Top 12 Heat-Loving Plants to Add Vibrant Summer Color

Create stylish summer gardens with plants that thrive in the heat

Dayton, Oregon – Just like a seasonal wardrobe swap, it’s time to refresh your garden as the summer heat sets in. When your spring plantings start looking tired it’s the perfect time to spruce up your landscape with fresh varieties that can handle the heat and have you celebrating the season.

“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 12 plants that are perfect for a summer refresh. To keep your garden looking great throughout the summer season, be sure plants are watered well, especially when they are first planted. During the heat of summer, it’s best to water in the morning to reduce evaporation and ensure your plants get the hydration they need to thrive.

Twelve Perfect Plants for Your Summer Refresh

Sunseekers^™ Echinacea – Available in five distinct colors, the Sunseekers^™ Coneflower series will add hot color to your garden as summer’s heat kicks in. 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.

Heat-Loving Lantana – Lantana is the perfect plant for adding hotcolor to sunny garden spaces, and Monrovia has the perfect variety for everyone. 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. Zones 9-11. 

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. Zones 7-11. Spice up your garden design with Monrovia’s exclusive Fiesta™ Lantana series. Juicy, bold colors cover this semi-trailing variety making it a perfect addition to hanging baskets and containers. It’s especially striking in patio tree form! Hardy to Zone 10, this series can be used as an annual in cooler climates.

SunBelievable^® Brown Eyed Girl Sunflower – 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 it’s nectar. A spectacular choice for borders and containers. Zones 10-11. 

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-spalshed, 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.

Compact Spicy Jatropha – Extreme summer heat is no match for this tropical evergreen. CompactSpicy Jatropha is loaded with clusters of bright red flowers that command attention. The blooms sit atop foliage that emerges a beautiful bronze and transitions to vivid green. At home in the landscape as a hedge or border accent, this versatile shrub is a great container selection and works as a houseplant too. Zone 10-11. 

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 sent 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. It’s compact habit makes this selection is great for sunny borders and containers. Exceptionally heat tollerant and evergreen in mild winter regions. Zones 6-10. 

Burgundy Queen^® Bougainvillea – This selection brings a doubledose of beauty to the garden with stunning flowers and gorgeous foliage. The new growth leaves of Burgundy Queen are a showy, deep wine-red. The flower-like bracts are an even more dramatic burgundy hue. Discovered by Monrovia Craftsman Tracy Harrison at the Georgia nursery, Burgundy Queen is a vigorous climber, growing up to 30 feet. It is the perfect climber for trellises, fences, and large patio pots. Evergreen in warmer climates, Burgundy Queen is also a great container or hanging basket annual in cooler regions. Zones 10-11. Check out more in this video.

We’ve created a direct link to more heat-loving plants on Monrovia.com. You can also use Monrovia’s “My Plantfinder” tool to search for the perfect selections to refresh your garden. Be sure to visit your local independent garden center for more inspiration.

About Monrovia
Inspired by the beauty of plants, gardens, and landscapes everywhere, Harry E. Rosedale, Sr. founded Monrovia in 1926 to be a premier grower of shrubs and trees. Monrovia collaborates with plant breeders around the world to introduce improved plant varieties to North America. Monrovia plants flourish once planted to beautify gardens and landscapes. Please visit Monrovia.com to learn more.