Progressive Plants Plants for a Beautiful Garden in Extreme Heat By Progressive Plants
Living here in Utah, we have to contend with some extreme temperatures—well below freezing during the winter months, and over 100 degrees in the summer. Our challenge is to find plants that can thrive in both of these extremes. You select plants for your yard based on their hardiness rating, but that rating only tells half the story. A plant’s hardiness is determined by its ability to withstand the cold, yet not all cold-hardy plants can handle the hot, dry, months of summer in Utah. Summer heat is one thing, but magnified summer heat is altogether different. Every yard has microclimates. Some areas are cooler and more protected from the sun and other areas are hot. But almost every landscape has a few spots
that feel like the devil himself couldn’t tolerate living there. Typically, these are areas that are not protected from the summer sun, and places where heat is magnified by a nearby structure.
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