Ornamental Food Forest Plants

Ornamentals ensure the Fernmount Food Forest is not just an unattractive, utilitarian source of food.

Of course many food producing plants are also ornamental and many plants we consider only as ornamentals are also edible. Ornamentals also attract bees and other beneficial insects and of course many birds, especially small insect eaters. There is no reason that a food producing garden can't also be attractive and a delight to explore. Many ornamental plants are also grown for cut and drop mulch.

In our climate foliage provides much colour so gold, yellow, orange, copper, silver and bronze foliage plants feature. The advantage is that foliage colour is so easy to provide compared to the work and time required to grow annual flowers. Trees and bushes also contribute many flowers and contrasting leaf shapes also contribute to visual interest. You can also view the Fernmount Food Forest Instagram.

Hippeastrum

Hippeastrums, Our Hybrids

Front Garden with Bouganvillea and Coreopsis

Large Bromeliad

This Bromeliad looks green now but will turn gold again once gradually exposed to more sun.

Grey Myrtle

Backhousia myrtifolia (Grey Myrtle) has pleasant aromatic foliage and shiny leaves. We also grow its relative Lemon Myrtle for leaves that make a refreshing tea.

Vetiver Grass

Vetiver grass retains our steep slopes and is cut to provide mulch. We haven't tried processing the roots for its perfume, but one day!?
Its fresh young growth is as ornamental as any grass. This plant needs a good haircut and division. 

Vetiver Grass at back, Rose of Sharon right

This is actually a drain laid with imported rocks.

Tree Fern

Tithonia is mainly for 'cut and drop' mulch

Mexican Sunflower is usually trimmed before it flowers but it's a bright cheery plant.

Camellia sinensis (Tea)

This Camellia has glossy leaves and small white flowers and of course we use it for green tea.

Sweet Potato groundcover

Edible leaves and tubers and a great weed suppressor, what a useful plant.

Rose of Sharon is cut for mulch

Hibiscus mutabilis is best cut back immediately after flowering to prevent self seeding.

Wendy's Wish Salvia with blue salvia

Salvias are so easy to grow and stems can be broken off easily, folded and dropped for mulch.

Blue Salvia

Pot of Sweet Peas just planted

Sunny spaces in winter are becoming hard to find. This pot can be moved into the sun.

Native indigenous Red Cedar

This will become a large tree but will be a small restoration of our local bush. It grows in Zone 4.

Pink Salvia

Pineapples with drooping Drumstick Tree branch

Save the tops of Pineapples and allow the base, stripped of some leaves, to dry then plant in pots. When rooted plant them in a sunny spot and regularly fertilise. Being Bromeliads they blend well with ornamental Bromeliads.

Penta

Pentas are so easy to grow in this climate and provide colourful bushes.

Mauve Penta and Irisene

Espaliered Pear

The espaliered form of our Pears is best seen once leaves drop. 

Side Path Zone 1

Bamboo on the left hangs over the path. Cardamon Ginger (Alpinia calcarata) rises on left. Its leaves can be used in deserts, to add flavour when steaming rice and to wrap fish. The seds do not resemble true Cardamon.

Passionfruit

A self seeded golden Passionfruit straggles and shines over a Cream Guava hedge in Zone 1.

Valencia Orange

All citrus are ornamental. Oranges decorate this Valencia Orange tree for months.

Olive

The silvery foliage and the form of Olives are always attractive.

New Guinea Bean flower

New Guinea Beans are an excellent Zucchini (Courgette) substitute and the flowers are also attractive.

Tree Ferns, Poinciana, Ivory Curl, Bloodwood

Feathery green foliage is always a delight.

Jade Plant

A Jade Plant, with Old Mans Beard hanging on it, makes such an easy to maintain as a focal point on the sunny northern terrace.

Kang Kong and Lebanese Cress

Pond Plants provide food and visual interest in their raised ornamental pond in Zone 1.

Louisiana Iris

Lousiana Iris help bind the banks of small dams.

Natal Plum

Natal Plum has small gardenia like flowers. They are also perfumed. The glossy leaves and prickly stems also create a useful groundcover.

Irisene

"The plants we grow are all cultivars of Iresine diffusa (syn Iresine herbstii)" Garden Drum

Irisene

Heliconia's large leaves and flower

Grevillia

Grevillia Golden Lyre

Path in Zone 3

Elderberry fruit

Crassula

Coleus

Coleus plants in planters lighten shady areas.

Lemon Grass and Coffee Bush

Brazilian Cloak (Megaskepasma) Flower

Brazilian Cloak will grow to three metres but is easily pruned. It is a fast growing tropical shrub.

Bromeliads

Dogwood with Autumn foliage

Acalypha near dry stream bed

Blue Salvia

We also grow Salvia splendens (Salmon)

Rose of Sharon

Succulent

Orange Ponsettia

Sleeping Hibiscus

Irisene

Amaranth comes in many shades, exotic and edible.

Tree Dahlia, a single mauve reaches a height of over six metres

Dahlias were introduced to Europe from South America as an edible tuber. I haven't tried the myself but maybe one day.

Tree Chili

This Tree Chili produced abundantly as it scrambled over other ornamental bushes and into the lower branches of a Nectarine Tree.

Christmas Cactus

 Pots of Christmas Cactus tuck away under the house until late Autumn flowering

 Ctenanthe

 Ctenanthe spreads. This plant with silvery leaves is contained in a pot and so can be moved around to where we need a little bright colour.

Canna

This Canna has large red droopy flowers edged with gold. I find it easily contained. Its growing in Zone 3.

Pelargonium

This mauve Geranium copes with local humidity and grows well all year. A small leaved spreading Sedum provides the groundcover.

Gold Sedum succulent

These succulents thrive in our climate and need little care. They do require sun.

Meyer Lemon

This Meyer Lemon is ornamental and useful. Its fruits are rarely blemished.

Ornamental Grass

When our variegated grasses grow too large we cut them for mulch.

Dutch Iris

At the top of the herb spiral in Zone 1 our Dutch Irises grow long leaves and sometimes flower.

Cranberry Hibiscus is a great addition to salads.

Be careful when pruning Cranberry Hibiscus to make a clean cut because fungus can invade the cut and cause stem die back.

Caribbean Copper Plant (Euphorbia cotonifolia 'Atropurpurea) in front of Bamboo

This is a member of the Poinsettia family and has a milky white sap. It can spread seeds and grows easily from cuttings. Is is useful as a replacement for Smoke Bush (Cotinus coggygria). We keep these pruned and also use them as a cut and drop plant.

Alternanthera dentata

We also grow Alternanthera dentata 'Little Ruby' as a groundcover. It is slow growing.
Brazilian spinach is an Alternanthera and some Alternantheras are said to be edible.

Plectranthus argentatus

Begonia

Tibouchina

 Tibouchina  'Noelene' has pink, white and lilac flowers. They grow best in warm, tropical climates.

Walking Iris

 Walking Iris create a fast growing low groundcover.

Salvia

Lomandra 'Tanika'

We also grow Lomandra longifolia to edge slopes and retain soil and water and also Lomandra hystrix which has slightly larger flower heads.

Tree Ferns

Bangalow Palm

Davidson Plum

Lorapetalum chinense

Saba Nut (Malabar Chestnut)

Yellow Sapote

Melaleuca bracteata Golden Form

Melaleuca bracteata Golden Form 'Revolution Gold' is a vigorous small tree and adds a touch of gold.

Alstroemeria pink, tall

Alstroemerias make a useful splash of pink. Flowers need to be tall to be seen in a garden with so many shrubs and trees and no special flower beds.  Alstroemeria - Wikipedia

Mauritious Hemp and Bismarck Palm

Mauritius Hemp (Furcraea foetida) is a striking plant.

More Random Plants

Viburnum odoratissimum 'Emerald Cluster' is used as a feature plant on our front 'nature strip'. The fruit is said by some to be mildly edible or mildly poisonous but is attractive to birds.


Azalea Shiraz adds to the theme of burgundy foliage and flowers.

We have a few Calistemons. Callistemon Kings Park Special is a well known bottlebrush in Australia.

Allamanda cathartica (Jamaican Sunset) is lightly pruned to keep it in bounds on the southern side of the house.

Kalanchoe

The native Powder Puff Lilly Pilly (Syzygium wilsonii) is used as a hedging plant in Zone 1. It has large wine red puff ball flowers in Spring and its new growth has flashes of bronze. The white berries produced in late summer are edible.

Grevillia (Fanfare) is said to be a hybrid of G. gaudichaudi and G. longifolia and is planted on the steep slopes near the dam in Zone 4.

Swamp Foxtail Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) is just one of the grasses we grow. All grasses serve for mulching as 'cut and drop' plants.

Lurking under the Ivory Curl Trees is a hybid Waratah (Telopea speciosissima x T. oreades). This plant is slow to grow but seems to cope with our climate. Only a few flowers are produced each year but we do not fertilise this plant.

Christmas Bush (Ceratopetalum gummiferum) grows well but slowly. Nearby it is grown commercially for its bright Spring red bracts produced before Christmas in this warmer climate. This photo shows seven years growth and foliage without the colourful bracts.












Erlicheer Jonquils flower sporadically.




Rosemary officinalis is attractive and useful. We need to grow it is pots so is well drained, has sun it is not lost in vegetation.







Abelia grandiflora plants of various hybrids grow well in part or full sun but resent shade in this humid climate.

Coreopsis is a useful perennial that can be subdivided in autumn and flowers well in summer. It prefers full sun.

Wedge Leaf Hop Bush (Dodonaea viscosa subsp. cuneata) is used as a hedge. We wanted a tough hedge screen for dry slope.

 Agapanthus hybrids prefer a drier climate but will grow and flower. They can can succumb to Woolly Aphids if not sprayed regularly.

Rainforest Cassia ( Senna acclinis) is a small bush that grows in Zone 4. and is used as a cut and drop plant.

Bulbine bulbosa (Native Onion) is a pretty bulb with yellow star like flowers.

Carex Flacca (Glaucous Sedge) is used around ponds.

Lemon Scented Tea Tree (Leptospermum petersonii) is a small tree with white flowers and aromatic leaves.

Grevillia Royal Mantle makes an excellent grouncover in sun.

Kangaroo Paw Flower prefers a drier climate but still provides colour. It requires some water in winter.

Poinsettia

Poinsettias are useful as they are drought and rain tough and provide bold and large splashes of colour with little care.

Rex Begonia

Begonia make useful, fairly drought resistant plants in pots. A few missed waterings in dry weather will not affect them much as long as they get some shade from extreme sun and heat.

These large native Paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquinerva) have self-seeded in the swampy section of our half hectare.

Yucca elephantipes

We grow Yucca elephantipes in pots as feature plants. They are large enough to make bold statements among other tall shrubs.

Gymea Lily

Gymea Lily is an Australian native. They bloom with large tall flower spikes up to six metres approximately high. These are growing in Zone 1.

A Dwarf Bouganvillea is contained in a pot and starved of water and feed to keep it small.

Centradenia Cascade - Spanish Shawl