Low-maintenance balcony plants for Brisbane
Not everyone wants to fuss over seedlings every morning. If you want a balcony that looks green and alive with very little effort, the trick is choosing plants that already like Brisbane's climate, then matching them to your balcony's light.
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First, work out what your balcony actually gets
"Low maintenance" depends completely on putting the plant in the right spot. A plant that thrives in morning sun will scorch on a west-facing balcony, and a sun lover will sulk in a shady one. Spend a day noting when direct sun hits your balcony:
- Full sun: six or more hours of direct sun, often north- or west-facing.
- Part sun: morning sun and afternoon shade, often east-facing. This is the easiest aspect in Brisbane.
- Shade: little or no direct sun, such as south-facing or deeply covered balconies.
Also think about wind. Higher balconies can be very windy, which dries pots quickly and tears soft leaves. Tough, smaller-leaved plants handle wind best.
Full sun and heat
Bougainvillea (dwarf varieties)
Bougainvillea loves heat and actually flowers better when it's not overwatered or overfed. Dwarf varieties suit large pots. It has thorns, so keep it away from walkways.
Succulents, in a free-draining mix
Many succulents handle Brisbane sun well, but our wet summers are their weak spot. Use a gritty succulent and cactus potting mix in a pot with good drainage holes, and move them under cover during long rainy spells if you can. Overwatering kills far more succulents than neglect does.
Rosemary
Rosemary is tough, useful and handles sun and wind. It hates wet feet, so don't use a saucer that holds water, and don't put it in a self-watering pot.
Hardy natives
Coastal and subtropical natives are well suited to our conditions. Good balcony choices include westringia (coastal rosemary), dwarf lilly pillies, lomandra and dianella. Many native plants prefer a low-phosphorus feed, so use a native plant fertiliser rather than a general one.
A note on lavender
Lavender is often sold as easy, but many types struggle with Brisbane's summer humidity. If you want to try it, the Spanish and Italian types usually cope better than English lavender, and very free drainage is essential.
Part sun (morning sun, afternoon shade)
- Bromeliads are one of the best low-care plants for SEQ. They're tough, colourful and need very little feeding. One catch: water sitting in their central cups can breed mosquitoes, so flush the cups out with the hose regularly, especially in warm weather.
- Liriope and mondo grass make tidy, grassy edges for troughs and need almost no attention.
- Gardenias and murrayas do well in large pots with regular water and give you fragrance.
- Most herbs, especially mint, Vietnamese mint and parsley, are happiest with afternoon shade in summer.
Shade and covered balconies
- ZZ plant stores water in its thick stems and copes with low light and missed waterings.
- Cast iron plant (aspidistra) lives up to its name. It handles deep shade and neglect.
- Peace lily will flower in bright shade and droops visibly when it needs water, which makes it easy to manage.
- Philodendrons and other leafy tropicals grow well on a sheltered balcony in our climate, but keep them out of hot afternoon sun.
Shady balconies are one of the few situations where a grow light might be worth thinking about, but only if you want to grow herbs or edibles there.
Easy edibles
If you'd like your low-maintenance balcony to feed you a bit, these are the most forgiving edibles in SEQ:
- Chillies: productive, long-lived in our climate and rarely fussy. See growing chillies in pots.
- Lemongrass: almost unkillable in a large pot in the sun.
- Vietnamese mint: grows strongly as long as it stays moist.
- Brazilian spinach and Ceylon spinach: tropical greens that cope with summer when normal spinach won't.
- Rosemary: perfect for a sunny, windy rail.
Plants to be careful with
Some plants that are easy to grow in SEQ are easy because they spread aggressively. Several are listed as environmental weeds in Queensland, and pot plants can escape when cuttings or old potting mix are dumped. Examples to avoid or manage carefully include asparagus fern and Mexican petunia. Mother-in-law's tongue (snake plant) is also considered a weed in parts of SEQ, so if you grow it, keep it contained in a pot and put offcuts in the bin rather than green waste. Brisbane City Council's online weed identification tool is a good place to check a plant before you buy it.
Making any balcony lower maintenance
- Use bigger pots. More potting mix means more water held and fewer emergencies. A large lightweight planter avoids weight problems.
- Group pots together. Clustered plants shade each other's pots and create a slightly more humid microclimate.
- Mulch every pot. It reduces watering and keeps roots cool.
- Use slow-release fertiliser. One application every few months replaces regular liquid feeding.
- Consider self-watering pots for thirsty plants, but not for succulents, rosemary or anything that hates wet feet. See are self-watering pots worth it?
- Raise pots on feet so they drain freely in storms and don't stain tiles.