The Best Summer Flowers in Australia

While spring is the season most often associated with flowers blooming, summer is also a tremendous time for flowers. There are plenty of beautiful blooms that are at their absolute best throughout the summer months.

If you’re wondering exactly what flowers are in season in summer, or what plants flower in summer, you’ve come to the right place! 

From agapanthus to zinnias, we’ll take you through many of the colourful summer flowers you’ll find in Australia over the course of December, January and February. 

Alternatively, if you’re looking for flowers for summer birthdays, anniversaries or other gifting occasions (like Valentine’s Day), be sure to check out our range.

Native Australian Summer Flowers

Australian native flowers, plants and trees are hardy and tolerant of our often-dry, arid climate. Some, like banksias and hakeas, have even adapted to need bushfires to help them germinate.

Despite this, the majority of Australian native flowers don’t actually bloom in the summer months. Rather, they flower throughout autumn, winter and spring and then seem to rest during the high-heat of summer.

Here are some Australian natives you'll find in bloom throughout summer:

Banksia

There are a few species of banksia which flower in summer, including B. baxteri (also known as Baxter's Banksia or Bird's Nest Banksia), the beautiful orange and apricot B. burdetti and the brilliant red B. occidentalis, which looks somewhat like a bottlebrush.

Scholtzia

Similarly to waxflowers, scholtzia produces many small flowers in shades of pink and white along a single stem. They can last up to 12 days in a vase and make excellent filler flowers in bouquets.

Waxflowers typically stop blooming in the summer months, but luckily there's scholtzia to fill the gap between November and February.

Flowering Gum

Corymbia ficifolia, or red flowering gum, is a type of eucalypt native to south-western WA. The plant flowers during the summer months, most often in vivid shades of red or pink.

Like many Australian natives, these eucalyptus flowers are rich in nectar, attracting birds and bees and other pollinators.

Christmas Bush

In New South Wales, a sure sign that Christmas is just around the corner is when the Christmas bush starts to bloom.

However, it's not actually the flowers that provide the brilliant red colour of Christmas bush, but rather the bracts that surround the white, star-shaped flowers.

Billy Buttons

These remarkable, yellow globular blooms flower between spring and summer. 

Billy buttons have underground rhizomes, which allow the plants to re-sprout if they die off above ground.

As well as looking incredible while fresh, billy buttons also dry beautifully.

What flowers are in season in summer?

In addition to the native Australian summer flowers we’ve already mentioned, there are plenty of other bright summer flowers available from December to February.

Below, we take a look at a few of the most popular summer flowers, broken down by colour. We should point out though that many of the flowers on this list (like dahlias and zinnias) actually flower in multiple colours!

Yellow Summer Flowers

Sunflowers

If you’re searching for yellow flowers in summer, look no further than sunflowers. Nothing says summer quite like sunflowers! 

In Australia, you'll typically start to see beautiful, happy sunflowers in full bloom between January and March.

As juveniles, sunflowers will follow the path of the sun across the sky, a phenomenon known as heliotropism. Once they reach maturity though, they tend to stop doing this.

Frangipanis

In the early 2000s, frangipanis were "in". We'd decorate our homes with frangipani-themed artworks, cushion covers and bed linen; adorn ourselves with frangipani necklaces and bracelets; wear frangipani-scented body sprays and burn frangipani-scented candles. It was a time.

(Thankfully) That phase seems to have faded with time, but these yellow-and-white summer blooms remain a fixture of many Aussie gardens to this day.

Frangipanis bloom from early summer and into early autumn. They're typically white with yellow centres, but they also flower in warm pink, orange and red hues.

Orange Summer Flowers

Marigolds

The name Marigold is shared between the European marigold, also known as calendula, and the Mexican-native Tagetes. Here, we’re talking about the latter.

These bold blooms flower in vibrant shades of orange and golden yellow, adding beautiful colour to the garden throughout spring, summer and autumn.

Marigolds are also one of the birth flowers of October.

Zinnias

These hardy blooms flower from late spring and well into autumn. With petals in shades of orange as well as pink, purple, yellow and red, zinnias add plenty of colour and vibrancy to gardens and flower arrangements.

Red Summer Flowers

Dahlias

When peonies and buttercups go out of season, thankfully we have dahlias to look forward to.

Among the most popular summer flowers in Australia, dahlias bloom from early December right into April and even May in the right conditions.

There are thousands of different varieties of dahlias, flowering in a wide array of shapes and vibrant colours, including red.

One thing to note about dahlias is that they are incredibly thirsty blooms. They also don't survive long once cut, lasting at most about 5 days in a vase, possibly less depending on how fresh they are when you buy them.

Celosias (Cock’s Comb)

With their funky shapes and vivid colours, celosias add plenty of personality to the garden to and to any bouquet they’re featured in. 

Celosia flowers from about mid-summer into the autumn months, and comes in beautiful shades of red, orange, purple, pink and more. 

The Celosia argentea species produces the unusual coral or brain-shaped varieties while Celosia spicata produces more of a wheat-like flower.

Pink Summer Flowers

Cosmoses

Dainty and delicate, cosmos flowers are one of our all-time favourites.

Named for the orderly nature of their petals (just like the order and harmony of the universe, or the cosmos), cosmoses belong to the same flower as sunflowers, chrysanthemums and dahlias—Asteraceae.

Cosmos flowers bloom from summer into autumn, filling gardens, landscapes and bouquets alike with striking colour thanks to their petals of pink, red purple, yellow, white and orange. 

Cosmoses are the second October birth flower, though in Australia they aren't in bloom at this time of year. They're also the traditional flower of a second wedding anniversary.

Lotuses

The magical and mysterious lotus flower is considered sacred in some Eastern cultures. 

Lotus flowers grow from roots submerged in the mud at the bottom of ponds and lakes, their elegant blooms emerging from the surface of the water. This has helped them become symbols of enlightenment and rebirth.

When lotuses flower during summer and early autumn, it’s in shades of pink, white and sometimes red.

Lotus flowers can be used in floristry, but they only last a couple of days in a vase once cut. Lotus pods, on the other hand, can last forever when dried out.

Purple Summer Flowers

Echinacea

Also called coneflowers, echinacea flowers bloom in summer with pretty rose-purple petals and a bulbous bronze-brown centre.

With the petals attached, echinacea will only last up to about 5 days once cut. But interestingly, the centre part, or the “cone”, can last indefinitely and makes a great addition to dried flower arrangements.

You may be more familiar with echinacea as a health supplement rather than a flower. For centuries, Native Americans have used the various parts of the plant to treat a range of conditions. Even today, echinacea is used as an immune booster as well as to relieve pain, reduce anxiety and more.

Agapanthuses

Originating in South Africa, agapanthus is well-suited to the conditions of the Australian summer. It grows so well, in fact, that it's actually considered a weed in some areas.

Despite this, agapanthus is a popular landscaping plant in Australia. If you live in Sydney, you've probably seen it lining many sidewalks, with its masses of purple, blue and white flowers putting on a show throughout the summer months.

These showy flowers may look like mini lilies, but agapanthus is not a member of the lily family. Rather, they're part of the Amaryllidaceae family, which also includes daffodils and onions.

Blue Summer Flowers

Hydrangeas

They may remind you of your grandma, but hydrangeas are definitely seeing a resurgence in popularity right now, and we are here for it! 

These garden favourites bloom from spring through to autumn. Hydrangeas are one of our favourite blue flowers for summer, but they also flower in shades of purple, white and pink. 

Fascinatingly, you can determine the colour of your hydrangea flowers by changing the pH and chemical composition of the soil they’re grown in. Apparently, it’s much trickier to change hydrangeas from blue to pink than from pink to blue.

Hydrangeas also dry beautifully. They are among one of the most popular dried flower varieties because they add fullness to dried flower arrangements.

Delphiniums

Tall and showy, delphinium is one of the world’s few true-blue flowers. It also flowers in shades of white, yellow, pink and mauve. 

Depending on the variety, delphiniums may flower during spring, summer and autumn.

Also called larkspurs, delphiniums are one of two birth flowers of July, the second being water lilies.

White Summer Flowers

Calla lilies

Classy calla lilies are popular additions to wedding and sympathy bouquets, but they also add elegance to home gardens.

Native to parts of Africa, calla lilies can today be found on every continent except Antarctica. These beautiful blooms can be white, but also orange, maroon, pink or yellow.

Though they’re called lilies, calla lilies are not true lilies, meaning they don’t belong to the family Liliaceae. 

Bouvardia

Blooming in summer and autumn, bouvardia flowers are grown primarily for their sensational fragrance. Sweet, fruity and jasmine-like, the scent is most noticeable in the evenings, attracting birds and bees and other pollinators. 

Bouvardia flowers are mostly white but some varieties may also be pink or red. They can also last a long time in a vase once cut, often up to 12 days.

Find the Best Summer Flowers in Australia at Floraly

At Floraly, we pride ourselves on sourcing and working with locally-grown flowers. This means that we’re always using flowers that are in-season in Australia at any given time of year, rather than importing them when they’re in-season overseas.

As flowers come and go in and out of season, our hard-working florists refresh our flower offering to match what’s readily available in Australia.

So, if you’re looking for flowers for summer, be sure to check out our range. You’ll find blooms like sunflowers, celosia, delphinium, banksia and many of the other blooms we’ve mentioned in this article. 

Whether you're looking to send birthday flowers, thank you flowers, Mother's Day flowers, Valentine's Day flowers, apology flowers, sympathy flowers or flowers just because this summer, you'll find the perfect blooms at Floraly.