13 Heat-Tolerant Perennials for Late Summer

By the middle of August, a lot of gardens start to sag. The early roses are done, the annuals look tired, and the whole bed reads a little spent just when you most want to be sitting out in it. The fix that has worked best for me is leaning on heat-tolerant perennials — the kind that wait until late summer to hit their stride and keep blooming right up to frost. They come back every year on their own, ask for almost nothing once they’re settled, and they’re covered in bees and butterflies all afternoon. If your late-season beds always seem to fizzle out, these are the plants that turn that around.

As an Amazon Associate, Backyard Superstar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Below are 13 dependable perennials that shrug off heat, drought, and poor soil while feeding pollinators when the rest of the garden is winding down. I’ve grouped them by how I actually use them — sun-loving daisies, tall back-of-border natives, fragrant pollinator magnets, tough plants for dry spots, and cool-toned bloomers for fall — with planting and care notes at the end.

How to Choose Heat-Tolerant Perennials That Earn Their Spot

Before you fall for a pretty picture on a plant tag, check two things: your USDA hardiness zone and the conditions of the spot you’re planting into. A perennial is only “easy” if it’s hardy where you live and matched to the light and soil you’ve actually got. Most of the plants here are happiest in full sun — six or more hours a day — and in soil that drains well rather than staying soggy. Get those two things right and the rest is mostly leaving them alone.

I also lean native wherever I can. Plants that evolved in your region tend to handle local heat and dry spells without fuss, and they’re the ones your native bees and butterflies are built to use. Non-native perennials aren’t off-limits, but a few can spread aggressively and crowd out everything around them, so it’s worth a quick check before you plant. If you want to read more about pairing the right natives together, my guide to the best native plants for pollinator gardens is a good companion to this list.

If you’re starting a bed from scratch or filling a big bare patch, an easy and inexpensive way in is a perennial seed mix. The Eden Brothers All Perennial Wildflower Seed Mix is a nice match for this list — it’s a non-GMO blend built around long-lived, pollinator-friendly perennials like coneflower, blanket flower, black-eyed Susan, yarrow, and bee balm, all of which show up below (budget range, $). Perennials grown from seed usually spend their first year settling in and bloom in earnest the year after, so think of it as a patient, low-cost way to cover ground. If you’d rather have a fuller bed faster, buy a few of the standouts below as started plants and let the seed mix fill in around them.

Sun-Loving Daisies That Bloom Until Frost

If I could only plant one family for late summer, it would be the daisies. They’re tough, they’re cheerful, they bloom for months, and the flat, open flowers are perfect landing pads for bees and butterflies. These four are the backbone of my sunny beds.

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Classic purple petals swept back from a spiky orange-bronze cone — and modern varieties now come in white, pink, red, orange, and yellow too. Coneflowers form tidy clumps that prefer full sun and well-drained soil but will tolerate sandy or rocky ground and go without water once established. The sturdy two-to-four-foot stems hold up beautifully, and if you leave the spent cones standing into fall, goldfinches will pick them clean. They bloom from mid-July until frost and draw bees and butterflies the whole time.

Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta and relatives)

Golden petals around a dark chocolate center, in absolute abundance from midsummer into early fall. Black-eyed Susans handle clay or sandy soil, take intermittent drought in stride, and pests and deer mostly leave them alone. Deadheading keeps the flowers coming, but I leave some seed heads up for the birds. At two to three feet they look wonderful woven through native grasses and other late bloomers, and the native bees find them by the dozen.

Tickseed (Coreopsis spp.)

Coreopsis throws bright yellow or bicolored daisy flowers from late spring all the way into October. The clumps stay neat unless you let them self-seed, which I sometimes do on purpose to fill a gap. Give them full sun and well-drained soil; a quick shear after the first big flush brings on a strong second wave. They range from one to three feet, so there’s a tickseed for the front or the middle of a border, and the bees and butterflies are constant visitors.

Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata)

Named for the way its red-and-yellow blooms carpet the ground like a Native American blanket, gaillardia is happiest in average to poor soil and laughs at heat and drought. It forms low, spreading clumps a foot or two high. Shear off the spent stems after the first flush and you’ll get another round of those warm, sunset-colored flowers. Pollinators love the nectar, and dropped seed reseeds itself into colorful drifts — perfect for a rock garden, a cottage border, or a meadow-style planting.

Tall Native Perennials for the Back of the Border

Every border needs height at the back, and these three natives deliver it while feeding pollinators at eye level. They’re the plants visitors always ask about.

Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum)

Big, soft clusters of dusty pink to mauve flowers crown stems that can reach six to eight feet — this is a statement plant. It naturally grows in wet meadows and along stream banks, so it does best in average garden soil that you don’t let dry out completely. Butterflies, monarchs especially, mob the nectar-rich heads. Cut the stiff old stems back in spring to make way for fresh growth. If eight feet is too much for your space, look for a dwarf type like Eutrochium dubium, which tops out around three to four feet.

Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)

Don’t let the name scare you off — sneezeweed’s pollen is heavy and insect-carried, not the windborne kind that sets off hay fever. What you get instead are daisy-like flowers in fiery yellow, orange, and red that open in late summer and burn on into autumn. It likes moist soil, reaches two to five feet, and stands firm even in wind. Pests and disease rarely bother it, deer tend to pass it by, and it’s a natural for a rain garden or a damp border.

Goldenrod (Solidago spp.)

Those bright yellow plumes that light up roadsides from August into October are goldenrod, and they’re unfairly blamed for fall allergies — the real culprit is ragweed blooming at the same time. Goldenrod’s pollen is too heavy to travel on the wind; it relies on insects, and honeybees, bumblebees, and butterflies forage it hard. Native species grow across North America in everything from wet ground to dry prairie. Give it full sun and average to moist soil, and divide it every three years or so to keep it vigorous and in bounds.

Fragrant Perennials That Pull in Pollinators

A couple of these earn their place with scent as much as color. Brush past them on a warm evening and you’ll see what I mean — and the hummingbirds and bees seem to agree.

Bee Balm (Monarda spp.)

A member of the mint family, bee balm makes mounds of aromatic foliage topped with shaggy, almost firework-shaped blooms in red, pink, purple, or white. Because it spreads by underground runners, I keep it in a contained bed or a raised border so it doesn’t wander. It flowers from midsummer into fall and is a magnet for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Crush a leaf and you’ll catch a bright, minty scent. In hot climates, give it a little afternoon shade and good airflow to keep powdery mildew at bay.

Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

Spikes of soft lavender-blue flowers rise from licorice-scented foliage from midsummer into early fall. This is another mint-family plant, growing two to four feet, and it tolerates a bit of light shade — which makes it a useful mid-border choice in hot regions — though full sun and well-drained soil give you the best show. Bees and hummingbirds visit it nonstop. Cut the spent spikes back and you’ll often coax a modest rebloom out of it.

Tough Perennials for Hot, Poor, Dry Soil

For the spots that defeat everything else — the hot strip by the driveway, the thin soil along a south wall — these two are the answer. They’re also the heart of any water-smart xeriscape planting.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

With ferny, almost feathery foliage and flat-topped clusters of tiny blooms, yarrow is a drought-proof workhorse. The wild form is white, but cultivars bring in yellow, pink, red, orange, and lavender. Plant it in full sun with well-drained soil and, once it’s established, it asks for next to nothing. It runs one to three feet tall, the open flower heads draw bees and beneficial insects, and the dried blooms hold their color for arrangements.

Stonecrop (Sedum spp.)

Sedums are succulents, so their thick, water-storing leaves are built for heat and drought. Low-growing types form mats you can use as groundcover, while upright kinds like ‘Autumn Joy’ reach two feet or more and finish the season with broad flower heads in white, yellow, pink, red, or burgundy. They need almost no care beyond cutting back spent stems and dividing every few years. Best of all, those late blooms are a crucial nectar stop for bees, wasps, and hoverflies right before frost shuts things down.

Cool-Toned Bloomers That Carry the Garden into Autumn

When the warm colors start to fade, these two pick up the baton in blues and purples and stretch the season a few more precious weeks.

Asters (Symphyotrichum spp.)

Late-blooming asters open in blue, violet, pink, and white just as the mums come on, and they’re one of the last big nectar sources of the year. Full sun gives you the most flowers, though some take light shade. Soil rich in organic matter with steady moisture grows the strongest stems — tall types can hit four feet, while compact ones stay around one to two. Asters naturalize easily into soft drifts that pollinators work on cool autumn afternoons.

Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)

Sometimes called wild ageratum, blue mistflower sends up fuzzy clusters of sky-blue flowers from late summer into early fall — an unusual and welcome true-blue in the garden. It spreads by rhizomes but doesn’t bully its neighbors the way some spreaders do. The one-to-two-foot stems shine in moist to average soil and in naturalized settings like a pond edge or a meadow bed. Monarchs and other butterflies seek it out, and dividing the clumps every few years keeps it healthy.

Planting and Care Tips for a Long Late-Summer Show

The beauty of this whole list is how little it asks once everything’s in the ground. A handful of habits are all it takes to keep these perennials blooming for years.

Plant in spring or early fall. Either shoulder season lets roots settle before the real heat or hard frost arrives. Dig each hole as deep as the rootball and twice as wide, set the plant at the same depth it grew in the pot, backfill, and water it in well. A hand tool that does double duty for this is a hori hori — the Nisaku Hori Hori Garden Knife has a stout stainless blade with a serrated edge and depth markings, so it digs planting holes, slices through tough crowns when you divide, and cuts roots and twine without your switching tools (premium range, $$$). It’s the one tool I reach for most when I’m setting out a flat of perennials.

Water deeply while they establish, then ease off. For the first season, water new perennials regularly so the roots reach down. After that, most of the plants here are genuinely drought-tolerant and prefer a deep soak now and then over frequent sprinkles. A Rocky Mountain Goods Flat Soaker Hose snaked through the bed delivers water slowly right at the soil line, which keeps the foliage dry — a real help against the powdery mildew that bee balm and asters are prone to (mid-range, $$). Watering low and slow beats overhead sprinklers for nearly everything on this list.

Deadhead and shear to keep the blooms coming. Snipping off spent flowers tells many of these plants to make more instead of setting seed, and a quick shear after the first flush brings on a second wave on coreopsis and blanket flower. A clean cut is easier on the plant than tearing by hand, and a basic pair like the Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears handles soft perennial stems all season (budget range, $). Toward fall, though, I leave the coneflower and black-eyed Susan seed heads standing — the finches need them, and they look lovely with frost on them.

Divide every few years. Clumps of bee balm, goldenrod, asters, and yarrow stay healthiest if you lift and split them every three years or so in spring. It rejuvenates tired centers, keeps spreaders in check, and gives you free plants to fill out the bed or pass over the fence. If you’d like more plants in this low-effort spirit, my roundup of low-maintenance perennial flowers and these sun-loving perennials with season-long blooms pair naturally with everything here. And if you want to turn this list into a full planting plan, start with how to design a pollinator garden so the bloom times overlap from spring to frost.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the easiest heat-tolerant perennials for a beginner?
Coneflower, black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, and yarrow are about as forgiving as perennials get. They take heat and drought once established, bloom for months, and need little beyond occasional deadheading.

How much sun do these perennials need?
Most want full sun — six or more hours a day. A few, like anise hyssop and some asters, tolerate light afternoon shade, but flowering is always strongest in plenty of sun.

How often should I water heat-tolerant perennials?
Water regularly through the first season so roots establish. After that, a deep soak every week or two during dry spells is usually plenty — most of these plants prefer infrequent, deep watering over frequent sprinkling.

When is the best time to plant perennials?
Spring or early fall. Both give the roots time to settle in before extreme heat or hard frost, which means less watering and less transplant stress.

Do I need to deadhead these perennials?
Deadheading keeps many of them blooming longer, and a shear after the first flush brings a second wave on coreopsis and blanket flower. In fall, leave coneflower and black-eyed Susan seed heads up for the birds.

Will these perennials really attract pollinators?
Yes — every plant on this list is a reliable nectar or pollen source. Late bloomers like asters, goldenrod, and stonecrop are especially valuable because they feed bees and butterflies when little else is flowering.