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.
Eileen Tongson, founder of FarmGal Flowers, grows cut flowers in Orlando, USA, 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 colourful 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 autumn. They also grow well in the UK – where summers are now getting hotter for longer periods, with only more to come.
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 colours 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 mum got in the post. 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.”
In the UK, typically seeds for these are sown indoors in April or May or directly outdoors in May or June. But pick the potted types up from the garden centre now or buy online and plant these sun-loving plants for a pop of colour in your summer garden.
Celosia
“Celosia is another great flower for the heat,” Eileen says. “It grows here year-round and it reseeds, so from an economic standpoint, it’s great.”
Available in an array of striking colours, celosia flowers take on a range of shapes. Depending on the variety, they might resemble sheaves of wheat, wispy feathers, or even coral.
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, she plants most of her sunflowers over summer for autumn blooms (they typically take 11-18 weeks to mature from seed). Her favourite varieties for fall colours are ‘Chocolate,’ ‘Moulin Rouge,’ and ‘Strawberry Blonde.’
Alternatively, for immediate summer colour, pick up potted varieties already in bloom.
Summer gardening edit
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Terri Robertson has been an editor and storyteller for more than 20 years. As Deputy Digital Editor at Country Living, she curates daily newsletters and has found a niche writing about odd corners of the internet and people embracing American life off the beaten path. She’s passionate about gardening and nature, writing about everything from super monarchs to supermoons. She also contributes to Country Living’s entertainment coverage, including HGTV stars, popular TV shows, and music. Terri began her career proofreading Southern Living cookbooks—a first job befitting an English major with a childhood penchant for reading her mom’s cookbooks—and went on to edit many food, garden, and lifestyle titles. She later worked for the University of Alabama’s marketing and communications division, capturing the stories of students and faculty. Returning to lifestyle media in 2017, she covered local arts, culture, and business news in Birmingham, Alabama, for Bham Now and later served as digital media manager for Flower magazine, a luxury home, garden, and lifestyle publication, before finding her home at Country Living. She and her husband live with their four cats in Birmingham.
