Plants are an important component of a rain garden. They help to filter out all the pollutants from the stormwater entering the rain garden, along with looking a lot nicer than plain old grey concrete and providing food and shelter within them.

In nearly all of the things I have read on the plants to use for rain gardens, it states that natives should be used within them. There are several reasons for this, as follows:

• Native plants are better able to deal with the local soil conditions than non-native plants (it is unlikely that the soil these plants sit in is unaltered, as rain gardens in urban areas are where soil has had years (often centuries) of use in various ways other than as nature intended, which changes the soil but that is a different topic altogether). The nature of the soil is changed to allow it to become more free draining to allow the garden to work as intended, so a slight moot point.
• These plants are able to thrive in the local climatic conditions better than many ‘exotic’ plants.
• Due to the ability of native plants to deal with local conditions, they will require less maintenance once established (but still need some, including the need to remove litter on a regular basis-there is no excuse for not clearing up litter, even for local government workers who often have a less than rosy reputation for work ethic). Also, while plants are establishing, weeding between them needs to be carried out-once the plants have grown and filled the space, there will be little need to do this.
• Pesticides and fertilisers shouldn’t need to be used-to me, this should be a standard anyway, but not everyone thinks the way I do.

As a general rule here in Australia, plants within rain gardens need to be drought tolerant plants that can also tolerate temporary inundation in wet conditions. Do remember that rain gardens, as the name suggests, need to be able to cope with wet conditions when its raining, but if its not raining, rain gardens are dry too-which is why the drought tolerant plants are required! Some of the plants that have been used in rain gardens in the City of Sydney council area include:

• Basket grass (Lomandra longifolia)
• Bottlebrush (Callistemon)
• Gymea Lily (Doryanthes excelsa)
• Lilly pilly (Acmena smithii)
• Swamp Banksia (Banksia robur)
• Blade grass (Imperata cylindical)

Of course, in other countries, other plants will be suggested. Even in other parts of Australia, other plants can be used that are more local to that area. That is the wonderful thing really-there are so many plants suitable, you just need to do a little research!

The main thing to remember about the plant choices for rain gardens is that they need to be drought tolerant, whilst also being able to tolerate very temporary waterlogging. There are many such plant from all over the world-look for this sort of tough plant that is as local as possible to your area. It doesn’t just have to be grass neither, there can be shrub and small trees too. The wider the range of species, the better it is, as you are building a little ecosystem within the space of the rain gardens. These plants also provide food and shelter for wildlife within the urban area where it sits. That is an extra bonus!