We've chosen a floral emblem to represent Melbourne and celebrate the natural beauty of our garden city.

There are around 700 plant species native to the City of Melbourne area. In late 2025, a group of experts narrowed this down to a list of nine flowers that best represented our city and could be grown at home. Melburnians then came out in force to vote for their floral favourite – the winner taking the crown as our new floral emblem.

Voting on the floral emblem opened on Friday 28 November 2025 on Participate Melbourne. Each voter had 3 ‘points’ they could use to vote for their favourite floral finalists. You could vote for 1 to 3 flowers, only using 1 ‘point’ per flower.

The floral finalists page had useful information about each flower and its connection to Melbourne, including its significance to Traditional Owners. Voters could also learn more about the reference group’s selection process, hearing directly from the experts on the unique traits that distinguished each flower.

The opportunity to vote for Melbourne’s floral emblem was promoted through multiple City of Melbourne channels, including social media, Melbourne News, posters and printouts, email newsletters and more. Those out and about in the CBD in January would have noticed our nine floral finalists planted outside Melbourne Town Hall.

Like a blue-banded bee, Melbourne’s floral emblem created a real buzz around the city. The vote was featured on Gardening Australia, the popular pages of our expert reference group members and promoted by our friends at the Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria and MAP Co at Fed Square – just to name a few. Businesses, park rangers and our visitor services volunteers handed out postcards and put up signs to spread the word. Even Melbourne’s kids got involved, with colouring in activities organised by our libraries and junior park rangers' teams.

The petal polls closed at 11.59pm on Sunday 15 February 2026. The flower with the most votes at this time was crowned Melbourne’s new floral emblem, selected by the people – and it was the swamp everlasting (Xerochrysum palustre) that came out on top. The winner was announced on Friday 20 February.

The floral emblem vote smashed all previous engagement records for the City of Melbourne, quickly becoming our most popular consultation of all time.

From the groundswell of voters to the people, groups and organisations who supported the campaign, it's clear that Melburnians are passionate about nature within our city.

The people have spoken – Melbourne's floral emblem is swamp everlasting!

Standing tall in its golden glory, this native paper daisy symbolises Melbourne’s resilience, unity and the importance of caring for Country. Find out more about the swamp everlasting.

Over 8,500 Melburnians came together to cast nearly 25,000 votes for their floral favourite. Although swamp everlasting came out on top with 3,779 votes, all locally native species play an important role in Melbourne’s unique ecosystem. Keep an eye out for your picks of the bunch in our parks, gardens and streets, and remember you can always grow it at home – the swamp everlasting, along with all our floral finalists, will grow well in pots.

The emblem was determined solely by number of votes and the decision is final.

Floral emblems have been widely adopted by other cities, states and nations and can become an identifiable symbol of a place. Melbourne’s new floral emblem symbolises how nature is integrated into our cityscape, which is a key part of our garden city identity and something all Melburnians can be proud of. It’s also a reminder of the natural beauty inherent to Melbourne and the importance of caring for Country, following in the footsteps of Traditional Owners.

As our floral emblem, the swamp everlasting helps us tell the story of Melbourne. We’ll present it to new citizens and visitors, make it part of our visual identity and explore creative ways to display it in important locations around the city – planted, painted or otherwise brought to life in exciting ways.

Grow a flower, grow our story – you too can bring our floral emblem to life, with potted plants available from nurseries like Bili Nursery in Port Melbourne. The swamp everlasting is also the perfect cut flower. If picked when freshly opened, it can hold onto its golden hue for years. Stay tuned for opportunities to get involved in community plantings very soon.

Our floral emblem is more than just a symbol – it’s an invitation to look at Melbourne differently. What plants grew here before colonisation? Where can I go in the city to connect with nature? What native species can I spot when strolling through our parks and gardens? How can I grow a piece of Melbourne in my own garden? The [flower] reminds us that in our garden city, nature is never far – it's on us to care for Country so our native species can thrive.

For the swamp everlasting in particular, we now have the opportunity to generate greater awareness and advocacy for this critically endangered species to hopefully bring it back from the brink of extinction.