Best Container Plants for Full Sun
If you want your summer garden or outdoor living space to truly come to life this summer, a couple of beautiful patio plants may be what you are looking for. Whether it’s a vibrant, intense and bright colorful look you want or a more curated color theme that you are going for with showy flowers in summer containers – the coming season will let you embrace it! It’s not easy to beat the heat with plants if you live in a warm weathered, humid climate like we do in North Florida… finding the best container plants for full sun and heat tolerant is key!
Here is a selection of some container planting ideas that are easy to maintain summer plants for heat and drought. All of these options can grow in a wide range of climate zones but be sure to check your zone at the top of the website before choosing anything.
The best plants for container gardening are easy to care for, low maintenance, and provide a beautiful view or fruit to pick. Whether you are looking for summer flowering plants like roses or evergreen container plants like Phillies. We have tons of options here at Perfect Plants!
Shrubs for Pots in Full Sun
1. Rose Bushes
Roses in summer containers are every gardener’s dream. They are the perfect summer plants that allow you to be able to brighten any living space, while also giving it a stylish and trendy twist. Roses are actually easier to grow in pots and containers, especially if your garden soil is not very high quality, to begin with. Growing them in containers will allow you to be able to control the kind of environment that they are in – what soil they are planted in, how much water they get, and their daily sunlight exposure.
Depending on which color excites you more, here are some of our top gardener recommendations:
2. Gardenias
Gardenias are known for their white flower heads and shiny leaves, gardenias are not very demanding plants. They will grow almost anywhere if you give them a chance – preferably in containers. They’re perfect as heat tolerant plants because they aren’t particularly fond of cold winter temperatures. Their creamy shade and exotic fragrance is the perfect duo for you to create the ideal summer aesthetic using these summer container plants. Have flower blooms all season long even during the hottest days of summer!
Potted gardenias have long been known to accentuate indoor spaces such as porches, patios and even kitchens. Give these beautiful summer plants a shot if you want an aromatic garden this summer with long blooms.
Not only are they great for your landscape, but they also make beautiful cut flowers. Three of our most popular varieties for full sun include:
3. Loropetalum
Loropetalum earns its spot in a full sun container for one simple reason: the color never quits. That burgundy foliage holds all year in the South, and the more direct sun it gets, the deeper the wine tones run. Come late winter into spring you get those fringy pink blooms covering the whole plant, and most varieties will throw a lighter second flush later in the season. They handle heat well once established, take pruning without sulking, and their fibrous root system is happy in a pot as long as the drainage is good. We grow these on our North Florida farm and see them thrive in containers on patios, porches, and along walkways where a plain green shrub would fade into the background.
- Ruby Loropetalum stays compact and mounded, which makes it one of the easiest to keep in scale with a container without constant shearing. Deep ruby-purple leaves, hot pink blooms.
- Zhuzhou Loropetalum is the upright grower of the group. Give it a large pot and it becomes a living screen or a patio specimen with near-black foliage and bright fuchsia flowers.
- Cerise Charm Loropetalum holds a tidy rounded habit with rich cherry-pink blooms against dark leaves. A good pick for a matched pair flanking a doorway.
4. Blueberry Bushes
Blueberries are one of the few edibles that actually do better in a container than in a lot of Southern yards. The reason is soil pH. They want it acidic, somewhere in the 4.5 to 5.5 range, and that is a whole lot easier to hit and hold in a pot than it is to fight your native ground for. Fill with a peat-heavy mix, give them six or more hours of direct sun, and you get glossy foliage through summer, red-orange fall color, and buckets of fruit within arm's reach of the back door. One thing worth knowing before you buy: rabbiteye blueberries need a second variety nearby to set a full crop. A single bush will fruit lightly, but two different varieties flowering together will give you noticeably bigger, more abundant berries. We grow all our blueberry plants here on the farm and ship them ready to produce.
- Tifblue Blueberry Bush is the workhorse rabbiteye of the Southeast and the one we recommend most often. Heavy yields of large, sweet, light blue berries in mid to late season, and it handles heat and less-than-perfect conditions better than most. Pair it with another rabbiteye variety for the best fruit set.
- Assortment of 3 Blueberry Bushes takes the guesswork out of pollination entirely. We hand-select three compatible varieties that bloom together and ripen at staggered times, so you get cross-pollination handled and a harvest window that stretches across several weeks instead of one busy fortnight.
5. Hydrangea Bushes
The full sun rule with hydrangeas depends entirely on which type you are planting. Panicle hydrangeas are the sun lovers of the family, and they need that direct light to push the heaviest bloom and the best color change through the season. Six to eight hours puts them right where they want to be. Picture a row of them along a west-facing fence where the afternoon light hits hardest, or a pair anchoring the corners of a sunny front walk, or a single specimen out in the middle of the lawn where nothing shades it. They also do beautifully in a large container on an open deck, cone-shaped blooms opening creamy white in early summer and deepening to pink and rose as the nights cool. If your yard leans shadier, our hydrangea collection has bigleaf and oakleaf types that prefer morning sun with afternoon protection.
- Little Quick Fire Hydrangea blooms about a month ahead of other panicle varieties, so you get color early and hold it well into fall. It tops out around three to five feet, which makes it one of the few hydrangeas that stays in scale in a container or a tight foundation bed without heavy pruning. Full sun brings out the deepest pink finish.
Pro Gardener Tip
Not every hydrangea wants full sun. Panicle types like Little Quick Fire are bred for it and bloom hardest with six or more hours of direct light. Mophead and lacecap hydrangeas are a different story. Put those in all-day Southern sun and they will wilt by noon and scorch at the leaf edges no matter how faithfully you water. Check the type before you pick the spot.
