The important thing to look for are slow growing plants that don't have flowers that will bloom and make your plant out of scale with your garden. Tiny leaves are best. Perennials are best because annuals are designed to grow quickly and be "leggy" and for a miniature garden, it's best to have more compact, slow growing plants. Or at least, plants that are easily trimmed. Herbs work well as you can trim them and use them too.

Look for plants that have similar light and water requirements if they are to be planted together in one garden.

Any plant can be replaced if it gets too large. Simply plant the too-large plant in your full-sized garden outdoors and get a replacement plant of appropriate size. The fun of a garden is maintaining it, and this is your Little Landscape.

Trees (buy in 1 gallon container or smaller):

• Italian Cypress - seasonal
• Japanese Boxwood
• African Boxwood
• Euonymus Japanese Micro Variety
• Tea Tree (Leptospermum Scoparium) - various colors
• False Heather
• China Doll - indoors
• Thyme - as a tree in micro-scale landscapes
• Maidenhair Fern
• Pittosporum Tenufolium "Silver Sheen"

Low grasses:

• Scotch Moss
• Irish Moss
• Wild Moss - can be found in shady damp areas

Tall Grasses:

• Chives
• Blue Fescue
• Korean Grass

Ground Cover:

• Creeping Thyme
• Elfin Thyme
• Scabwort
• Miniature Brass Buttons
• Dwarf Pennyroyal
• Corsican Mint
• Green Carpet
• Blue Star Creeper

Flowers:

• Alyssum
• Ameria "Pink Shades"
• Lobelia
• Roses (miniature)

Bushes:

• Dichondra Grass
• Dwarf Mondo Grass, Mondo Grass
• Saxifraga "Peter Pan"
• Also any herb or tall grass below

Herbs (some will need regular trimming):

• Chamomile - Chamaemelum nobile
• Chives - Allium schoenoprasum
• Dill
• Lavender - English - Lavandula angustifolia, many varieties
• Lemon Balm - Melissa officinalis
Marjoram - Origanum, many varieties
• Oregano - Origanum vulgare, many varieties
• Parsley
• Pennyroyal - Mentha pulegium
• Rosemary - Rosemarinus officinalis
• Sage - Salvia officinalis, many varieties
Santolina
• Thyme - Thymus vulgaris, Lemon Thyme - Thymus x citriodorus, Lime Thyme - Thymus x citriodorus 'Lime', Caraway Thyme - Thymus herba-barona, Mother of Thyme - Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus, Creeping - Thymus pulegiodes, Elfin, and many other varieties
• Wooly Yarrow - Achillea tomentosa 'Aurea'
• Yarrow - Achillea ageratifolia

Especially for Arid Climates (Beaches/Deserts):

• Sedums (small leaf varieties) - many varieties
• Cactus - many varieties
• Blue Fescue Grass
• Dwarf Mondo Grass