You’ve got your Wild Bosky Birds & Bees Bundle home — now it’s time to turn it into habitat.

This bundle brings together a diverse selection of Western Australian native flowering shrubs and groundcovers chosen to attract birds, native bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects.

Rather than relying on one spectacular flowering plant, the idea is to create a small community of different species. Different flower shapes, colours and flowering seasons provide opportunities for different visitors — while the foliage and branching also create shelter, perching places and habitat.

Depending on seasonal availability, the exact species in our Birds & Bees Bundles may change from time to time. Use the plant list supplied with your bundle to identify the plants you have, then find them below.

Before you plant

Spread the flowers around

There’s no need to plant your ten plants together in a neat row.

For a natural habitat garden, it can be better to scatter small groups through an existing garden, filling gaps between other native plants and creating patches of flowering vegetation that birds and insects can move between.

If you're starting a new garden bed, mix the different sizes and forms rather than placing them strictly according to height. Nature is rarely perfectly ordered.

Give them some sun

Most plants in this bundle will flower most strongly with plenty of light.

Full sun to light or dappled shade will suit most of the species, although their individual preferences differ slightly and are described below.

Water while establishing

Being WA natives doesn't mean young plants can be planted and forgotten.

Water deeply when planting and provide supplementary water during dry periods while the roots establish into the surrounding soil — particularly through the plant's first summer.

Once established, most of these species are considerably more drought tolerant.

Mulch

A layer of coarse organic mulch helps reduce evaporation, protect the soil surface and suppress weeds.

Leave a small gap immediately around the stem rather than piling mulch against the plant.

Go easy on fertiliser

Most of these plants are naturally adapted to relatively nutrient-poor WA soils.

If you fertilise, use a product intended for Australian native plants and low in phosphorus. This is particularly important for the Grevillea in your bundle.

Why a mixture of flowers?

Not all flowers are designed for the same visitor.

The brilliant reds of plants such as the Silky-leaved Blood Flower and Robin Redbreast Bush are particularly attractive to nectar-feeding birds such as honeyeaters. The smaller white, pink and mauve flowers of tea-trees, kunzeas and myrtles attract a wide range of insects.

Wattles are different again. Their fluffy yellow flowers are particularly rich in pollen, attracting insects when they flower. Those insects themselves become part of the food web for insect-eating birds.

This is why biodiversity matters.

Instead of thinking only about producing the greatest number of flowers, we're trying to create different kinds of food and habitat at different times of the year.

The plants in your Birds & Bees Bundle

1. Acacia celastrifolia — Glowing Wattle

Typical mature height: around 1–3 m
Flowers: pale to bright yellow, mainly autumn and winter
Best position: full sun to light shade; particularly comfortable in gravelly, lateritic or granitic soils

Glowing Wattle is a bushy shrub that puts on a beautiful display of soft yellow flower heads from around April into August.

That winter flowering period is particularly useful in a habitat garden because it helps extend the availability of flowers beyond the traditional spring flush.

Wattle flowers don't produce the obvious nectar-filled tubes of a grevillea or bottlebrush. Instead they provide abundant pollen and attract a range of insects while flowering.

Its blue-grey to green foliage also gives the plant ornamental value even when it isn't in flower.

Why it’s in the bundle: winter flowering, pollen for insects and a useful medium-sized habitat shrub. 

2. Calothamnus sanguineus — Silky-leaved Blood Flower

Typical mature height: around 1–2 m
Flowers: brilliant red, over a long period from autumn through spring
Best position: sun to light shade; well-drained sandy, gravelly, rocky or lateritic soils

This is one of the bundle's best plants for nectar-feeding birds.

Its unusual red flowers are formed from bundles of long stamens, producing a claw-like flower rather than a conventional bottlebrush. They contain nectar and are particularly attractive to honeyeaters.

The relationship between flower and bird is fascinating: as a bird reaches into the flower for nectar, pollen can be deposited onto its head and transferred to the next flower it visits.

It is also a hardy plant once established and can flower over an impressively long period.

You may occasionally see this plant placed within the genus Melaleuca in botanical references, but Calothamnus sanguineus remains the name recognised by the Australian Plant Census.

Why it’s in the bundle: an excellent bird plant, a long flowering season and spectacular red flowers. 

3. Melaleuca radula — Graceful Honey Myrtle

Typical mature height: around 1–2.5 m
Flowers: white, pink to mauve, mainly winter and spring
Best position: sun to light shade

Graceful Honey Myrtle brings a softer style of flower to the bundle.

Its delicate pinkish-mauve flowers appear along the stems during winter and spring and attract both insects and birds.

It is naturally found in the Perth region and is quite adaptable in the garden, including to positions receiving some light shade.

Rather than being a single dramatic flowering event, plants like this help create the smaller-scale flowering habitat that insects explore throughout a native garden.

Why it’s in the bundle: winter and spring flowers, bee and bird habitat and attractive smaller flowers that complement the larger bird-pollinated species. 

4. Leptospermopsis erubescens — Roadside Teatree

Typical mature height: around 1–3 m
Flowers: white to pink, mainly winter and spring
Best position: sunny, well-drained position; particularly suited to sandy and gravelly soils

Roadside Teatree produces masses of relatively small white or pink flowers.

Those open flowers are readily accessible to insects, making flowering tea-trees a valuable component of a pollinator garden.

Once established, this is also a useful shrub for relatively dry conditions and can be lightly pruned to encourage denser growth.

If you search for this plant online or find it in an older gardening book, you may see it called Leptospermum erubescens. Botanists transferred the species into the genus Leptospermopsis in 2023, so both names still appear in horticultural information.

Why it’s in the bundle: masses of insect-friendly flowers and a hardy medium-sized native shrub. 

5. Grevillea obtusifolia ‘Gingin Gem’

Typical mature height: only around 20–50 cm
Typical spread: around 2–4 m
Flowers: red to red-and-cream, mainly autumn through spring
Best position: full sun to part shade

Gingin Gem is quite different from most of the plants in the bundle: it grows outward rather than upward.

It forms a wide, dense groundcover which can eventually cover several square metres, making it useful around the edges of garden beds, over banks or beneath taller native shrubs.

The small spider-like flowers contain nectar and attract honeyeaters as well as butterflies and native bees.

Don't be deceived by the tiny plant in the tube — this one needs horizontal space. Avoid planting it immediately beside another small shrub that you don't want it eventually growing around.

As a member of the Proteaceae family, Grevillea is particularly sensitive to excessive phosphorus. Avoid general-purpose fertilisers unless you know they are suitable for native plants.

Why it’s in the bundle: ground-level habitat, nectar for birds and insects, and a completely different structural layer from the upright shrubs. 

6. Melaleuca diosmifolia — Green Honey Myrtle

Typical mature height: around 1–3 m, occasionally larger
Flowers: unusual yellow-green bottlebrushes, mainly spring and summer
Best position: sun to part shade in reasonably well-drained soil

Not every pollinator flower needs to be bright red, pink or yellow.

Green Honey Myrtle produces unusual greenish bottlebrush flowers, making it one of the more distinctive plants in the bundle.

It develops into a dense shrub and responds well to pruning, so it can also be useful where a compact habitat shrub or informal screen is wanted.

Its flowering period helps carry the garden from spring into summer.

Why it’s in the bundle: unusual flowers, dense habitat structure and additional spring-to-summer flowering diversity. 

7. Melaleuca lateritia — Robin Redbreast Bush

Typical mature height: around 1.5–2.5 m
Flowers: brilliant orange-red bottlebrushes, mainly spring through summer and sometimes into autumn
Best position: sun to light shade; particularly useful where the soil holds a little more moisture

Robin Redbreast Bush is another outstanding bird plant.

Its vivid orange-red bottlebrush flowers contain nectar and are highly attractive to nectar-feeding birds. They are often produced on older stems rather than only at the very tips of new growth, giving a mature plant a distinctive appearance in flower.

In nature the species is frequently associated with damp or seasonally wet areas, so if your garden has a slightly lower or moister position, this can be a good plant to put there.

It can be lightly tip-pruned to encourage a denser, bushier form.

Why it’s in the bundle: spectacular bird-attracting flowers, a long flowering period and valuable dense habitat. 

8. Kunzea recurva — Purple Kunzea

Typical mature height: around 1–2 m
Flowers: pink, mauve to purple, mainly late winter through spring and early summer
Best position: sun to light shade; adaptable to a range of soils

Purple Kunzea can become covered in rounded clusters of small pink to purplish flowers from around August through December.

The large number of relatively small flowers makes it an excellent insect-attracting shrub, while its dense branching also provides physical habitat and shelter.

It naturally occurs in a range of situations including winter-wet depressions, seepage areas and rocky slopes, and is quite adaptable in cultivation.

Allow it to develop into a naturally bushy shrub or prune lightly if you want a denser informal hedge.

Why it’s in the bundle: masses of insect-attracting flowers, a long flowering season and useful medium-level habitat structure. 

9. Hypocalymma angustifolium — White Myrtle

Typical mature height: around 1–1.5 m
Flowers: white, cream or pink, mainly late winter and spring
Best position: sun to dappled shade; sheltered positions are ideal

White Myrtle is a finer and more delicate shrub than many of the other plants in the bundle.

Its small flowers appear closely along the stems and can range from white and cream through to pink. Bees are frequent visitors when the plant is flowering.

The foliage is also aromatic when crushed.

White Myrtle appreciates some protection from strong winds and can benefit from light pruning to maintain a dense shape.

In the wild it is often associated with watercourses, swamps and springs, although established garden plants can be quite hardy.

Why it’s in the bundle: delicate insect-friendly flowers, winter and spring flowering and a smaller-scale habitat layer. 

10. Acacia brumalis

Typical mature height: around 2–3 m
Flowers: golden yellow, mainly late autumn through winter and early spring
Best position: sunny position; adaptable to a variety of soil types

Acacia brumalis is another wattle selected partly because of when it flowers.

Its botanical name brumalis means wintery, referring to its predominantly winter flowering season. Golden flower heads generally appear from late May through September.

That makes it a useful partner for spring and summer-flowering plants. In a habitat garden, extending flowering across the calendar can be just as valuable as producing a huge number of flowers at one time.

Like the Glowing Wattle, its flowers provide pollen and attract insects, adding another component to the food web around the garden.

It develops into a bushy shrub or small tree and can provide useful shelter and structure as the planting matures.

Why it’s in the bundle: winter flowers, pollen for insects and additional medium-height habitat structure. 

What are you actually creating?

The goal isn't simply to have ten flowering plants.

Over time you're creating a small patch of habitat.

Gingin Gem spreads close to the ground. White Myrtle, Silky-leaved Blood Flower and Purple Kunzea occupy the lower and middle shrub layers. Wattles and larger melaleucas create taller structure.

Some plants produce flowers designed particularly well for birds. Others offer masses of smaller flowers readily visited by insects. Some flower in winter, others in spring and summer.

Together they can provide:

• nectar for honeyeaters and other nectar-feeding birds

• pollen and nectar for native bees and other insects

• flowers visited by butterflies and other pollinators

• insects that become food for insect-eating birds

• foliage and branches for shelter

• perching and refuge within the garden

• flowering resources across a much longer part of the year

• greater plant diversity in your local landscape

And that's really the point of the Birds & Bees Bundle.

A habitat garden doesn't need to be enormous.

A suburban garden bed, verge, strip beside a fence or previously empty corner can become one more small piece of a much larger network of habitat.

Plant it, let it grow a little wild, and see who arrives.