Create stylish summer gardens with plants that thrive in the heat
Summer is here, and it’s the perfect time to ensure your garden bursts with color. Discover vibrant varieties that don’t just endure, but truly flourish in the season’s warmth.
“Summer in the garden is all about adding color, texture, and personality,” says Katie Tamony, plant expert and trend spotter at Monrovia. “Our favorite heat-loving perennials and shrubs can help you create a stylish and unique outdoor space that is ready for warmer temperatures and relaxing days.”
To inspire your seasonal update, here is a curated list of the top plants that are perfect for a summer refresh.
Sunseekers™ Echinacea
Available in five distinct colors, the Sunseekers™ Coneflower series will add hot color to your garden. Choose from Sweet Fuchsia, Pumpkin Pie, Rainbow, White, and Golden Sun, or pick more than one and add a colorful display to your landscape. With an abundance of beautiful semi-double flowers, these will attract pollinators to sunny flower beds and also make excellent cut flowers for bouquets. Zones 4-9.
SunBelievable® Brown Eyed Girl Helianthus
With large, sunny yellow petals and a dash of coppery-red surrounding big, beautiful brown eyes, SunBelievable Brown Eyed Girl Sunflowers provide a pop of dramatic color for your summer garden. This award-winning, multi-branching, heat-tolerant annual sunflower produces over 1,000 flowers in a single season, from spring until first frost. Plus, pollinators love its nectar. A spectacular choice for borders and containers.
Heat-Loving Lantana
Lantana is the perfect plant for adding hot color to sunny garden spaces. Teenie Genie® Compact Lantana is an extremely dense and compact shrub with a continuous display of festive multi-colored flowers that open as a chiffon yellow and transition to fuchsia pink. Teenie Genie provides year-round flowers in warmer climates and is a fantastic choice for containers, mass plantings, and borders. Firefrost™ Lantana is an exceptionally cold-hardy selection with a natural spreading habit to brighten any garden space. Deep magenta flower clusters have sporadic orange blooms, providing showstopping color that’s an excellent choice for groundcover.
See You Tomorrow!™ Daylily
A modern twist on a classic flower, See You Tomorrow! produces yellow blooms that feature a tinge of green. Each individual flower lasts for five days, creating enduring, attractive clusters. This perennial is an easy-to-care-for compact plant that tolerates a range of soils and can be tucked into nearly any garden to add reliable summer color. Zones 4-11.
Sunstar™ Orange Coreopsis
If you’re looking for loads of vibrant color, this new coreopsis is for you. With large, vivid citrus-hued, red-splashed, sun-loving blooms from late spring through the heat of summer, this herbaceous perennial is a well-behaved choice. Along with a long bloom season, Sunstar is an easy-care plant, and its foliage is also mildew-resistant. Zones 4-10.
Jazzy Jewel® Hibiscus
This dazzling gem produces a prolific amount of large, long-lasting flowers to add showstopping, exotic color that can take the summer heat. Available in four colors, including Opal, Ruby, Gold, and Amber, the blooms bring a taste of the tropics to containers that will liven up your patios, decks, and front entryways. Zones 9-11. Learn more in this video.
Mexican Hardy Petunia
This unique perennial with petunia-like flowers is actually not a petunia at all, but a specimen called Ruellia. Learn more in this video! Tall upright stems are covered with beautiful purple blooms throughout the season. This plant is exceptionally adaptable and thrives in dry, harsh conditions. It is a lovely accent or back-of-the-border plant. Zones 8-11
Summer Soul® Arabian Jasmine
This stunning selection will fill your garden with beautiful fragrance and flowers all summer long. Summer Soul Arabian Jasmine features big, creamy-white double blooms that sit on a backdrop of beautiful, shiny evergreen leaves. It creates a beautiful, compact flowering hedge or stunning border plant. Plant it in a container to bring the fresh scent to any area of your yard. In warm areas, it will bloom year-round. In Northern climates, it can be brought indoors in the winter. Zone: 9-11
Stoplights Red Yucca
Stoplights is a great choice for hot, arid climates, and once established, it thrives in a waterwise garden. The soft, green leaves are contrasted by tubular flowers set on tall stalks that are both crimson-red, drawing hummingbirds and other pollinators in. Zones 5-11.
Heatwave™ Blaze Sage
It’s tough to beat salvia for heat-loving color! Heatwave Blaze features dark crimson flowers that cover this evergreen shrub from spring through fall. Its compact habit makes this selection great for sunny borders and containers. Exceptionally heat-tolerant and evergreen in mild winter regions. Zones 6-10.
To keep your garden looking great throughout the heat of summer:
- Be sure plants are watered well, especially when they are first planted.
- Water in the morning to reduce evaporation and ensure your plants get the hydration they need to thrive.
Written by NGB Member: Monrovia
“This post is an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau when using all or parts of this article.”
