As summer settles in and the heat starts to take its toll on the garden, you might be wondering if it's too late—or simply too hot—to plant anything new. I posed that question to someone who knows exactly what can handle scorching temperatures: an urban flower farmer and florist in central Florida.
Eileen Tongson, founder of FarmGal Flowers, grows cut flowers in Orlando (USDA Hardiness Zone 10a), where intense heat, heavy rain, and pests are all part of the job.
“In hot climates, this is kind of our down season because it’s so hot and the rain and the pests,” she says. But when gardeners ask if there’s anything worth planting in the middle of summer, her answer is always the same: zinnias, celosia, and sunflowers.
These colorful bloomers don’t just tolerate the heat—they thrive in it, making them smart choices for gardeners hoping to keep their flower beds blooming through the hottest weeks of summer and well into fall.
Zinnias
Not only are zinnias one of the most beginner-friendly flowers to grow, but they also do really well in the heat, Eileen says. “And nowadays there are just so many varieties and colors and shapes of zinnias. There’s one for everyone.”
Zinnias were the first flowers Eileen ever grew, and they came from a free packet of seeds her mom got in the mail. A vegetable gardener, Eileen already had garden beds prepared, so she threw the seeds in one but didn’t pay much attention to them—they bloomed.
“It really inspired me. I had all these blooms, and I cut them and put them in the house, and I shared them with other people. And then I kind of just became obsessed with flowers after that.”
Early July is not too late to plant in most parts of the country—get those seeds in the ground!
Celosia
“Celosia is another great flower for the heat,” Eileen says. “It grows here year-round (in Zones 9 and cooler, treat it as an annual), and it reseeds, so from an economic standpoint, it’s great.”
Available in an array of striking colors, celosia flowers take on a range of shapes. Depending on the variety, they might resemble sheaves of wheat, wispy feathers, or even coral (that type is called cockscomb).
Multi-Branching Sunflowers
As the name suggests, sunflowers love the sun, so they are ideal to grow in hot climates. Eileen particularly likes multi-branching sunflower varieties because they produce more flowers.
“Most sunflowers are what they call ‘one-and-dones,’” Eileen says, meaning you only get one bloom per plant. “I can’t afford to do that because I don’t have a lot of space. So when I grow a plant, it’s got to produce a lot of blooms.”
Though she also plants sunflowers in the spring, in Florida, where the growing season is long, she plants most of her sunflowers in late August for fall blooms. Her favorite varieties for fall colors are ‘Chocolate,’ ‘Moulin Rouge,’ and ‘Strawberry Blonde.’
