Not sure why it’s happening this way, but the scorching summer heat has energized me to be out in the yard even more! I suppose it’s because I find myself watering much more frequently. Lacking any rainfall, I visit my vegetable garden with the hose every third day and am watering those pots on the deck with the watering can every other day at least.

Recently, I’ve incorporated new plants into my landscape so we can enjoy every minute of all the summer color Mother Nature has to offer! Coleus and caladiums are wonderful tropical plants that sport showy, colorful foliage. Both do best in partial shade, though there are varieties of coleus that can tolerate full sun. The more you keep up with pinching those flowering stalks off the coleus, the bushier they’ll get!

And the more sun, the better for tall canna lilies and elephant ears! I have found that canna lilies bloom better with the more sun they receive, and they overwinter just fine staying in the ground at my home. Same with elephant ears. I have them as a low barrier wall between two trees.

For bedding flowers, my new obsession is Angelonia! I was introduced to it and its many different colors during a visit to the home of Dan Cathy of Chick-fil-a. They were masterfully planted in straight, mounded rows across the front of his house. I now have some alternated with Pentas in a long container on my deck! And one I so enjoyed last year was Portulaca! This semi-succulent flowering plant spreads, so it’s fun in a wide-mouth pot. I just picked up two from the Roswell Pike Nursery yesterday!

Pike Nurseries was on the radio show last week with me to share some heat-loving plants. Consider Salvia and Lantana (great pollinator plants too), as well as butterfly bush and panicle hydrangeas! This type of hydrangea is much more sun tolerant than the mophead type, and they should start flowering pretty soon!

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