LF Heat-tolerant flowers in this color scheme (especially the peachy yellow and dusky blue violet)

[Calosphace]

Anyone know of anything that can handle somewhat intense (much of the space is full sun) in this color spectrum? I'm having a hard time finding blue purples that can take that heat and in general it is difficult to search for this specific sort of yellow as there are many yellow flowers but many arent this sort

 

So far I have

Dusky blue violet:

Stachytarpheta brasiliensis/caatigensis
maybe a hybrid Salvia (e.g. Blue Note) or salvia chamaedryoides or azurea
maybe Agapanthus 'Storm Cloud'
maybe Iochroma Royal Queen or similar

Soft orange:
Tangerine princess honeysuckle
Justicia flavicoma
Rosa mutabilis (first open)
Abutilon Fools Gold

Peachier yellows & apricot:
Orange pumpkin native morning glory
Amber Blush Clinopodium coccineum
John Clayton honeysuckle
Hibiscus Creole Lady

Cream:
Sida alternifolia (native "weed" that I quite like)
Zinnia Creamy Yellow Giant
local species of evening primrose
certain variegated Agave

 

[thyerr01]

Some broader options. You can find Salvias in any colour you want, I'll leave someone else to make recommendations because I can't just can't keep these alive or looking good. I can't even grow S. guaranitica/hybrids...

Blue Violet
- Wisteria frutescens, lots of cultivars spanning deep purple/lavendar/pink/white. Also look at Wisteria macrostachya
- Passiflora incarnata and other Passiflora hybrids, lots in this colour range
- Iochroma cyaneum hybrids are good choices, might need a little shade
- Various native/hybrid Scutellaria

Soft Orange
- Abutilon 'Marylin's Choice' or 'Hot Lava', lots of Abutilon work for these colours. MC actually kept a lot of its leaves through our recent freeze with zero protection and held some flowers. These tend to look a bit average in my sun/heat though. 
- Lobelia laxiflora (I haven't grown these, but want to add some in the spring)

Yellow-Apricot
- Anisacanthus quadrifidus (various yellow/orange forms) 'tangerine/pumpkin/benny's gold etc'
- Other native Lonicera sp. like flava or ciliosa (I haven't grown these)
- Justicia californica ('tecate gold' and other unamed yellow/gold clones). In the southeast these need full sun and absolutely no additional water.
- Justicia rizzinii, bicoloured flower pink/yellow, I don't have these outside yet, but expect they will need a little shade

Cream
- see above Passiflora/Wisteria (although whether these are cream vs white?)
- Various native Hibiscus

How does Clinopodium coccineum work for you? I was under the impression this was quite difficult to grow without very similar native soil.

[Calosphace]

Thanks for the input!

Appreciate the reminder for Anisacanthus, I have Pumpkin I plan on adding once I root a backup. I really like the CA justicia but I am wondering if it can handle humid heat, is this a species that has done well for you? I'll look into the Scutelleria

There is a Passionvine with the perfect color for this scheme but it is sadly a toxic trap for Zebra longwing butterflies. I wouln't mind displaying one in full sun where they are unlikely to lay eggs but I would need to get signage educating about that (this is for a public butterfly garden) and I don't have control over whether we can get signage..

Clinopodium coccineum is pretty flexible in terms of soil if grow in containers, I have had one in a plastic 1 gal at home as a pseudo-bonsai for over three years. being adapted to nutrient-poor conditions I just top dress it with compost and leaf litter and maybe smallest pinch of a slow-release fert once a year. The one at home is in native grayish sandy loam rather than the sand of their habitat but I have rooted a cutting in vermiculite and grow that cutting in a bark-based potting mix with perlite at work. that one actually is under nursery irrigation but my home plant i never water. I suspect it can grow in circumstances where Calamintha ashei and Chocolate Daisy grow successfully and we have a raised bed with those.

For reference I always lose Salvia greggii even in containers eventually an they are much less robust comparatively. some other autumn sage hybrids can persist in dry soils but even containerized they are hit or miss. It is also much easier to grow than even the hybridized western agastaches of which I have only gotten Kudos Yellow to persist longer than 2 years (this is in almost 50% perlite cococoir mix)

Big caveat with the Clinopodium is that they are adapted to central and north FL's summer rainy season, which is the killer of agastache and autumn sages. I am not sure if that would track for TX.

[Calosphace]

Oh also with Salvia guarantiaca it only persists here in FL as a shade plant. Especially the really weak modern forms. There are two main forms in cultivation the proper form which is Brazilian and I think potentially a few countries south of it too (old standbys like Black and Blue and Blue Ensign) and another form I have seen those with much more expertise refer to as the Costa Rican (Blue Suede Shoes and Black and Bloom are it).  The former is rhizomatous and for me it has a distinct dormant season, fading away in late summer and coming back up in spring and peaking during summer rainy season. The latter is no hardier than zone 8 and does not form rhizomes. It also does not go dormant and some still have flowers on them.

Salvia x Amistad and Salvia x Amante are very robust hybrids I quite like and both perform well even in part shade, Amante has a bit more compact habit so it is even better in shade. I have some under oak canopy that do quite well. I've had a patch of Amistad on the east side of my parent's house since the year of its introduction to the US and I was not particularly good at plants when I was 14

Edited January 21, 2024 by Calosphace

[Silas_Sancona]

26 minutes ago, Calosphace said:

Oh also with Salvia guarantiaca it only persists here in FL as a shade plant. Especially the really weak modern forms. There are two main forms in cultivation the proper form which is Brazilian and I think potentially a few countries south of it too (old standbys like Black and Blue and Blue Ensign) and another form I have seen those with much more expertise refer to as the Costa Rican (Blue Suede Shoes and Black and Bloom are it).  The former is rhizomatous and for me it has a distinct dormant season, fading away in late summer and coming back up in spring and peaking during summer rainy season. The latter is no hardier than zone 8 and does not form rhizomes. It also does not go dormant and some still have flowers on them.

Salvia x Amistad and Salvia x Amante are very robust hybrids I quite like and both perform well even in part shade, Amante has a bit more compact habit so it is even better in shade. I have some under oak canopy that do quite well. I've had a patch of Amistad on the east side of my parent's house since the year of its introduction to the US and I was not particularly good at plants when I was 14

Your best bet w/ Saliva will probably be researching / sourcing of those from the east side of Mexico / S. TX where it rains more, is hot / humid - more of the time than out here at least-  during the summer months..  ( IE:  S. keerlii, ballotiflora,  ..possibly S. mellissodora, mexicana, caudata,  and amarissima )

Western sps will be tougher in humid climates since they tend to like it dry ..drier, at least..  " Higher altitude / Cloud Forest " sps are tough anywhere it gets too hot, or so i've noticed.


May be tougher to find ..and more seasonal than year- round color, but there are Red / Orange / Cream colored Zephyranthes  cultivars / crosses around..  and a few Lycoris crosses as well.

If they'll grow there ( ..Can't remember if it was too hot )  there are Dahlia  cultivars w/ cream / various shades of lighter Orange flowers as well.  If they survived here, i'd be growing specific cultivars within the Cactus / Semi- Cactus - flowering group.

Annual, but some soft pink / orange-y / cream colored Cosmos varieties as well.

For ponds, a few Water Lily cultivars in the Yellow / light Orange spectrum ..Some Blue ( Tropical types ) and -at least- one Purple / Blue Violet cultivar that is supposedly a hardy cross.

[Calosphace]

Good point on the Salvia species. I'll have to research more East Mexican ones but most varieties in cultivation here don't appear to be those, are the more shade-adapted sort. Salvia ballotiflora is particularly promising as I see records of people growing it on limestone hills. Good thing about Salvia is I just need one and I can make plenty more.

did I mention this garden has a recycled-concrete based scree pathway which skews everything alkaline lol? Oh and it borders a somewhat brakish river.

That is why many of the plants I am pushing towards are South-Central FL and hardy Carribbean species adapted to limestone coastal soils. I am hoping my employer will order from some of the suppliers I have found for such species, the only native nursery we currently buy from is based near Gainesville and caters more to north FL stuff.
Basically only Dune sunflower, Mutabilis roses, prostrate rosemary, and Flipside Vitex do well out of the stuff  planted in the low-lying areas near the pathways.

For Zephyranthes I have Ajax which is nice hybrid, pretty much the same as the Zinnia Creamy Yellow Giant.

Additional stuff in the cream spectrum:
Panache Canna glauca
Gopher apple
Magnolia figo 'Hagiwara's Everblooming' [specimen in large container]
Calylophus berlandieri 'Butter Cream'
Golden Chalice Vine
Monarda punctata (very easy to grow from seed native)
one of the evening primroses found here in parking lots

Blue violet:
Guaicum coulteri
Rotheca myricoides
Tibouchina lepidota - Ecuador Princess, Jules Dwarf
Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Blue Empire'
Forked bluecurls
Tradescantia Spiderwort
Iris x louisiana 'Sinfonietta'

maybe Sophora secundiflora 'Silver Peso' but I am unsure if it can handle FL rainfall?

Blue violet in shade:
Salvia Rhythm & Blues
Weeping blue "ginger"
Eranthemum pulchellum
Dichroa febrifuga if it wasnt alkaline but it is lol
 

I'm wondering if I could get a bluebonnet population going on the raised bed that basically is a rockery filled with sand. it is the area with much of the vitex and with the calamint and the TX species of Chocolate daisy that i planted

I have seen Dahlias locally near my home, even west-facing at that! but I'm not sure about this site. definitely work exploring though if we are ever buying from someone who sells them..

Edited January 21, 2024 by Calosphace

[thyerr01]

I've tried both 'Black and Blue' and 'x Amistad' with the former certainly spreading by rhizomes. A dormancy period for 'Black and Blue' is interesting although I don't specifically remember when mine began to struggle. All Salvias I have ever tried (except for S. blepharophylla) get destroyed by Sage leafhoppers, which are meant to be a mild/nuisance pest, and rapidly turn white from leaf damage and then go downhill. Nothing seems to get rid of them from the Salvia (sprays or freezes etc.), but they mostly ignore other Lamiaceae like Scuetellaria or Poliomintha. I assume these others would be completely unaffected if I didn't have a couple of infested S. microphylla around - although I'm now down to just two of those. I don't really understand this as there are nice commercial plantings of Salvia around Houston which don't seem to have these problems. S. microphylla and S. blepharophylla might be a great choices for you as they both come from NE Mexico.

J. californica grows like a weed for me to the point that I have to hack it into shape regularly, but I don't get nice flower displays like you see on wild plants because they get too much water - even in raised beds without dedicated irrigation. Due to the moisture, it favours sprawling vegetative growth in every direction and easily layers itself. This is also only Justicia that flowers for me but doesn't set seed, not sure why. 

Edited January 21, 2024 by thyerr01

[Silas_Sancona]

2 hours ago, Calosphace said:

Good point on the Salvia species. I'll have to research more East Mexican ones but most varieties in cultivation here don't appear to be those, are the more shade-adapted sort. Salvia ballotiflora is particularly promising as I see records of people growing it on limestone hills. Good thing about Salvia is I just need one and I can make plenty more.

did I mention this garden has a recycled-concrete based scree pathway which skews everything alkaline lol? Oh and it borders a somewhat brakish river.

That is why many of the plants I am pushing towards are South-Central FL and hardy Carribbean species adapted to limestone coastal soils. I am hoping my employer will order from some of the suppliers I have found for such species, the only native nursery we currently buy from is based near Gainesville and caters more to north FL stuff.
Basically only Dune sunflower, Mutabilis roses, prostrate rosemary, and Flipside Vitex do well out of the stuff  planted in the low-lying areas near the pathways.

For Zephyranthes I have Ajax which is nice hybrid, pretty much the same as the Zinnia Creamy Yellow Giant.

Additional stuff in the cream spectrum:
Panache Canna glauca
Gopher apple
Magnolia figo 'Hagiwara's Everblooming' [specimen in large container]
Calylophus berlandieri 'Butter Cream'
Golden Chalice Vine
Monarda punctata (very easy to grow from seed native)
one of the evening primroses found here in parking lots

Blue violet:
Guaicum coulteri
Rotheca myricoides
Tibouchina lepidota - Ecuador Princess, Jules Dwarf
Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Blue Empire'
Forked bluecurls
Tradescantia Spiderwort
Iris x louisiana 'Sinfonietta'

maybe Sophora secundiflora 'Silver Peso' but I am unsure if it can handle FL rainfall?

Blue violet in shade:
Salvia Rhythm & Blues
Weeping blue "ginger"
Eranthemum pulchellum
Dichroa febrifuga if it wasnt alkaline but it is lol
 

I'm wondering if I could get a bluebonnet population going on the raised bed that basically is a rockery filled with sand. it is the area with much of the vitex and with the calamint and the TX species of Chocolate daisy that i planted

I have seen Dahlias locally near my home, even west-facing at that! but I'm not sure about this site. definitely work exploring though if we are ever buying from someone who sells them..

 Dermatophyllum ( *** formally Sophora *** ) secundiflorum  is a tough to answer question..  Some info. has suggested that the species -supposedly- can be grown in the Southeast. I've yet to hear of any specimens..  Pretty sure i still have seed of Silver Peso somewhere..  Not hard to find more if i need to..

I wonder how Ruellia californica / peninsularis  would do there ..Survives, if left to it's own / living on rain alone,   but grows quite large / lush if watered regularly. Laughs at the heat,  and flowers almost year round here..

Pretty sure Walking Iris, the big, blue flowered one, is fairly tough / widely grown there..

Any of the Blue / Purple - flowering Brunfelisa  survive up there?

Blue Potato Tree ( Solanum wrightii  * formally S. macranthum * ) and / or Solanum wendlandii (  vine )  maybe..

Though it probably would drop foliage after being nipped by a good frost, Queen's Wreath, Petrea volubilis  ( another vine option ) is pretty tough as well.

If you can find it, Purple Jade Vine, Mucuna cyclocarpa.