Speaking of native plants, since they rely on Mother Nature to water them, these native plants have to be tough to survive an average Arkansas summer. Some natives that are blooming now include: the spiky perennial liatris or gayfeather, the lovely orange butterfly weed – Aesclepias tuberosa with its strong taproot, and Echinacea or purple coneflower. Nativars or improved cultivars of our native species are readily available at many nurseries and garden centers. With Echinacea if you don’t like the native pink variety, they now come in red, orange, white, and yellow. With a little moisture and fertilizer, coupled with deadheading they can bloom for months. Gaillardia or blanket flower is a tough Oklahoma native that loves hot, dry weather as does Gaura which is an explosion of pink and white flowers all summer. Goldenrod is a long lived perennial with a long season of flowering and no one is allergic to them, even though they are often blamed for hay fever instead of the real culprit ragweed. The hotter and drier it is, the happier the goldenrod are. And don’t forget sunflowers. The native sawtoothed sunflower blooms a long time, but give it room since it can grow quite tall.

Orange Butterfly Weed	Echinacea (Purple Coneflower)
Goldenrod Flower

Other perennials with long staying power in the garden include ruellia or Mexican petunia, yarrow with a wide array of flower colors, the old fashioned crinum lily which is winter hardy in at least half the state, and the long blooming catmint (Nepeta x faassenii). Agastache is a great perennial with lots of colors to choose from and blooms all season, and the bees and butterflies love it. Monarda or bee balm and almost all of the ornamental grasses are heat and drought tolerant.

Succulents are plants that have thick fleshy leaves. Just by their appearance, you know they can take dry conditions. Some are groundcovers and some grow two feet tall. Hens and chicks, sedums, and euphorbias are all proven performers. Yuccas and cactus can also take very dry conditions, but make sure they fit in with the style of your landscape.

Another group of plants that give you clues to their heat adaptability by appearance are silver foliaged plants. Lamb’s ears, artemesia, dusty miller and the old fashioned rose campion all prefer poor, dry sites. Too much water and they fade away. They also do very well in hot conditions.

Lamb’s Ear

Tropical plants love heat and humidity, so are quite at home in the summer garden in Arkansas. While they won’t survive the winter months outdoors, they can be protected for the winter inside or carried over in a protected garage or storage building. Or you can simply buy new plants every season. Since they basically bloom from the day you buy them until a killing frost, they are a good source of color so a great investment, even if just for one season. Hibiscus, bougainvillea, and mandevilla are all popular and have been around for years, but try some of the more unusual ones that grace our markets. Jatropha has clusters of pink flowers, while ixora has clusters of either yellow or orange flowers. Tibouchina has large velvety purple flowers, and plumeria has fragrant large flowers in a wide range of colors and esperanza is a sea of yellow all summer long. Mandevilla is usually associated with hot pink flowers, but now come in white, red and several shades of pink. While most tropical flowers do best in full sun, there are some that will take the shade. Black flamingo flower (Chrysothemis), Mona lavender plectranthus, butterfly clereodendron and bromeliads can all add color in the shade. Remember tropical plants need regular water and fertilization to keep them flowering. Since most are grown in pots, frequent watering leaches out nutrition.

Bouganvillea	Mandevilla
Jatropha	Ixora
Esperanza	Black Flamingo (Chrysothemis)

Most of our houseplants are also tropical plants, albeit grown more for their foliage than flowers. They can make great accents in the shade garden. Everything from dracenas and philodendrons to mother-in-law’s tongues (sanseveria) to arrowhead plant and Chinese evergreens, they can be planted in the ground for the season, or their pots can be interspersed in the outdoor landscape. Croton is a great houseplant for seasonal color in full sun. The more light it gets the more color the foliage has, and it blends in great with fall gardens with its array of orange, yellow and red foliage. And we now have a wide selection of palms, some hardy and some not, that can give a tropical feel to the landscape. Bananas in both standard and dwarf are also showstoppers in the summer landscape. New varieties are now winter hardy statewide, but don’t produce bananas.

And last, let’s not forget summer annuals. These plants have to be planted every season, but they give so much color, for relatively little care. Some are more heat tolerant than others, and water needs vary. Some of the most heat tolerant plants include lantana, penta, angelonia (summer snapdragon), melampodium, periwinkle, cosmos and sweet potato vine. Coleus and begonias can take sun or shade, and impatiens and caladiums thrive all summer if they get ample moisture. Petunias and callibrachoa both will bloom all summer, if you keep them well fertilized. If you don’t, you won’t have constant color. If summer annuals get leggy, pinch them back, fertilize and water and they should rebound, taking you up until a killing frost. If you forget to water and they burn up, luckily replacements are still available at local nurseries.

Lantana	Cosmos (Pink)
Coleus	Impatiens - Orange Trailing

Visit other gardens or botanical gardens to get ideas. If they are doing well now, think how well they would do in a milder season. Keep a journal or a list of plant ideas. Visit your nurseries even in the summer. The great thing about being a gardener is you can never have it all. There is always a new variety or cultivar on the horizon. To learn more, plan to attend the Rice Expo at the Rice Research and Extension Center, 2900 Hwy 130 East in Stuttgart, August 4. Plants that can take the Heat is the last topic in a jam packed day of events with everything from rice information along with cooking, insects, diseases and plants. It all begins at 9:30 a.m. For more information contact your local county Extension office.

High resolution photos are available on Flickr.  Just search for the plant name.