15 architectural plants to watch out for this spring

  • 3 minutes
  • 15 August 2023

Spring is coming. If you’re ready to breathe some fresh life into your home, keep your eyes peeled for these incredible architectural plants! Whether you have a sprawling backyard or a modest balcony, these plants are sure to add some structure, texture and colour to your outdoor space.

1. Monstera Deliciosa 

Also known as the Fruit Salad Plant and the Swiss Cheese Plant, this bad boy is delicious by any name. With huge, tropical leaves and a striking resilience to low light conditions, the monstera deliciosa is perfect for both indoor and outdoor spots.

Calathea Orbifolia

2. Calathea Orbifolia

A member of the Prayer Plant family, the stunning patterns on these leaves are absolutely tantalising to the eye and offer a lush focal point.

3. Snake Plant / Mother In Law’s Tongue

This incredibly resilient plant delivers a very contemporary structure, with varieties offering subtle differences in shape and leaf pattern. A wonderful bordering plant, especially along walls, pathways or against feature walls.

4. Horsetail Reed

Serving as a more modern hedging option, horsetail reed is perfect for creating privacy screens or pathways within your outdoor space, or for lining your backyard fence.

5. Agave

As far as architectural plants go, agaves are perhaps one of the most popular choices in Australian landscape designs right now. Tolerant to our harsh summers and structurally striking, these low maintenance succulents come in a huge variety of types and sizes.

6. Dichondra Silver Falls

Perfect for ground cover or trailing from planters and hanging baskets, this delicate beauty offers a cool contrast to most other plants.

Bird of Paradise

7. Bird of Paradise

From the symmetrically fanned variety, to the more densely clumped strelitzias, these plants make a huge splash, especially against a smooth, rendered backdrop.

8. Boston Fern

Boston ferns are back! From tabletop wicker pots to majestic hanging planters, the texture that this fern offers creates an urban jungle instantly.

9. Prickly Pear Cactus

Meet the prickly pear; voluptuous, hardy and downright funky.

10. No Mow Grass

From filling in space between pavers, to ground cover in planters and garden beds, to full blown lawns, the Zoysia Tenuifolia is a sight to behold. Also known as Petting Grass or Velvet Grass for its fluffiness, this grass is a must for anyone wanting a lush, mystical forest feel!

11. Fiddle Leaf Fig

The fiddle leaf fig is trending as an indoor architectural plant right now; but that doesn’t mean they don’t like the Great Outdoors as well! They look incredible in planters and their giant leaves offer strong foliage elements to a space.

Ruffled Fan Palm

12. Ruffled Fan Palm

Have you seen anything quite as graceful as the leaf on this palm? Reminiscent of an exotic fan dance, this treasure loves wet, warm conditions with low, dappled light.

13. Foxtail Fern

Talk about texture. The foxtail fern is drought resistant, demands very little and grows gorgeous, thick tentacles that stay bright green all year long.

14. Hedging

A classic go-to for landscape designers. Hedging is the fastest way to add structure to your garden, and can be trimmed in almost any which way. Just be mindful of the maintenance that goes with it.

15. Yucca

Would any architectural plant list be complete without mentioning the yucca? The rock stars of full sun and bone-dry soil, these plants can take just about anything – and look good doing it.

Make those architectural plants ‘pop’ with a stunning backdrop; surround yourself in style with our exquisite modular fencing or masonry-alternate boundary walls.