I live in Austin, Texas and it has already been 100 degrees. Does not bode well for the rest of the summer. I have several earth boxes that I planted with verbenas, petunias and some of the sweet potato vines. Everything is looking pretty ratty right now. Does anyone have a suggestion for a container that can really take the blazing heat, full west sun? Thanks,
Annie
suggestion for plants for containers getting very hot sun
I've always thought of succulents as all green but there are really lots of different colors including silver, blue, red etc. Most are inexpensive and readily available at garden centers. Some far out looking groupings!!!
I also think about succulents as green. I will breeze by one of our nurseries here that specializes in them and see what they say. Thanks for the input.
Annie
You sound like my soulmate! Container, blazing west sun. Pentas can take it IF you are careful to meet their watering needs. Butterfly is the taller variety; the other varieties are more like a foot tall or even less.
How about some Angelonia?
I wonder about angelonia. It is everywhere (plant nurseries) for the first time this year. Websites say "full sun," but full sun in Ohio is not full sun in TEXAS. I've been tempted to try it. No one I know has had any. I see you're in the same zone we are. Have you grown it in full sun for a complete summer, and if so, how did it do?
DP
I have some mixed in containers and it is hanging in there but is kind of leggy. I think that I bought this from the Proven Winners group. It could be it is actually getting too much water in my containers since I am trying to keep other things alive. It has the same look that my petunias do now. Brown stems closer to the dirt and greener up above. Is that too much water?
....I personally have not used it before but the gal I work with at our local nursery (she has been there for years and quite the garden maven! :o) convinced the owner to carry this plant this year due to it's heat loving nature Vic says it takes the heat and drought very well...so AnnieJo I am betting yours are getting too much water because at work we are letting the soil dry out prior to watering them in their 3" pots - we have had 90-100 degree heat for a week now here in SC and I haven't noticed the plants have flagging one bit...nor get leggy - we do fertilize at half strength levels several times a week
Also have your tried any polysorb crystals in your container mix? How large and deep are the containers that you have? Since containers and hanging baskets both dry out much quicker then the ground using a larger/deeper container with polysorb will enable them to have more resources to draw from....good luck!
I've grown Angelonias here in full sun with no problems--my garden gets sun from about 10 AM until sundown so it's pretty full sun! Our weather isn't quite as hot as yours, but we do have our share of 100+ heat waves and they've always done fine. Mine are in the garden though not in a container.
Angelonia in pots in full afternoon sun here also. It did well blooming the summer thru. I did notice the demand for watering tho but loved it. It came back from roots and is in bloom right now.
Very nice of all of you to reply about angelina. I think I'll try a pot. It is beautiful, and an alternative to the old standbys ( which I still appreciate).
I think I will trim back my angelonias. We had three hail storms in three weeks and a funnel cloud that took down about 15 trees on our property. The hail didn't do wonders for them nor for much else. My angelonias are in half whiskey barrels and they get watered daily. The other plants in the mixed containers look fine, including verbena and lantana, creeping jenny, Diamond Frost euphorbia (which has been a real neat plant for me for containers). The angelonia, lobelia and petunias are the ones looking wimpy.
I find a good haircut on the Verbena, Lantana, Angelonia, Salvias will bring on a fresh batch of blooms. Your Euphorbia is one I will have to check into, Diamond Frost I have not heard of...
I bought 4 Diamond Frost euphorbia but have not planted them yet. Aren't they a little wispy to use by themselves? I was thinking of using them in containers in combination w/other plants much as florists use baby's breath, which the blooms resemble.
Home Depot is carrying them.
DP
Lobelia is awesome! I have it in several part sun containers as both the filler and spiller coupled with some Bacopa, Lysmachia "Goldilocks" and Coleus..
.I love Diamond Frost Euphorbia and left on its own in a container it will fill it full with wisps of white...but when I potted mine up I did put it with a few other things because I am a color hog LOL I put the Dia. Frst with red calabrachoa, white shock wave petunias ( I like the lime green throat of these.) and various colored mounding verbenas (some were red, some had white with red throats and vice versa)
Use the Diamond Frost how you like it! cause quite honestly I think thats all that matters...if you love it...others will follow...kinda like that Kevin Costner movie...If you build it they will come...LOL
All of my Diamond Frost are in combination containers. They are gorgeous with just about anything and they have not stopped blooming for me! They also behave themselves quite nicely and don't take over the entire container.
Leggy petunias will really benefit from a haircut- just cut it back and it will come back bigger and better.
I really like the diamond frost euphorbia too. I have some in a pot with nicotiana alata. My goal with the euphorbia was to hide the rather ugly nicotiana foliage. I love having nicotiana on my porch- so fragrant at night.
Karen
Which nicotinia do you have? Mine from Parks have not been gfragrant. Also, how much of a haircut do these petunias need? Down to about 4" okay?
I think the nicotiana alata is probably the most fragrant. I find all of my tall ones fragrant, white more than colors. The dwarfs were not. Also, they are night shade family- fragrant only in the evening, no scent during the day.
I pinch back petunias several times during the season. Early when the plant is small, I pinch only a few inches. Later when the plant gets really big, I'll cut back stems to about half their length. They come back fuller. This year I'm trying Laura Bush petunias. I wintersowed them and they are just setting first blooms now. Very pretty.
Karen
How about a Cardoon or canna- Big fan of Pretoria and tropicana ?
Or a tree rose?
the most drought tolerant ( and thus the ones most likely to handle heat) are going to be your lantanas, purslane, sun coleus, hopefully the diamond frost (it is a euphorbia) vincas, then 2nd tier would be the verbenas, tidal wave petunias, caladiums that do well in the sun ( Aaron, Red Flash, Carolyn Wharton and White Queen), dragonwing begonias, and then 3rd tier would be the wave petunias, angelonias, wax begonias, and a bunch of others ( haven't had enough coffee yet to list/think of them! ) this is in terms of needing water as well as handling the heat in full sun.
Lobelia is not going to make it all summer in the heat-they will start to go down and not look good again until early fall, at least in the south.
Thank you for the list, tigerlily. That helps me a lot. And I appreciate the ideas of Cardoon, canna, pretoria and tropicana. Not even sure what all of those are but I intend to find out! My coleus' look great and I was also thinking about some ornamental peppers. Anybody had any that were really pretty?
you are welcome. Cardoons are sort of like an ornamental artichoke and will not do well ( I don't think-I grow them for landscapers to be ready in the fall and I have trouble with them and the heat until early fall, when they start to take off) in the heat. Chilly chilis are a good ornamental pepper. Cannas will do well in the heat, but they can get canna worms which are a pain-they have to be treated every month with a systemic pesticide-at least here in the south.
annie- I am currently growing some varigated ornamental pepper seeds from Parks - they are only about 5" but I am quite fond of foliage that is varigated so am quite pleased so far!
I have canna, caladium, and coleus all in full sun. Here in Florida, it's scorching hot...we've been in the mid 90's for 3 weeks, with little rain. I hand water, and keep things in pots.
I ordered a BUDDLEIA DAVIDII BLUE CHIP that I am going to try in a container. Has anyone tried this miniature buddleia? That is interesting that you guys say that caladiums can take the full sun. I thought that some of the varieties tolerted some sun, kind of like hostas, but I would not have thought about giving them full west sun all day. If I was to take some the "Aaron" caldiums and put them in the middle of a 24" container, what would you suggest around them? I know the Diamond frost euphorbia would probably be pretty. Anything else?
I would not put either hostas or caladiums in full TEXAS sun.
AnnieJo, angellonias love heat and sun. They don't even get going good in my area, and don't appear in the nurseries, until May. They may be drought-tolerant, but mine get drip watering just like all my other bedding plants, and I don't find that the extra watering bothers them any. They need the warm weather to look their best, though. You can cut them back, or not. Mine are rooted cuttings from last year that survived in my kitchen and took off when I moved them outside. April was cool for us, so I didn't move them until the middle of the month.
Here they are annuals, if not winter-protected. My Houston cousins grow them as perennials. I'm sorry that I don't know about Austin.
These are all in full Florida sun. It's been mid 90's for a week. Caladiums primarily are grown here in Florida. I do however keep them watered well.
Rosebud
Florida Sweetheart
RedFlash
Mixed with coleus
WhiteWing
Carolyn Whorton
Wow! Those caladiums are beautiful! I love the pairing with the coleus. I have kind of gone OCD on coleus this year so I would love to try a pairing of the two. Thanks for the inspiration!
Just like MerryMary, I totally agree that Caladiums will do very well in your climate - I'm in zone 10a and they're just amazing this year even though temps have been extremely high...they love the heat.
Annie - Diamond Frost is one of my favorite heat plants - I planted this last year in a container with Elephant Ears and I still have it...
Angelonia survives very well also - this was from last year also. It finally got too leggy and I pulled it, but it will totally survive. I just planted some more and it's just loving it.
Again, like MerryMary says - the heat has been relentless lately and I'm shocked that things have survived so well - (I hand water a lot too!) Here's a bunch of Coleus, Sweet potato vine and Persian shield that's hanging in well!
I love 'Diamond Frost' as a filler plant--here it is with another Euphorbia ('Efanthia') and a pink verbena
I planted these really big containers in March and they have totally taken off. Check out the light green plant draping the pots. It's called baby sun rose. I had never seen it before and found it a Lowes - little 4" pots of some unidentified accent plant. It's such a gorgeous plant and grows so well in the heat. Has a little pink bloom that comes out and is adorable.
The pots sitting below are full of oxalis and more baby sun-rose, and they're loving the heat too!
