HortOS Plant Price Index
What Australia's growers grow, and what they charge
September 2026, Australia. Compiled from the published availability lists of Australian wholesale growers. Trade prices ex GST, aggregated; no grower is named beside a price. Edition 1: the baseline every later month is measured against. Compiled 12 September 2026.
Story 1 · The most-grown plant
Australia's most-grown plant is an environmental weed
Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica) tops the list: 111 growers list the cultivar 'Snow Maiden' alone and 142 list some form of the species. Mock orange (Murraya paniculata) sits at number 4 with 90 growers (102 across all forms). Brisbane City Council lists both as Council Pest Vegetation under its Natural Assets Local Law, and both are regarded as environmental weeds in New South Wales and Queensland. Number two is a native: Lomandra longifolia, 96 growers.
Growers sell named cultivars; the weed listings refer to the species. Some cultivars are marketed as low-seeding, and this Index does not measure seed set. What the count shows is how much of the country's hedging production sits on two plants that council and state weed lists would rather see less of.
| Plant | Growers | Weed listing |
|---|---|---|
| 1Rhaphiolepis indica Snow Maiden | 111 | Listed weed |
| 2Lomandra longifolia | 96 | – |
| 3Magnolia grandiflora Little Gem | 91 | – |
| 4Murraya paniculata | 90 | Listed weed |
| 5Buxus microphylla japonica Japanese Box | 89 | – |
| 6Waterhousea floribunda Weeping Lilly Pilly | 86 | – |
| 7Viburnum odoratissimum | 86 | – |
| 8Philodendron Xanadu | 84 | – |
| 9Strelitzia nicolai | 84 | – |
| 10Cupaniopsis anacardioides | 82 | – |
| 11Gardenia augusta Florida | 80 | – |
| 12Viola hederacea | 78 | – |
| 13Liriope muscari Evergreen Giant | 76 | – |
| 14Callistemon Kings Park Special | 76 | – |
| 15Banksia integrifolia | 75 | – |
| 16Lomandra Lime Tuff | 74 | – |
| 17Syzygium australe Resilience | 71 | – |
| 18Pyrus calleryana Capital | 71 | – |
| 19Strelitzia reginae | 70 | – |
| 20Carex appressa | 63 | – |
Growers with the plant on their current availability list, resellers excluded. Weed status from Brisbane City Council's weed identification pages and NSW WeedWise; see sources. Cultivars are counted under their species.
The guide, refreshed each edition: The most-grown native plants
Story 2 · Prices by state
Victoria grows the cheapest small plants in the country, and the dearest big ones
Match the same plant at the same pot size across states and the premium flips with the pot. At 140 mm, Victoria is the cheapest place in Australia to buy: New South Wales growers charge 22% more on 107 matched lines (dearer on 102 of them) and Queensland 18% more on 43. From 200 mm up, Queensland is cheapest wherever all three states can be compared. At 300 mm, New South Wales runs 14% above Queensland on 47 matched lines, and Victoria 15% above New South Wales. One explanation is structural: Victoria's nursery belt is tubestock and small-pot country, while a Queensland season turns a 300 mm plant over faster.
The premium, pair by pair
| Pot size | NSW vs VIC | QLD vs VIC | NSW vs QLD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140 mm | +22% (107 lines, dearer on 102) | +18% (43 lines, dearer on 38) | +6% (75 lines, dearer on 50) |
| 200 mm | -8% (54 lines, dearer on 21) | -13% (29 lines, dearer on 10) | +3% (78 lines, dearer on 41) |
| 300 mm | -13% (20 lines, dearer on 4) | -27% (14 lines, dearer on 1) | +14% (47 lines, dearer on 41) |
| 400 mm | +8% (24 lines, dearer on 16) | – | – |
| 100 L | +4% (17 lines, dearer on 13) | – | – |
Each cell is the median, across every plant-and-size line with 3 or more growers in both states, of the first state's median price divided by the second's; only cells with 12 or more matched lines are shown. "Dearer on" counts the matched lines where the first state is the dearer one.
Twelve everyday lines, state by state
| Plant | Pot | QLD | NSW | VIC | Growers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liriope muscari Evergreen Giant | 140 mm | $6.50 | $6.50 | $5.78 | 53 |
| Lomandra Lime Tuff | 140 mm | $7.25 | $7.50 | $6.78 | 48 |
| Lomandra longifolia | 140 mm | $6.50 | $6.40 | $5.50 | 44 |
| Buxus microphylla japonica Japanese Box | 140 mm | $6.50 | $6.50 | $5.10 | 37 |
| Rhaphiolepis indica Snow Maiden | 200 mm | $11.82 | $10.72 | $13.47 | 53 |
| Philodendron Xanadu | 200 mm | $12.50 | $13.25 | $20.50 | 51 |
| Gardenia augusta Florida | 200 mm | $11.88 | $10.95 | $15.75 | 41 |
| Strelitzia reginae | 200 mm | $13.50 | $14.25 | $18.50 | 39 |
| Murraya paniculata | 300 mm | $37.25 | $40.00 | $50.00 | 38 |
| Viburnum odoratissimum | 300 mm | $38.00 | $42.95 | $44.75 | 35 |
| Rhaphiolepis indica Snow Maiden | 300 mm | $39.00 | $37.50 | $51.50 | 33 |
| Strelitzia nicolai | 300 mm | $39.98 | $50.00 | $66.00 | 32 |
Lines with four or more growers in each of the three states, the four most-grown at each pot size. Trade prices ex GST from growers' own lists; website prices, which may be retail, are excluded. Palms, grass trees and other height-priced plants are excluded.
Story 3 · Advanced trees
The canopy bottleneck: who actually holds the big trees
Every capital city has a canopy target. The trees that meet one on planting day, 100 litres and larger, are held by 79 growers in New South Wales, 49 in Queensland and 49 in Victoria. The rest of the country shares 14: South Australia 5, Western Australia 4, Tasmania 2, the ACT 2 and the Northern Territory 1. The same five or six species dominate what is grown at that size.
The guide: Street trees and the canopy
| State | Growers with 100 L+ | Species at 100 L+ |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | 79 | 786 |
| QLD | 49 | 286 |
| VIC | 49 | 425 |
| SA | 5 | 60 |
| WA | 4 | 132 |
| ACT | 2 | 36 |
| TAS | 2 | 129 |
| NT | 1 | 4 |
The most-grown advanced trees
| Tree | Growers at 100 L+ | 100 L median |
|---|---|---|
| Magnolia grandiflora Teddy Bear | 29 | $380 |
| Cupaniopsis anacardioides | 26 | $250 |
| Magnolia grandiflora Little Gem | 26 | $345 |
| Lagerstroemia Tuscarora Crepe Myrtle | 26 | $295 |
| Waterhousea floribunda Weeping Lilly Pilly | 25 | $240 |
| Pyrus calleryana Capital | 24 | $295 |
| Lagerstroemia Natchez Crepe Myrtle | 23 | $300 |
| Brachychiton rupestris Queensland Bottle Tree | 22 | $300 |
| Acer x. freemanii (Jeffersred) Autumn blaze | 21 | $295 |
| Tristaniopsis laurina (DOW10) LUSCIOUS | 20 | $290 |
A grower counts once per state if any line on their current list is 100 litres or larger (100 L, 200 L, 400 L and ex-ground stock). Medians are trade prices ex GST at exactly 100 L, three or more growers.
Story 4 · The hedge
What a 30-metre hedge costs at the farm gate
A 30-metre lilly pilly hedge is about $636 in plants at 200 mm (50 plants, 0.6 m apart), $1,596 at 300 mm (38 plants, 0.8 m apart) and $3,000 at 45 litres (30 plants, a metre apart). That is the wholesale price before freight, planting, GST and the landscaper's margin. Change the species, the length and the pot size below.
The guide, with seven species at three sizes: What a hedge costs at the farm gate
50 plants of Lilly pilly 'Resilience' at 200 mm, 0.6 m apart along 30 m, at the median of 22 growers' listed trade prices. Freight, planting and GST not included. Find growers on HortOS
Median trade price by hedge plant
| Plant | 200 mm | 300 mm | 45 L |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lilly pilly 'Resilience' | $12.72 (22) | $42.00 (33) | $100 (13) |
| Weeping lilly pilly | $12.00 (18) | $40.45 (26) | $100 (15) |
| Murraya (mock orange) | $11.65 (41) | $40.00 (40) | $110 (7) |
| Sweet viburnum | $11.50 (41) | $42.95 (36) | $99.88 (4) |
| Photinia 'Red Robin' | $11.88 (26) | $39.00 (21) | $113 (6) |
| Magnolia 'Little Gem' | $17.88 (16) | $55.00 (24) | $155 (12) |
| Lilly pilly 'Allyn Magic' | $11.88 (18) | $44.38 (4) | n/a |
Median of growers' listed trade prices, ex GST; bracketed figure is the number of growers. Spacing defaults (0.6 m at 200 mm, 0.8 m at 300 mm, 1 m at 45 L) are common landscape practice and can be changed above.
Story 5 · Want versus grown
What buyers search for is not what growers grow
The most-searched plant term at a large Queensland plant retailer over the past year is agave; 66 growers list one. Heliconia is number 6, with 25 growers. Meanwhile the most-grown plant in the country, Indian hawthorn, does not appear in the top searches at all, and neither does murraya or Japanese box.
Most searched
| Search term | Rank | Growers |
|---|---|---|
| agave | 1 | 66 |
| lilly pilly | 2 | 263 |
| crepe myrtle | 3 | 130 |
| magnolia | 4 | 189 |
| hydrangea | 5 | 39 |
| heliconia | 6 | 25 |
| grevillea | 7 | 167 |
| olive | 8 | 141 |
| lavender | 9 | 105 |
| camellia | 10 | 97 |
| bougainvillea | 11 | 22 |
| rose | 12 | 28 |
Most grown
| Plant | Growers | Searched |
|---|---|---|
| Rhaphiolepis indica Snow Maiden | 111 | not in the top searches |
| Lomandra longifolia | 96 | #21 (lomandra) |
| Magnolia grandiflora Little Gem | 91 | #4 (magnolia) |
| Murraya paniculata | 90 | not in the top searches |
| Buxus microphylla japonica Japanese Box | 89 | not in the top searches |
| Waterhousea floribunda Weeping Lilly Pilly | 86 | #2 (lilly pilly) |
| Viburnum odoratissimum | 86 | not in the top searches |
| Philodendron Xanadu | 84 | not in the top searches |
Search terms: twelve months of on-site searches at a large south-east Queensland plant retailer, shared with HortOS and not named; plural and singular forms merged. Growers: growers with any matching plant on their current list, nationally.
Story 6 · The plant capitals
Three towns grow a disproportionate share of Australia's plants
Draw a 12-kilometre circle around Dural in Sydney's Hills District and it takes in 35 wholesale growers. Monbulk in the Dandenong Ranges has 32; Somerville on the Mornington Peninsula has 23. The industry clusters where the land was cheap and the soil was good forty years ago, which is now, in most cases, the urban fringe.
| Cluster | State | Area | Growers within 12 km |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dural (Kenthurst, Glenorie, Galston) | NSW | Sydney's Hills District | 35 |
| Monbulk (Silvan, Seville, Mooroolbark) | VIC | Dandenong Ranges | 32 |
| Somerville (Cranbourne South, Clyde, Baxter) | VIC | Mornington Peninsula | 23 |
| Palmwoods (Woombye) | QLD | Sunshine Coast hinterland | 15 |
| Elimbah (Wamuran, Caboolture, Bellmere) | QLD | Moreton Bay | 13 |
| Peats Ridge (Mangrove Mountain, Somersby) | NSW | Central Coast hinterland | 13 |
| Clagiraba (Upper Coomera, Wongawallan) | QLD | Gold Coast hinterland | 12 |
| Eumundi (North Arm, Verrierdale) | QLD | Sunshine Coast | 11 |
| Alstonville (Wollongbar, Teven) | NSW | Northern Rivers | 11 |
| Redland Bay (Thornlands) | QLD | Redlands | 10 |
Growers with a current availability list, resellers excluded, grouped greedily into 12-kilometre-radius clusters from their listed location; each cluster is named for its most common locality.
Story 7 · Fragility
Two in three plants are grown by exactly one grower
Of the 19,438 distinct plants on Australian growers' current lists, 12,921 (66%) appear on one list only. If that grower sells out, drops the line, floods or retires, the plant is effectively unavailable to the trade until someone else propagates it, which for a tree can be years away.
Distinct plant names as growers list them, resellers excluded. Cultivars count separately from their species; a grower list that names a plant two ways can inflate this figure slightly, which is why we round.
Story 8 · The price of patience
The same magnolia is $17.88 at 200 mm and $1,915 at 400 litres
Every step up the pot ladder buys a year or two of someone else's growing. For Magnolia grandiflora Little Gem the median trade price runs $17.88 at 200 mm, $55.00 at 300 mm, $125 at 400 mm, $155 at 45 L, $345 at 100 L, $750 at 200 L, $1,915 at 400 L. The steepest step is from 45 litres to 100, where a tree stops being a shrub in a pot and starts needing a truck.
| Plant | 140 mm | 200 mm | 300 mm | 400 mm | 45 L | 100 L | 200 L | 400 L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnolia grandiflora Little Gem | – | $17.88 | $55.00 | $125 | $155 | $345 | $750 | $1,915 |
| Syzygium australe Resilience | $7.93 | $12.72 | $42.00 | $109 | $100 | $225 | $508 | – |
| Murraya paniculata | $6.97 | $11.65 | $40.00 | $85.00 | $110 | $240 | – | – |
Median of growers' listed trade prices, ex GST, three or more growers per size.
Reference tables
What a plant costs wholesale, by pot size
Median trade price across all plants at each pot size, with the middle half of prices and the three big states side by side.
| Pot size | National median | Middle half | QLD | NSW | VIC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 140 mm | $7.00 | $6.50 to $8.00 | $7.00 | $7.65 | $6.50 |
| 200 mm | $14.00 | $12.00 to $18.50 | $12.50 | $14.00 | $15.00 |
| 300 mm | $50.00 | $40.00 to $65.00 | $42.00 | $50.00 | $55.00 |
| 400 mm | $110 | $92.00 to $135 | $110 | $130 | $110 |
| 25 L | $55.00 | $40.00 to $70.00 | $52.50 | $42.00 | – |
| 45 L | $120 | $100 to $150 | $100 | $120 | $117 |
| 100 L | $295 | $245 to $350 | $240 | $300 | $295 |
| 200 L | $650 | $500 to $800 | $500 | $750 | $595 |
Same plant, same size: the price range across growers
For the most-grown lines, the gap between the cheapest tenth of growers and the dearest tenth. The buyer who checks three lists instead of one is, on these lines, 1.4 to 2.3 times better off at the extremes.
| Line | Cheapest 10% | Median | Dearest 10% | Spread | Growers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strelitzia nicolai 300 mm | $35.00 | $50.00 | $79.00 | 2.3× | 33 |
| Murraya paniculata 300 mm | $30.00 | $40.00 | $50.00 | 1.7× | 40 |
| Magnolia grandiflora Little Gem 300 mm | $39.00 | $55.00 | $75.00 | 1.9× | 24 |
| Rhaphiolepis indica Snow Maiden 300 mm | $30.00 | $39.50 | $51.50 | 1.7× | 34 |
| Viburnum odoratissimum 300 mm | $35.00 | $42.95 | $48.00 | 1.4× | 36 |
| Philodendron Xanadu 300 mm | $30.00 | $40.00 | $55.00 | 1.8× | 31 |
| Waterhousea floribunda Weeping Lilly Pilly 300 mm | $30.00 | $40.45 | $65.00 | 2.2× | 26 |
| Syzygium australe Resilience 300 mm | $35.00 | $42.00 | $50.00 | 1.4× | 33 |
| Gardenia augusta Florida 300 mm | $30.00 | $42.50 | $48.00 | 1.6× | 31 |
| Cupaniopsis anacardioides 300 mm | $30.00 | $40.91 | $57.00 | 1.9× | 25 |
The guide to reading a list against this range: Reading an availability list
Hard to get in South East Queensland right now
Popular lines that only one, two or three South East Queensland growers hold at that size this month.
| Plant | Size | Growers at size | Growers, any size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delonix regia | 45 L | 1 | 9 |
| Buckinghamia celsissima | 45 L | 3 | 25 |
| Hyophorbe lagenicaulis Bottle Palm | 300 mm | 2 | 5 |
| Banksia integrifolia | 45 L | 3 | 21 |
| Leptospermum madidum | 45 L | 2 | 10 |
| Wodyetia bifurcata | 45 L | 2 | 12 |
| Backhousia citriodora | 25 L | 1 | 28 |
| Melaleuca leucadendra Fine Leaf | 45 L | 3 | 10 |
Method
How the Index is built
- Source. Growers' own published availability lists, as they appear on HortOS, 12 September 2026. Resellers and trading platforms are excluded so that a plant is counted where it is grown.
- Prices. Trade prices ex GST from growers' lists only. Prices harvested from public websites, which may be retail, are never used in a price statistic. A grower who lists the same line at more than one price counts once, at the lowest.
- Medians and ranges. Every price statistic is a median across growers, and a range is the 10th to 90th percentile across growers, so a single list cannot move it. Price ranges need ten or more growers; state comparisons need four or more growers on each side of every matched line.
- Exclusions. Plants sold by height or trunk rather than pot (palms, grass trees, cycads, tree ferns, olives, figs and similar) are left out of range and state tables. A handful of implausible lines, usually a data-entry slip, are removed by a plausibility check.
- Counts. "Growers" means growers with the plant on their current list. Cultivars are counted under their species where a species is named.
- Demand. Search terms come from twelve months of on-site searches at a large south-east Queensland plant retailer, shared with HortOS. The retailer is not named and no customer data is used.
- What the Index is not. It is not a survey of every nursery in Australia, and it is not retail pricing. It is what the wholesale trade could see, this month, if it looked at every list at once.
Guides built from the Index: What plants cost in 2026 · Nursery industry statistics · Nursery pot sizes explained
Sources for the weed listings
- rhaphiolepis indica: Regarded as an environmental weed in NSW and Queensland; Brisbane City Council lists it as Council Pest Vegetation. Brisbane City Council, weed identification; NSW Department of Primary Industries, WeedWise
- murraya paniculata: The 'Exotica' form is an environmental weed in parts of NSW (NSW WeedWise); Brisbane City Council lists mock orange as Council Pest Vegetation and among the 200 most invasive plants in south-east Queensland. NSW Department of Primary Industries, WeedWise; Brisbane City Council, weed identification
Cite or reuse
Tables and charts on this page are free to reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: quote, chart or republish any figure, with the credit below and a link to this page.
Credit line: Source: HortOS Plant Price Index, September 2026 edition, https://au.hortosapp.com/index/2026-09
Source: <a href="https://au.hortosapp.com/index/2026-09">HortOS Plant Price Index, September 2026 edition</a>
<img src="https://au.hortosapp.com/index/2026-09/chart.svg" alt="HortOS Plant Price Index, September 2026 edition: the price range chart" style="width:100%;max-width:900px;height:auto"> <p>Source: <a href="https://au.hortosapp.com/index/2026-09">HortOS Plant Price Index, September 2026 edition</a></p>
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Charts for reproduction
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For buyers
Every number here comes from lists you can order from. HortOS shows the growers near you who currently hold a plant, at what size, and lets you send one order to several of them.
Search current availabilityHortOS Plant Price Index, September 2026, edition 1. Compiled 12 September 2026. Next edition: October 2026. HortOS is a free ordering platform for the wholesale plant trade. Growers publish availability; buyers order from every grower in one place.