The Year of the Dragon starts 10 February 2024.
It's said to bring opportunities for achieving our dreams with confidence. This could be the year to plant your dream garden, and make it your reality! Dragons are clever, talented, successful, and often achieve positions of power where they make charismatic leaders. Dragon years are boom years for births in the Far East, as Dragon babies are thought to have good luck on their side. Celebrate the Year of the Dragon with the sign's lucky colours of gold, white, and grey - perhaps a garden full of sweet-scented white flowers and velvety-soft silver leaved 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 Anthemis, the dyer's chamomile, traditionally bring good luck;, and symbolise the Chrysanthemum Throne of the Japanese royal family, which uses the lucky flower as their symbol. While golden orange 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, Gold Malay ixora, Golden Fountain flowering sage, Golden Magic gardenia, and Asteriscus Gold Coin, sure to bring you riches, 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, 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. The native firewheeltree (Stenocarpus), and Illawarra flame tree (Brachychiton)are coming to the end of the midsummer blaze of scarlet flower. They're both tall, but slender enough to fit in many garden spaces.
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 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, 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 and tiger lily, anthurium, cinerariaRABBIT/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), larkspurSNAKE
- 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 : orchid, passionflower, cactusHORSE
- 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 : calla lily, jasmine, marigoldGOAT/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, alliumsROOSTER
- 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 : gladiolus, celosia, impatiensDOG
- 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 : rose, cymbidium orchidPIG
- 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
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.
