Herbs and Spices to Grow in Australia
Herbs and spices include quick annuals, woody shrubs and tropical perennials. Choose for your climate and for the part you want to harvest, whether that is leaves, flowers, seed, roots or fruit.
Succulent
Aloe vera
Aloe vera is a clumping succulent that needs very good drainage and plenty of light. Established plants need little routine care.
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Herb & spice
Anise myrtle
Anise myrtle is an Australian rainforest tree with aromatic leaves that smell and taste of aniseed or liquorice. It can be grown as a small tree, clipped screen or hedge and likes moisture while young.
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Herb & spice
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is a bushy herb from the same plant family as tomatoes. It grows well through warm weather, with small greenish flowers followed by bright orange-red berries tucked inside papery husks. The roots have a long history in traditional Ayurvedic medicine. It's an interesting plant to grow from seed in a sunny bed with good drainage.
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Herb & spice
Basil
Basil grows quickly in warm weather and likes regular picking. Remove flower buds for a longer leaf harvest, or leave some flowers if you want seed or food for pollinators.
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Herb & spice
Borage
A fast-growing annual with vivid blue star-shaped flowers and coarse, hairy leaves. In Australia it is best treated as an ornamental and pollinator plant rather than an edible herb because Borago officinalis is listed in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code as a prohibited plant for food sale.
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Herb & spice
Brahmi
Brahmi is a low creeping native herb that roots wherever its fleshy stems touch wet soil. It forms a soft mat beside ponds, through wet beds and in shallow-water pots, and it grows best where the root zone stays consistently moist rather than cycling between wet and dry.
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Ornamental
Calendula
Calendula is a cheerful, fast-growing annual with orange or yellow daisy-like flowers. It is happiest in mild weather, flowers for months with regular picking and is useful for pollinators as well as edible petals.
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Herb & spice
Cardamom
Cardamom is a beautiful tropical ginger with tall green leaves, pretty flowers and the fragrant seed pods we use in cooking. It loves a warm, sheltered spot under taller trees, with rich soil and regular water. In tropical Australia it makes a lovely understory plant, and in the right conditions you might even harvest your own spice.
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Herb & spice
Catnip
Catnip is an aromatic mint-family perennial with soft grey-green leaves and small white to pale lilac flowers marked with violet spots. Cats may roll on, chew or rub against the foliage, while bees also visit the flowers.
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Veggie
Chilli
One chilli plant supplies most households for a year, and in a frost-free garden it keeps going for three or four seasons. The second year is usually the best one.
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Herb & spice
Chives
Chives are clumping perennial herbs grown for mild onion-flavoured leaves and edible flowers. Established clumps can be divided every few years.
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Fruit & berry
Coffee
Coffee is a glossy evergreen shrub with scented white flowers followed by red berries. It grows well in warm Australian gardens with bright filtered light, fertile soil and reliable moisture.
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Herb & spice
Comfrey
Comfrey is a deep-rooted perennial grown mainly for compost, mulch and biomass. It regrows quickly after cutting, so give it a permanent position rather than moving it around the garden.
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Herb & spice
Coriander
Coriander is a quick herb that prefers mild conditions and steady moisture. Leaves, flowers and dry seed can all be useful.
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Herb & spice
Culantro
Culantro tastes like coriander but stronger, and it keeps growing through the heat and humidity that make coriander bolt in a fortnight. One plant covers a lot of cooking.
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Herb & spice
Curry leaf tree
Curry leaf is a small tree you pick from all year in warm gardens. Nothing in a jar comes close to a fresh sprig dropped into hot oil, and one plant supplies a household.
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Herb & spice
Curry plant
Curry plant is the silver-leaved Mediterranean herb that releases a strong curry-like scent when you brush the foliage. The narrow grey leaves and small yellow flower heads also make it an attractive dry-garden plant. It is not the curry leaf tree, and in humid gardens I would give it the driest, sunniest spot available.
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Herb & spice
Dill
Dill is a quick annual herb grown for feathery leaves, flowers and seed. It prefers mild conditions and is best direct sown.
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Veggie
Elephant garlic
Elephant garlic grows huge mild cloves, but botanically it sits much closer to a leek than true garlic. You plant the cloves much like garlic, then give the bigger plant more room to build its bulb.
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Herb & spice
Galangal
Galangal is the sharp, piney root behind a proper tom yum, and it grows like an ornamental ginger in warm gardens. Plant a piece from the grocer, wait a year, and dig as you need it.
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Veggie
Garlic
Garlic is grown from individual cloves and needs the right variety and planting season for the local climate. Harvest signs are more reliable than a fixed number of days.
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Herb & spice
German chamomile
German chamomile is a fine-leaved annual that carries masses of small white-and-yellow flowers. It prefers mild weather, sun, good drainage and regular moisture, and the flowers are the part usually harvested.
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Herb & spice
Ginger
Ginger is a warm-season rhizome crop that likes rich soil, steady moisture and some protection from harsh afternoon sun.
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Herb & spice
Gotu kola
Gotu kola is a low, creeping native herb that loves moisture and roots as it spreads. It makes a useful living groundcover in damp, partly shaded gardens and can also be contained in a pot.
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Herb & spice
Holy basil
Holy basil, or tulsi, is a warm-loving aromatic basil with a bushy habit and pink or white flower spikes. In tropical climates it can behave as a short-lived perennial, while colder gardens usually grow it as an annual.
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Ornamental
Lavender
Lavender is a sun-loving woody perennial that needs excellent drainage and regular light pruning to stay compact.
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Herb & spice
Lemon balm
Lemon balm is a soft leafy herb with a bright lemon scent and a relaxed mounding habit. It grows best in mild weather with regular moisture and some afternoon shade in hotter climates.
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Herb & spice
Lemon myrtle
Lemon myrtle is a Queensland rainforest tree famous for intensely lemon-scented leaves. It can be grown as a small tree, clipped shrub or hedge, and is particularly at home in warm, moist east-coast gardens.
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Herb & spice
Lemongrass
Lemongrass is a warm-climate clumping herb grown for fragrant stems and leaves. Established clumps can be divided to make new plants.
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Herb & spice
Marshmallow
Marshmallow is a tall herbaceous perennial with soft grey-green leaves and pale pink flowers. It prefers moisture-retentive soil and is grown as much for its traditional herbal history as for its cottage-garden look.
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Herb & spice
Mint
Mint is a fast-spreading perennial herb that likes moisture and can grow in sun or part shade. Containers make it easier to control.
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Veggie
Moringa
Moringa grows faster than almost anything else in a warm garden, and you eat the leaves, the young pods and the flowers. Keep it cut low and it becomes a leaf crop rather than a tree.
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Herb & spice
Mullein
Great mullein is a biennial with a large woolly rosette in its first year and a tall yellow flower spike in its second. Its silver-grey foliage gives it a striking, architectural look.
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Herb & spice
Nasturtium
Nasturtium is one of the easiest edible flowers to grow, and it does most of the work itself. Round leaves, peppery flowers, and seed that keeps coming up in the same bed year after year.
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Herb & spice
Native ginger
Native ginger is an eastern Australian rainforest plant with tall leafy stems, white flowers and blue fruit. The fruit pulp and rhizome have traditional food uses.
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Herb & spice
Native leek
Native leek is an Australian perennial with narrow fleshy leaves and bright yellow star-shaped flowers held above the clump. It grows from an underground corm-like stem rather than a true bulb and is useful in native food gardens, grassy plantings, rockeries and pots.
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Herb & spice
Pandan
Pandan is a fragrant tropical foliage plant grown for leaves used across South-East Asian cooking. It forms a clump rather than a large branching pandanus tree and likes warmth, moisture, rich soil and protection from harsh sun.
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Herb & spice
Parsley
Parsley is a leafy biennial herb that grows best in mild conditions with steady moisture and regular picking.
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Herb & spice
Rosemary
Rosemary is a woody perennial herb from the Mediterranean that grows well in sunny, well-drained gardens. Once established it needs little water or fertiliser, and you can harvest leafy stems throughout the year. It also grows readily from cuttings, so one good plant can supply plenty more.
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Herb & spice
Rue
Rue is a small aromatic shrub with blue-green divided leaves and yellow summer flowers. Ruta graveolens has a long history in herb gardens but today is often grown ornamentally and should be handled carefully because its sap can irritate skin.
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Harvest for the Result You Want
Regular picking encourages leafy growth in basil, parsley and many other herbs. If you want coriander seed, dill flowers or food for pollinators, leave some stems to flower and mature instead of cutting the whole plant back.
Rosemary, lemongrass and many tropical spices can remain for years. Give perennial plants enough room, and check cold tolerance before choosing a permanent position.
Grow Herbs in Pots
Pots can contain spreading herbs and place kitchen favourites close to the door. Use pots with drainage and group plants by similar water and sun needs rather than putting every herb together.
Mint often benefits from being contained. Deep-rooted or large perennial herbs need more soil volume, and small pots may need checking daily in hot weather.
Common questions
- Which herbs are annual and which are perennial?
- Basil, coriander and dill are commonly grown as short-lived annuals, although their season varies by climate. Rosemary, oregano and thyme are perennial in suitable conditions, while tropical herbs such as lemongrass may be damaged by cold.
- Should herbs be allowed to flower?
- It depends on what you want to harvest. Flowering can reduce tender leaf production in some herbs, but flowers and seed are useful for cooking, saving seed and feeding insects.
- Which herbs grow well in pots?
- Many herbs grow well in pots, including parsley, thyme, chives and mint. Match pot size to the mature plant and remember that pots need more regular watering than garden soil.