Scorching temperatures can threaten to dry out your lush green plants and colorful blooms, but that’s only if you haven’t planted wisely. We’ve rounded up the some of our summer plants that can take the heat and look gorgeous while doing it. These drought-tolerant plants can keep every outdoor container and flower bed prospering even when rain fall is scarce and the heat is relentless. Try cheerful Black-Eyed Susans to brighten up a window box or Zinnias of all colors—red, orange, yellow, pink and purple—to add life to a back porch container garden. Use vibrant purple verbena to make a big statement along the top of a retaining wall, or employ heat-tolerant latana to attract our favorite of all garden features—butterflies.
Black-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia hirta
Sturdy and easy to grow, this early-summer-blooming flower brightens gardens. Cutting encourages them to rebloom late in the season. The 2- to 4-inch blooms have orange-red rays and a prominent purplish-black cone. Deer usually steer clear of these plants.
Mealycup Sage
Salvia farinacea
Tall, densely packed flowers appear on this plant, which is native to southern New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, in late spring. Blooms vary from deep violet to white, and cuplike calyxes are covered with white hairs that often have a blue or violet tinge. Like other members of the sage family, mealycup sage is generally pest free.
Threadleaf Coreopsis
Coreopsis verticillata
Southern natives, these easy-to-grow members of the sunflower family yield a profusion of yellow blooms. Their seeds attract birds but not deer.
Madagascar Periwinkle
Native to Madagascar, India, and tropical Asia, these bushy plants thrive in both humid and dry heat. Flowers bloom atop glossy leaves in pure white, pink, rose, or white with a rose or red eye The flower was formerly known botanically as Vinca rosea, and many people still call it vinca.
Editors picks: Try Nirvana and Cora Madagascar periwinkles.
Lantana
Lantanas laugh at heat and snicker at drought. Tiny flowers in tight clusters that resemble miniature nosegays appear nearly continuously in warm weather. Plus, a lantana garden is butterfly heaven—no flowers do a better job of attracting them.
Portulaca
Editors pick: Try Rio portulacas.
Blanket Flower
Gaillardia sp.
These easygoing summer bloomers feature daisy-like flowers in warm colors—yellow, orange, and red. They thrive on neglect, so put away the watering can and fertilizer. Their blooms make excellent cut flowers.
Verbena
The numerous selections of this flower are some of the garden’s most colorful, useful, and easy-to-grow plants. They bloom in late spring, thrive in heat, and tolerate drought.
Zinnia
Zinnias are longtime garden favorites for colorful, round flowers. The flexible hot-weather plants don’t gain from being planted early and stand still until weather warms up.
