Best Heat Tolerant Perennials - Perennials That Like The Heat

Perennial flowers make it easier to create a beautiful garden since they are low-maintenance and offer predictable growth without any need for annual planting or seeding. Many gardeners rely on perennial plants to form the backbone of their summer flower garden.

This is just as important - if not more important - for gardeners in regions with hot, arid summers. If this is you, you may be wondering what plants are heat tolerant and, specifically, which are perennials that like the heat. We’ve made this easy by pulling together a shortlist of heat-loving perennials you can rely on in hot summer climates.

Perennials for Hot Climates

Some very ornamental flowers are perfect perennials for hot climates. One of our favorites of the heat-loving perennials is garden phlox (Phlox paniculata). These stunning plants, standouts in a cottage garden, love to grow in full sun. They shoot up to 3 feet (1m.) high in an area with enough elbowroom. You can find phlox in virtually every color of the rainbow, with blooms that can last for six weeks or more.

Another group of perennials that like the heat? Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan). These are familiar to many of us, with big, bright daisy-like flowers, yellow with black centers. No need to fuss over black-eyed Susan, since these flowers tolerate heat, humidity, and clay soil. 

Best Heat-Tolerant Perennials 

Heat-tolerant perennials aren’t necessarily drought resistant. Both phlox and black-eyed Susans need regular water to keep growing happily in hot climates. But a few of the best heat tolerant perennials don’t require extra water. Heuchera (Heuchera spp.) is one of them, though you may know the plant as “coral bells.” It sails right through heat, drought and deer damage with barely the bat of an eye. 

Daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.) are another group of low-maintenance perennials that don’t need much water. These tough beauties have fleshy, tuberous roots to anchor them and remain unaffected by summer heat or drought. These flowers seem to grow in any soil, require no maintenance and last forever. A few seasons after planting you should have large, blooming clumps with sword-like leaves. 

What Plants Are Heat Tolerant?

The perennial coneflower (Echinacea spp.) looks like a daisy with petals that circle a raised cone. This rigid plant with spiky foliage grows to 5 feet (1.5 m) tall and shrugs off the heat of a hot summer. It prefers good, well-draining soil and lots and lots of sun. It keeps right on blooming until the first frost. 

One other group of perennials that likes the heat is the unfortunately named tickseed (Coreopsis spp.). Tickseed produces pretty flowers that look like friendly daisies, and are held on stems above the spreading foliage. They are attractive in buttery-yellow and gold, but you can also pick tickseed with blossoms in pink, red, orange and purple, as well as bicolored varieties.