Isopogen and other West Australian Natives

You are not the only ones who find some species difficult to grow.  Unfortunately many of our natives are so perfectly adapted to their environment, they are not very versatile and may not grow even a few hundred yards away and most certainly not in my garden on disturbed soils.  Isopogen dubius (I understand is very similar to formosa) is native to this area and grows on a red clay soil with gravel.  May be more successful in your heavier soils if available? 
I don't have a native garden, however here are some (apart from the obvious species)  I have found quite adaptable and longed lived, also don't go woody.
Kunzia baxteri - red bottlebrush flowers beautifully dusted with gold.  A preferred plant would be Kunzia pulchella which has silver grey weeping foliage which sets off the flowers.  Not very often available here.  Leptospermum Pink Cascade is very useful, small cascading shrub becoming a pale pink waterfall in late winter/early spring.
Grevillea Honey Gem, nice foliage reliable and hardy (to heat and drought).  The Correas
have been reliable, even surviving under a cedar.
I am quite excited by the foliage effect of Dryandra calophylla.  I now have several growing in both a sandy soil with extreme competition from a silver pear tree and a raised clay bed underneath a gum along with the Californian fuchsia and west coast iris.  This is a small shrub with stiff fernlike foliage much like the banksias.  The foliage stays looking good throughout the year and has a blue hue with the new growth bronze.  This may be a difficult plant to track down, it is here. 

Karen Roberts
Perth Hills Western Australia
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