Native or exotic sounds like a simple choice at the nursery counter. On K’gari and the Fraser Coast it is worth one more question: native to where?

A native plant is one that occurs naturally somewhere in Australia. An exotic plant was brought here from elsewhere, on purpose or by accident. Exotics are not villains. Many are well behaved in a garden and give colour, shade and fruit that natives cannot. The trouble comes when an exotic finds our climate to its liking and escapes over the fence. Queensland gains new naturalised weeds every year, and many of them started life as garden plants.

Natives earn their reputation for a reason. They have adapted to local soils, rainfall and dry spells over a very long time, so an established native garden usually needs less water, less feeding and less fuss. Native plants also feed the birds, insects and other wildlife that evolved alongside them. A garden of flowering natives is a food source; a garden of exotics is mostly scenery.

The Butchulla people take the idea one step further, and they are right to. Native is a big word. A species that grows on K’gari has spent thousands of years adapting to sand, salt, wind and fire, and the same species grown from mainland seed can behave differently in your garden and mix its genetics with the island’s own.

For a garden that sits next to (or within a) national park, the best choice is not just native but local: plants found on K’gari or the nearby coast, grown from seed collected close to home. Ask your grower where the seed came from. A good one will tell you.

The full guide, Native vs Exotic Plants: What’s the Difference, is free to read here alongside more than 300 plant care guides written for Australian climate zones.

Article contributed by Isaac Olson, Nursery Near Me

Isaac Olson is the director of Nursery Near Me, an Australian online nursery that delivers plants, trees and hedging to every mainland state with no minimum order.