Many perennials can be planted in sunny spots and will provide beautiful blooms and foliage year after year. Perennials give the garden dependable color and continuous flowers.
Ozark sundrops (Oenothera tetragona) are quite heat and sun-tolerant and will shower the garden with sunny, yellow flowers each year. Fleabane (Erigeron speciosus) is also quite heat-tolerant and will send out many small, white flowers all summer. The purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) grows tall and stately in the sunshine, offering vibrant flowers in the summer and dark seedheads for the birds to nibble in the fall.
Perennials in sunny spots will need heavily composted soil and plenty of water, to combat the heat. Water deeply in the morning, if the day will be hot. Add mulch to the base of plants to provide a little cooling insulation and moisture retention for root systems. Bark chips, straw and leaves make great summer mulches for perennials.
Some perennial herbs love a sunny garden. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is a fragrant perennial groundcover that thrives in hot, sunny patches that would cause other plants to wilt. It’s creeping woody stems conserve water and grip rock walls and corners. It’s tiny, spicy leaves release fragrant oils on hot days, adding a lovely smell to the garden.
Some vegetables are sun-loving perennials and may be harvested from year to year, without harming the plant. To the contrary, they need to be thinned in order to thrive. One such vegetable is the Jerusalem artichoke, also known as a sunchoke (Helianthus tuberosus). The sunchoke produces tall stalks and lovely flowers every year but the delicious portion lies in its numerous tubers right at or underneath the soil. These can be harvested and cooked in many ways; their delicate meaty flavors translate to multiple dishes. Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) is another perennial vegetable that will tolerate sun, mostly because it is an early plant that matures in the spring, when the temperatures are still cool. Harvest stems for strawberry-rhubarb pie and other delights. Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) will thrive for years in a perennial bed, shooting up tender, delicious stalks every year. However, it cannot be harvested much until the third year, to give it time to establish roots.
Many perennials do well in full sunlight and will produce both the edible and the visual pleasures that feed the gardener year after year.
