The summer months can be tough for many plants. Thankfully, there is a variety of heat and drought-tolerant plants that will thrive in high temperatures and little rain. 

Not only are these plants tough, but they are great for pollinators and wildlife. Once established, the options below will benefit your landscape during the harsh summer!

Tip: Even drought-tolerant plants need water to get established. Drought-tolerant does not mean “do not water.” Young plants need time to get rooted and established before they can withstand hot and dry conditions.

Heat-Tolerant Plants

Autumn Joy Sedum

Pretty and pink, the Autumn Joy Stonecrop is a tough, upright, clumping evergreen succulent with large light green scalloped fleshy foliage. Large disk-shaped clusters of small pink star-shaped flowers that mature to russet cover the plant from late summer to fall, attracting butterflies.  

Care tip: Grows best in full sun and dry to medium well-drained soils. Drought and heat-tolerant once established.

Yucca ‘Color Guard’ Adam's Needle

Tough as it is pretty, Color Guard Adam’s Needle is a nearly stemless evergreen shrub with large, slightly arching, sword-like foliage with creamy-gold centers and dark green margins. Long curly white strings can be found at the leaf margins. A central stalk rises in summer, bearing long panicles of fragrant creamy-white flowers.  

Yucca filamentosa is a southeastern native that hosts the Yucca Giant-Skipper and the Cofaqui Giant Skipper butterflies. The nectar provides for hummingbirds and other moths and butterflies, while the berries are eaten by small mammals.

Care tip: Best color with full sun and well-drained soils. Surprisingly tolerant of partial shade. Heat and drought-tolerant once established.

Whirling Butterflies Gaura

Whirling Butterflies Gaura is a native herbaceous perennial with lance-like foliage, and graceful flower stems that redden at the tips. It’s little wonder how this plant got its name. The four white petaled flowers resemble delicate butterflies. They bloom from pink buds along the flowering stems and age to rosy pink from early summer into fall.  

Care tip: Prefers full sun and loamy well-drained soils. Heat, humidity, and drought-tolerant once established.

Cruizin™ Route 66 Coreopsis

Add pops of yellow and red to your garden with the Route 66 Coreopsis. This plant is a hardy late-blooming perennial native with an upright habit. The narrow, medium green foliage is topped by yellow daisy-like flowers with red eyes in summer until frost. The red bleeds into the petals until the flowers are red in fall. 

Care tip: Prefers full sun and moist, well-drained soil. Drought and humidity-tolerant once established.

Apricot Echo Tea Olive

Apricot Echo Tea Olive is a large reblooming evergreen shrub with large leathery dark green foliage that emerges deep burgundy. The abundant clusters of highly fragrant tiny flowers that are a deeper 'near red' orange in full sun and soft apricot orange with light shade blooms in fall and continue until early spring. This plant has a soft, fruity fragrance. 

Care tip: Best planted in part sun with acidic rich and moist well-drained soils.  Drought-tolerant once established.

Miss Molly Butterfly Bush

Attract pollinators and butterflies straight to your backyard with this plant. Miss Molly Butterfly bush is a dense branching deciduous shrub with tidy, dense foliage of willowy deep green leaves. It is a prolific bloomer with incredibly dense spikes of fragrant ruby-red clusters that bloom in summer. 

Care tip: Removing spent flowers can encourage continued blooms until frost. Best performance in sunny, well-drained areas. Miss Molly is a drought and heat-tolerant, non-invasive variety.

Phenomenal® Lavender

Known for its striking appearance, Phenomenal Lavender is a semi-woody evergreen perennial that has aromatic silver-green foliage. The heavily scented purple flower spikes cover the plant in midsummer and may have a repeated bloom in late summer or fall.  

Care tip: Grows best in full sun and well-drained alkaline soils.  Phenomenal Lavender is heat and humidity-tolerant and has good disease resistance.

Beat the Heat with Heat-Tolerant Plants

Your landscape doesn’t have to suffer in the summer. With the right care, the above plants look amazing, even when Georgia temps hit triple digits. Look through ServeScape’s many heat and drought-tolerant options and plant them today. 

Shop more heat and drought-tolerant plants.

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