Lemonade plants are those which just keep making their presence known blooming their little heads off as summer does its worst.
My Rainbow Knockout® rose is one which thrived in the heat. It didn’t bloom during the worst part of summer, but its leaves stayed disease free and didn’t crisp either. When temperatures moderated, it started blooming as though spring had arrived once again.
I planted a seed mix of zinnias in crayon colors of bright and light pinks along with sunflowers in July. While the temperatures were unseasonably hot, the zinnias grew. Now, they are blooming and brightening my fall garden. So, as the platitude states: when handed lemons why not make lemonade?
Many of the plants not daunted by the heat either come naturally from Texas or Mexico like Melampodium leucanthum, above. The yarrow is one I got several years ago called ‘Paprika.’ It’s performed well every year.
I’m glad for these natives of the far south which I can grow as annuals. In this unseasonable summer, I discovered I need to plant more annuals to give the garden the boost it needs. Next summer is also supposed to be hot and drought ridden. I suggest picking up some seed packets next spring of bright summer annuals.
Also, at your nursery, look for perennials which are native to the southern prairies. None of my goldenrods were fazed by over 100F.
The garlic chives, below, aren’t native to the U.S., but they thrive here. In fact, in my garden, they thrive a little too much. I have to be very careful to chop off their heads before they set seed. Otherwise, my whole garden would be a field of garlic chives. Perhaps I could sell them to the Asian markets. They are quite the delicacy.
All of the plants, above, certainly take the whole lemonade thing to heart so they are my contribution to a late bloom day post. Thanks Carol of May Dreams Gardens for again hosting GBBD which falls on the 15th every month.
All good plant recommendations. I am so looking for heat loving stuff for next year. I don’t think I can take two summers in a row with so few blooms.
Hi, Dee. Lovely. My favs are the pink zinnias! I’m now wondering if you can get your hands on some Baja Fairyduster. I loved that plant in Arizona. Maybe you could try it out. I can’t grow it up here. 🙁 Hugs!
I help tend to a garden in my area (master gardener project), and when I visited the other day, I saw that the Rainbow K-O Roses were doing fantastic through our brutal summer. We are adding more to the garden because they did so well. If anything survived this summer, it deserves to be repeated! I am embarrassed to say I think I killed my Blackfoot Daisy by OVERwatering. It was right by a sprinkler head and did not fare well with twice/week watering. I think it prefers near desert conditions, which you would think I could have accommodated it this year. Next year I think I will plant some of it in containers. That way if I forget to water it, it will be happier 🙂 It is good to focus now on what did well this summer. It helps to blot out the bad memory of what did not. Take care.
Honey-bunny, as always I learn from you. Lemonade plants, indeed. I hope to remember– we are lemonade women, I think! Plant zinnias in July?! I shall. I have made a small flower garden plot, my first ever. I am excitedly planning for next year. I have planted a gardenia there now. Xxooo
I’m glad to see that your garden is making the best of a tough situation, Dee. I really like the bat-faced cuphea; such bright blooms. I, too, have been glad I planted quite a few annuals this year. The zinnias don’t seem to have minded the heat at all, and it’s nice to have their multi-colored blooms this September.
Rose, that cuphea is a powerhouse. Even on the worst days when the chlorophyll was leached from its leaves, it kept blooming. The insects were so happy. I’ve bought some new daylilies, and I’m putting them in the ground today. I hope next summer is not so brutal.
It’s heartening to see which plants can thrive despite our brutal summer heat. My beloved Linda Campbell shrank her leaves to tiny green slivers and managed to keep a handful of blooms crisping in the heat, but she never gave up.
My geraniums couldn’t take it. All gone. The willow tree cracked in the June wind/hail storm and is gradually leaking out all its sap. I’m already researching trees for possible replacement, although it may live.
Hi Deb, I was really surprised at what did well and what didn’t. Glad to hear you Linda Campbell held up her petals to the worst the sun could do and still thrived. I had one red rose which also did that. The sun fried her blooms, but she held on and soon as it was cool, she pumped out more. I lost several geraniums too. I’m so sorry about your willow tree.
Now that is an ipomoea I wouldn’t mind having in my garden. I might even let it wander all over the place instead of the one that does that right now.
I wonder if it will wander all over. Hard to tell with this ipomoea. The others certainly do. Happy Bloom Day!
You really have some pretty heat lovers. I never heard of ‘lemonade plants’, but it really seems to describe them.
Hey Donna, it’s just something I made up. Seemed appropriate after the summer we’ve had. 🙂
Beautiful post…that Ipomea is just stunning! I must look up Blackfoot Daisy…so very charming!
Thanks Scott. Glad you liked it.
I like your list of lemonade plants. I will certainly look at more annuals next summer too. Happy GBBD.
Hi Lisa, Happy GBBD to you too my friend. Must pop over and see what’s blooming in your yard too.
Even my Blackfoot daisies have just about given up the ghost in the drought. I see yours are still hanging on though. I see we also have the garlic chives in common. Mine are outdoing themselves this late summer. So nice to see SOMETHING doing well!
Hi Dorothy, I think mine are only doing well because I water them with drip irrigation. Otherwise they would also be kaput.
I love the phrase “lemonade plants”. Even if the weather is a big fat lemon, these plants do thrive and that’s why we keep planting them.
Thanks Carol, and thank you so much for hosting Bloom Day!
I’m glad to see so many pretty blooms in your garden, now that the heat has diminished a little.
Cynthia, the patch is totally covered up in weeds. It’s raining today, but Sunday, here I come weeder in hand.