The area we have is part sun, part shade. Thanks in advance!

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Comments (6)

gardenlen
20 years ago
g'day laurenkeet,

think along the lines of flowering, fruiting, seeding trees, so melaleucas, callistemons, abutilons, the hybrid grevilleas even pigeon pea, leucania & tagasaste will do it. i have lots of edible mustard and sow/milk thistle growing in and around my gardens the rosellas are always there eating those seeds. don't forget the honey eaters not only eat necter and seeds but they need protein as well and they get that from eating the larva and eggs of all sorts of bugs, so don't go heavy on bug control. we have an old black acacia right near the house and the amount of birds that come and feed from it is astounding and lots of them are the honey eaters.

len

mail len

lens garden page
User
20 years ago
Hi Laurenkeet and many Welcome's to these Forums, you will get plenty of info and help here.

Len is spot on.

And if you are having any trouble making up your mind have a look at the link below heaps of info on it to create a native garden in your own area...Cheers..MM.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flora for Fauna.
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Hi Sam, we have a very small yard, too, but have plenty of birds. You're right about them killing pests, they eat them for free! Some of the plants we see bird activity in are; annuals (in our zone 5); -torch tithonia -petunia -sage, any sage or salvia (both have perennial varieties too) -zinnia perennials include; -liatris, esp. spicata, but really any liatris is attractive -aster, we have one I call thistle, it has tiny black thistle/niger type seeds, and the birds love it all winter long, they clean the plant out -ornamental grass, lots of seeds, bonus, very attractive all winter Also, if you can find a tiny corner, a little bit of scrubby brush is attractive to birds, for cover and a place to hide and for foraging nest material. This webpage goes into dif. types of birds & what they prefer, you can tailor your plants to the birds you want to attract. http://www.helpfulgardener.com/design/2003/bird.html Bees are also important, to me lots of bees is a good sign that my garden is healthy, often bees, butterflies & hummers enjoy similar plants, tho bees are more interested in pollen of course. Try to use minimal chemicals, don't want to poison the birds you're striving to attract, & they can be very sensitive to weed killers, etc. I am as close to organic as I can be, I do use fertilizer, but for pests, I really try to go organic. OK, have to admit, we feed, niger seed all year, niger, suet & safflower seed all winter. Cheating, yes, but we love the birds & it's a guarenteed way to get them to your yard! I'm sure others will chime in w/more suggestions, good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: list of plants to attract birds This post was edited by jomuir on Sat, Dec 1, 12 at 12:49
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goldhills
20 years ago
Many of the lillypilly varieties eg Syzigium, Eugenia are shrub size and have flowers and edible fruit that birds love. There are some rainforest grevilleas but I think they are big growers, also Buckinghamia (Ivory Curl) but may be a bit big.
laurenkeet
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks all for your feedback. We visited the nursury yesterday and chose an ivory curl (looks like it will be okay space wise) and a Honey Gem grevilla as they seem to look best in the space we have available. We've got some cordylines and gingers to go in front of them and I think the colour contrast will look fantastic and help maintain our tropical look.

We also visited the botanic gardens to see their mature versions and fell in love with the Parrot Tree "Schotia Brachypetala" which was swarmed with honeyeaters and lorikeets. There were none in the nurseries as it's not very common so we found one we were able to take a cutting from and hopefully propagate ourselves, just don't know what we'll do with it when it gets really big!

We don't use any pesticides so we have abundant little insects in our yard, so now we just have to wait for the birds! Thanks again for your valuable input.

Lauren
wollemia_TC
20 years ago
Lauren
Don't know how much space you have, but Buckinghamia celcissima can grow pretty big, even though it is fairly slow-growing. You may want to reconsider if you have an average sized garden. A shrubby Banksia like B. spinulosa might be a better option.
Tony
laurenkeet
Original Author
20 years ago
Tony, thanks for your thoughts. Our Poinciana is pretty much at the end of it's life so we're hoping we might be able to eventually move the Ivory Curl into the spot. I know it seems hard to imagine but it seems to work with our yard. Also our parrot tree will get way to big for our yard but when things start getting too large for our yard we plan on moving them to my mums acerage, so we can both enjoy them for a while. Thanks again and we'll keep an eye on the size of the Ivory Curl.

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