That is what twelve months of orders at Nursery Near Me show. The online nursery tracked 3,165 orders and 20,604 plants across the country between September 2025 and August 2026. Queensland addresses took 1,575 of those orders and 10,721 plants, more than any other state.
The pattern is a city pattern. Hedging and screening were the biggest uses, feature planting and pots came next, and the single most planted plant was a hedge: Lilly Pilly Resilience outsold the next plant more than five to one. On a Brisbane block, where the fence line is often the only garden, that is no surprise. Behind the lilly pillies came English box, mock orange, star jasmine and climbing fig, the plants that make a small space look finished.
About half of what Queenslanders ordered was Australian native, and 93 per cent of it was tagged low maintenance. People want a garden that looks after itself.
The timing is the useful part. April was the biggest planting month of the year, and March to May together beat September to November. That matches how Brisbane works: plant after the wet, while the soil is moist and the heat is easing, and roots are established before the next summer. If you are planting now, in spring, mulch well and water by hand through the first hot spell.
One caution for inner Brisbane. English box and French lavender sold well across the state, but both sulk in humidity. Native lilly pillies, murraya and the dwarf grevilleas do the same jobs and shrug off a wet February.
The full study, with charts by state, is free to reproduce with attribution at nurserynearme.com.au/blogs/blog/what-australia-planted-2025-26, and a planting guide for Brisbane’s subtropical climate is at nurserynearme.com.au/blogs/blog/what-to-plant-in-brisbane-subtropical-guide
Isaac Olson is a director of Nursery Near Me, an Australian online nursery that delivers to every mainland state.
