Gardening tips: Creating colour with foliage

Published 6:06am 5 October 2025

Words by Sondra Grainger

Asked to imagine a colourful garden, most people visualise a space full of flowers and blooming trees, but some of the most stunning spaces are actually created using foliage plants. Our sub-tropical location is ideal to source and grow some of the most spectacular foliage plants with an amazing colour palette available.

Tropical gardens – an abundance of colour options is available in the Cordyline family alone! From hot pink to burnt orange, leaves with stripes, contrasting trim, a variety of leaf shapes and plant heights makes this my first pick. Teamed with the big, bold green leaves of the Heliconia and the hot colours of the Croton family, you’ll have an outstanding, low maintenance garden bursting with colour year-round.

Shrubs/hedges/bushes – edge a driveway, create a pop of colour in a garden bed, make a statement in a feature pot, these plants will certainly add some vibrancy to a green space.

Loropetalum ‘Plum Gorgeous’ as the name suggests, has a rich plum foliage.

Alternanthera offers a full spectrum with ‘Little Ruby’, ‘Tricolour’, ‘Dentata’, variegated, yellow, green and mixes making it a one stop option for a colourful hedge.

Nandina foliage changes with the seasons making it a favourite in Queensland for landscape design.

Heuchera is a hardy species enjoying full sun to part shade and fabulous used as a low growing splash of colour. Their palette includes green, lime, peach, apricot, yellow, orange, red, pink, copper, bronze, silver, burgundy and almost black making them an extremely versatile addition.

Leucophyta Silver Bullion, Stachys byzantine ‘Lambs Ears’, Cineraria ‘Silver Dust’, Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’, Erempohila ‘Silver Ball’, Conostylis ‘Silversunrise’ and Senecio ‘Angel Wings’ as their names suggest, all feature soft silvery/grey foliage. Striking in a coastal garden, this colour enhances and contrasts beautifully with other plants in a garden bed.

Shade lovers and indoor enthusiasts won’t miss out either with the multi-coloured Aglaonema available in a wide range of variegations that almost look painted, they’re so pretty. Alocasia not only have interesting colours but some feature an unusual texture too, looking leathery or ‘unreal’. Begonia can be spotted, textured, patterned, have contrasting undersides and even a tad hairy! For part of the year (they are a perennial tuber) Caladium take the prize for their brilliant statement leaves with collectors hunting far and wide for new cultivars. Bromeliads can be integrated into many styles of garden, even tied into trees. Fittonia made a comeback with the terrarium boom a few years ago and are loved for their small leaves and compact growth in fairy gardens too.

And while I’ve merely covered off just a few of the most common or popular plants in the region, the list is extensive and interesting. Keep an eye out for what’s new in your local garden centre this spring.