Lilly Pilly

Syzygium and Acmena, the go-to screening hedge for Brisbane, with one honest catch worth getting right before you plant.

Syzygium/Acmena species · Also known as Syzygium, Acmena

The lilly pilly is the plant Brisbane reaches for when it wants a fast, dense, evergreen screen, a rainforest native with glossy leaves, flushes of colourful new growth and edible berries that has become the default green wall of the suburbs for good reason. The name covers several closely related genera, mainly Syzygium and Acmena, and nurseries sell dozens of named cultivars bred for different heights and habits, so choosing a lilly pilly is really about choosing the right cultivar for the job.

We use them heavily for privacy and boundaries because a well-chosen lilly pilly grows quickly into a thick hedge that clips cleanly and holds its line, which is exactly what most people mean when they ask for screening plants. The lush, glossy foliage and flushes of coloured new growth also give lilly pillies real rainforest character, so they earn their place in a layered, tropical-feeling garden as much as in a formal clipped hedge.

In a Brisbane garden

The one thing to get right with lilly pillies in Brisbane is psyllid, a tiny sap-sucking insect whose larvae pucker and pimple the new leaves into unsightly bumps, and the older Syzygium types can be badly disfigured by it in our warm, humid conditions. The honest fix is at the nursery, not the spray shed: choose a cultivar specifically bred and sold as psyllid-resistant, such as the Acmena-based selections and several proven modern Syzygium cultivars, and the problem largely disappears from the outset.

Beyond that, lilly pillies want more moisture than many of the tough natives we grow, so they perform best with reliable water while establishing and appreciate a mulched, humus-rich bed rather than a hot, dry, sandy spot where they can look hard-done-by. Match the cultivar's natural mature size to the height you actually want, because forcing a six-metre form into a two-metre hedge means clipping forever, and pick a compact selection if a low screen is the goal.

How we design with it

We use lilly pilly first and foremost as a designed screen, choosing a cultivar whose natural height sits just above the sightline we need to block so the hedge does its job without becoming a permanent pruning commitment. Kept clipped it gives a crisp, formal green wall that suits a structured or classic garden, and left a little looser it reads as a soft, lush rainforest edge, so the same plant can dress a very different scheme.

Their clean lines and evergreen density also make lilly pillies a mainstay of the tailored, hedged look, which is why they feature in so much Hamptons garden design where a manicured green backdrop is central to the style. We always specify the cultivar rather than just the plant, matching height, habit and psyllid resistance to the site, and we sort them alongside the rest of the working palette in our guide to the best plants for Brisbane gardens.

Where we write about lilly pilly

Common questions

Want a screen that stays lush without the leaf bumps?

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