Bite sized: 11 flowers that won't die in a Perth summer
Heat tolerant flowers that won’t make you cry this February
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Hello and welcome to another bite-sized Thursday newsletter! Each Thursday I’ll send you just one small idea to try in your garden over the week. A plant to grow, an interesting idea, a new tactic to try, a small problem solved. I hope you like it!
Here is today’s.
11 heat tolerant flowers that won’t make you cry this summer
Spring has arrived (woo!) and you know what that means: summer is coming. Gardening in Perth is a rollercoaster of emotions. So many people give up on gardening over winter because of the (mistaken, European-based) notion that there’s no point gardening in the cold. This is a fallacy but let’s save that for another time.
Once spring arrives it’s all sunshine and flowers and happiness, for a precious few months, then we’re straight into December and the sun is scorching and a bunch of would-be gardeners give up again because they (and their gardens) are not prepared for the heat.
Perth summers are hot and dry and, it’s true, they can kill many of your plants. But if you focus on the right kinds of plants this spring, you can enjoy a summer garden that is tough, resilient, beautiful and doesn’t sap you of all joy and motivation.
Let’s start with a few of my favourite heat-tolerant flowers. These aren’t drought-tolerant plants; you’ll still need to water them, but they are some of the tougher flowers I grow and, with a little care, will make your garden pretty all spring and into summer.
11 unfussy, heat-tolerant flowers
Alyssum
I have never even have to plant this - it just pops up, like happy garden snow overflowing in garden beds where ever stray seeds have landed. Get a punnet and spread them around your garden, then let them flower and set seed. Hopefully they’ll be forever popping up for you too!
Cistus
A gorgeous overflowing flowering perennial with papery-fine flowers that open to greet the morning sun and close at dusk. Also called ‘rock rose’, they grow in the dry and rocky soils of the Mediterranean and they can hack the heat.
Curry plant (Helichrysum italicum)
This is different to the curry leaf tree, it has silvery foliage and beautiful yellow flowers - it loves dry, sandy soil so it’s a perfect pick for Perth!
Dogbane (Coleus caninus)
Of everything I grow, dogbane is by far the hardiest - you can rip piece of it off, ram them in the ground, and after a few months of near-total neglect they will reward you with purple lavender-esque flowers - a real winner! Side note: no, you’re not imagining it, and no, it’s not your stoner neighbours. This plant smells like weed. And maybe petrol?? Don’t let that put you off, it’s fab.
Dusty Miller (aka Silver ragwort)
Like the curry plant, Silver ragwort has silvery foliage and yellow flowers - the two plants belong to the Asteraceae - or daisy - family so it’s unsurprising they look similar)
Flanders poppies and Californian poppies
These fare surprisingly well in a dry-ish garden. Sow seeds once the weather cools down in autumn for spring flowers. If you’ve missed the boat on sowing seeds for spring, you may be able to pick up a few punnets of seedlings at your local nursery.
Hollyhocks
These often get a moisture-induced fungal disease called ‘rust’ in summer, and surprisingly, I’ve found that the hollyhocks I grow in sandy, dry and semi-neglected areas actually do best and get the least rust. Win-win.
Portulaca
This fleshy little succulent is a great and easy one to grow. Buy a few seedling trays as soon as you start seeing them pop up at your local nursery. It has a long flowering window, does well in pots (even pots on the smaller side) and can handle the heat.
Salvias
There are so many ornamental salvias to choose from - this is a fantastic flowering perennial and many varieties are very drought tolerant. Everyone in a Perth garden should be growing salvias!
Tansy
This pungent-smelling, inedible ‘herb’ is covered with yellow bauble flowers in late-summer and self-seeds like a friendly, happy weed.
Vincas
A short-lived flowering perennial that doesn’t love totally dry soil but fares surprisingly well under circumstances of relative neglect. I find mine do best in morning sun or dappled shade. They look lovely planted en-masse along your garden borders, or overflowing from pots.
Zinnias
Finally, Zinnias. They are such a heat-happy flower - bright, colourful and gorgeous. Zinnias are absolutely one to sow now for blooms a little later in the season.
Thank you for reading! See you next time for more Lo fi life!
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Some of these will work in my garden too in the currently rainy autumn’s with us Midlands in the Uk. We have heavy clay but in the summer it can bake if we don’t get much rain and I’ve got some hollyhocks that are doing well on my allotment (gifted to me at a seed swap). Alyssum and the poppies are good all rounders too as are salvias. I’ve seen the flowering curry plant growing locally but it was in a raised bed that wouldn’t have got much water. I grow Californian poppies in my driest raised bed at the front of the house and it brings cherry joy whenever we are coming home, I don’t water in midsummer so a good list for me too. We’re heading to autumn now so all harvesting for us but soon it will be Jerusalem artichokes season and I love making them into kimchis - looking forward to eating the crisp flesh and not having to weed so much on the allotment!
What a great list! thank you :)