Happy Lunar New Year

The Year of the Tiger starts Tuesday 1 February 2022. It's said to signify a sense of justice and a commitment to help others for the greater good.

Tigers are vigorous and ambitious, daring and courageous, enthusiastic, generous and self-confident. Celebrate them with vigorous-growing, lush green tiger grass; generously-flowering, bright striped Tiger mix gazanias; and boldly-patterned green and white Fittonia White Tiger plants.

Lucky Lunar New Year Plants

Golden fruits are said to bring coin luck

Lucky Lunar New Year plants traditionally resemble gold coins of fortune - they're fat, round, and yellow.

Especially citrus plants - such as kumquat, citrange, sweet orange, mandarin and lemon trees. Other golden round fruits are also sought-after, such as pineapples, and golden passionfruit.

 

Gold-flowered and gold-leaved plants

These stand in for true golden treasure, and promise riches in the months to come.

Even if you don't get actual coin riches, you'll have a garden full of glowing golden blooms, which is a windfall in itself!

Chrysanthemums and their relatives traditionally bring good luck, and symbolise the Chrysanthemum Throne of the Japanese royal family, which uses the lucky flower as their symbol.

While marigolds and paper daisies - or everlasting flowers as they are also known - represent long life. Plant red or gold flowered paper daisies - like Helichrysum, Rhodanthe - and you could become immortal!

 

Look out for plants with 'gold' in their name

These bring you good fortune in the coming year.

We suggest Gold Rush grevillea, Pirate's Gold ixora, Double Gold gazania, Golden Magic gardenia, and Hymenosporum Gold Nugget, the dwarf native frangipani, just for starters.

Cheaper than a scratchie or lotto ticket, and you win with flowers every time!

You can find more yellow and gold-flowered plants here, and plants with golden foliage here, to fill your garden with good luck, year after year.

 

 

Red is a very auspicious colour

Symbolising fire, the colour red represents life and energy, and wards off evil.

Red flowers and red foliage make it easy to bring this life-giving lucky colour into your garden.

Carphalea Flaming Beauty is in full bloom now, huge fiery red clusters covering the plants. Encore azaleas are enjoying their second season of colour - Autumn Fire is the reddest of all.

Plants with 'fire' in the name

These can bring positive energy to your garden, and keep bad spirits away. Those resembling the hanging clusters of firecrackers, used as decoration at this time of year, are also auspicious.

We like the native firewheel tree (Stenocarpus), and Illawarra flame tree (Brachychiton); Jacobinia Firefly; red-and-yellow Fireworks grevillea, and especially Russelia, commonly known as firecracker plant , flowering here on the Sunshine Coast.

You can find more red-flowered plants here, and plants with red foliage here, to fill your garden with good luck.

 

Chinese Zodiac Lucky Plants

Each of the twelve zodiac signs has its own "lucky plants" - find out what yours is here. Look for the year you were born - remember lunar new year starts late January/early February so it might be different to your birth year if you were born around this time.

Why not plant one in your garden and see if your fortune changes? At the very least, you'll get lovely flowers or leaves - and that's pretty good luck!

RAT

- 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 : lily, African violet (Saintpaulia)

OX

- 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 : tulip, Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema)

TIGER

- 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 : yellow lily, anthurium, cineraria

RABBIT/CAT

- 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 : hosta, fittonia, jasmine

Lilies for Rats, Aglaonema for Oxen, Anthurium for Tigers, Fittonia for Rabbits

DRAGON

- 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 : bleeding heart vine (Clerodendrum), snapdragon, larkspur

SNAKE

- 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 : orchid, passionflower, cactus

HORSE

- 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 : calla lily, jasmine, marigold

GOAT/SHEEP

- 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 : carnation, primrose

Bleeding heart vine for Dragons, passionflower for Snakes, jasmine for Horses, carnation for Goats

MONKEY

- 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004 : chrysanthemum, crepe myrtle, alliums

ROOSTER

- 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 : gladiolus, celosia, impatiens

DOG

- 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 : rose, cymbidium orchid

PIG

- 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019 : daisy, hydrangea, pitcher plant

Crepe myrtles for Monkeys, gladioli for Roosters, rose for Dogs, hydrangea for Pigs

Out With the Old, In With the New

It is traditional in the days before New Year to clean and tidy your house, to sweep away any bad luck from the previous year and make room for fresh good luck. It's a perfect time to tidy the garden too :

• deadhead bushes like buddleia, rose, and hydrangea that have finished flowering
• chop back herbaceous perennials such as salvia and lavender
• and tackle weeds that have sprouted after summer showers

It's like a shave and a haircut for the garden! When you're done, give everything a feed of seaweed solution or a sprinkling of slow release fertiliser to help the garden bounce back healthy and strong in the coming year.