Plant me instead!

Many of the plants that have become invasive have come from private gardens. By buying plants at KCons nursery, you can achieve an environmentally ‘friendly’ garden and in so doing, help preserve indigenous species and habitat for native fauna. If you buy plants from commercial nurseries or garden centres, select very carefully. Plant me instead! gives you native alternatives to exotics and pest plants.

The “Plant Me Instead!” plants are of similar size and flower colour to the non natives or exotics, so your garden or bush aesthetic can be maintained, and local trees will enhance our ecosystem to the benefit of a wide range of its animals and insects. Sometimes, of course, there is no native plant which resembles the exotic, but there are so many beautiful and interesting natives from which to choose. Browse through the images at JCU Cairns Campus Discover Nature  for a starting point. KCons Nursery has many of these in stock or is sourcing seeds to plant. If we don’t have them we will help you find them. To help us help you and the rainforest, please collect seeds of these plants when at all possible. KCons will sow them and give you plants when they are ready.

Not all exotics (non-native plants) are weeds however, many are, and these pest plants can and already are creating havoc in our rainforests.  Internet searches will  provide histories and information about weeds in the tropics e.g.  Miconia, and Syngonium. Check out  Weed out Weeds for much more information about Queensland rainforest problem plants.

Please contact KCons Community Nursery for other native alternatives to exotic species.