Heat Lovers in Zone Seven

White Queen caladiums and begonias

Has the sun scorched your flowerbed or garden?  Are your spring flowers gone and you need a color pick-me-up? Here are some flowers that love the heat and it is HOT here in our Zone Seven plantings.

I have mentioned caladiums and begonias several times before in previous blogs, but it bears repeating.  These are go-to shade loving plants for hot weather.  You provide the water and the fertilizer and they will provide the blooms.
 

Lantana

Lantana is a reliable bloom that will flower until frost.  It comes in shades of white, purple, orange, yellow and pink.  Butterflies adore it. What's not to love?  If you are lucky and have a protected spot here it will come back next year from its perennial roots.

Moss Rose

 Moss rose is rather old fashioned, but you can't beat the heat loving properties and the colourful flowers.  Portulaca grandiflora has the full flowers and the smaller leaf.  Others portulacas have different leaves and may have single flowers but they all love the heat and can flourish in a dry spot and flower.  The flowers may be pink, orange, white, red or any tint or combination.


My final choice for a heat loving flowers is Gazania.  Thanks goes out to my friend Rachel of New Digs landscaping for encouraging me to give these a try.  They have proven to be trustworthy perennial workhorses at my gardening day job, with their bright white, orange, and yellow blooms!  The clumps are getting large and will soon be ready to divide.

Gazania

 I am reminded just how important it is to get feedback and share information.  We get feedback from others and it gives us an idea for a new solution.  Rachel told me that she had great success with Gazanias and even though I wasn't sure they were worth it, I found some marked down and I decided to give them a try. Now two years in, I am delighted at the results.

Just another reminder.  We can share our experience and learn.  That is a great part of community.  It is a safe place to get some feedback that is different; outside your own experience.  The results can be beneficial and beautiful.