Full Sun Plants
Smoke Bush Cotinus coggygria is a deciduous shrub that can tolerate some serious drought and pollution. It grows very fast and can tolerate lots of pruning and make excellent cut branches. Pictured here is the ‘Golden Spirit’. The purple Smokebush (see below) is also priced for its dark purple foliage and pink smoke plumes in the spring.
Here is a hardy mid-summer blooming party- Evergreen Creeping Juniper Juniperus procumbens ‘Nana’ provides year round interest (Great spikey shrub to keep dogs and cats away), Lavender and Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ (This particular variety blooms Multi color). Sure to attract pollinators and super low maintenance.
A very soft planting of (from back left corner) White blooming Hydrangea ‘Limelight’, Clethra alnifolia ‘Hummingbird’, Mophead Hydrangeas, Iris, Liatris and Lamb’s Ear. Liatris and Lamb’s Ear are very sun and drought tolerating, but the others prefer regular watering (also work in the shade).
Passion Vine is a annual in our zone in New York, but I have seen them come back when planted somewhere warm and sunny. It can also winter indoors and put back out in the warmer months. If you are lucky, you might get a fruit!
Lily Bulbs are truly rewarding because you plant them in the fall (and then you forget that you did) and all of the sudden they pop up in the spring and deliver amazing smelling blooms year after year.
Lilacs are surprisingly tolerating of full sun and wind exposure. They do require regular watering, they do always get powdery mildew and look bad by the fall, but no one can deny the joy a lilac shrub can bring when it blooms.
Can’t ever go wrong with a succulent bowl. You can put it on a table and forget about it for months. This particular mix (planted by my friend Tina) has a Solanum Pyracanthum, Aeonium, Variegated Agave, Sedums, Sempervivums and Cotyledon orbicular ‘Powdery White’.
Wisteria Vines can be very invasive and can cause major problems when the roots take over the roof. But maybe it’s all worth it when you see the bloom in the spring and the canopy that it can provide for you in the summer.
Here is a list of other Full Sun plants I love:
Rosa ‘Eden Climber’
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’
Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’
Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendula’
Myrica pensylanica
Salix integra ‘Hakuro-nishiki’
Sciadopitys verticillata
Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon’
Spiraea vanhouttei
Tamarix
Taxodium
Cupressus glabra ‘Blue Ice’
Amsonia hubrichtii
Artemisia schmididtiana ‘Silver Mound’
Euphorbia martinii
Nepeta
Muhlenbergia capillaris
Thymus praecox
Perovskia striplicifolia
Chasmanthium latifolium
Here is a close up combination of Globe Arborvitae, Creeping Juniper, Heuchera and Polemonium. All plants are drought tolerating except for Polemonium can use more watering and shade.
This planting has a Purple Smokebush (in bloom), Tiger Eye Sumacs, and Pinus Strobus Nana. Lots of sun, dog pee, pollution and AC vents blowing on these plants- somehow they are surviving year after year.
Allium bulbs are by far the best bulbs for the spring, they are squirrel and deer resistant, they come back year after year and the height they can reach is incredible. I also love how they look when they are spent and even the seed heads laying around the garden look like art.