Explore our Heronswood Gardens and discover hot weather plants perfect for your garden in sun or shade!

The Heronswood gardens are our sanctuary from this summer’s extreme heat, kept lush by plants with the utmost toughness and unfailing beauty. As the heat rises, we recommend some of the plants from our gardens that continue to thrive in full sun or shade and shelter other plants from high temperatures.

Our Full Sun Garden

Some plants remain unfazed by full sun and 100-degree temperatures. Our resilient native plants are oblivious to the sizzling hot air. Echinacea, Aster and Monarda are beautiful native plants that withstand the July heat.

Tall, billowy grasses also keep our full sun garden cool, since they shield Coneflowers from hot winds. When adding grasses to your summer garden, plant creeping Sedums with low mounds of Geraniums and Salvias. Thick, strappy Yuccas are great complements to bluish, silver-leafed Buddleia.

Our Garden in Shade

In our shade garden, we cut fresh foliage from Ferns, Hellebores, and Japanese Grass, which thrive reliably for us through the seasons. We recommend planting Magnolias and large shrubs like Weigela to shelter Hydrangeas in full bloom, and we use Tiarellas to complement our Autumn Fern leaves. Our massive trees and the shadow of our springhouse, covered by Loniceras and climbing Hydrangeas, also keep our shade garden cool.