The Best Flowers for Pots in Full Sun

Full sun flowers are some of the most beautiful, colorful plants you can grow. Many need six or more hours of sun each day, although some appreciate a little afternoon shade or filtered light in very hot climates. Be sure to check your plants for full sun often to see if they need water.

For added color and interest, mix your full sun plants in a flower container. (They should be able to tolerate full sun.) Flowering shrubs for sun, such as small hydrangeas, annuals that can take the heat, like zinnias and marigolds, and perennials that need sun, like coneflowers, are just a few possibilities. Read on for more sunny suggestions.

When you're looking for full sun flowers for pots, consider summer snapdragons, lantana, mandevilla vines and portulaca. This planter of full sun flowers includes 'Akila Lavender Shades' osteospermums (also known as African or Cape Daisies), 'Cool Wave Frost' spreading pansies and 'Clear Crystal' white alyssum. All of them thrive in sun and this combination will give you blooms from spring into fall.

An old-fashioned favorite, zinnias had a makeover in 2018 when Ball Horticultural Company introduced this hot weather-happy zinnia. Zahara zinnia (Zinnia marylandica) unfurls non-stop flowers (no more deadheading) and leaves packed with disease resistance (no more powdery mildew). Drought-tolerant Zahara forms a mound 12 to 18 inches tall and wide, so they look tidy in a container. Look for varieties that open blossoms in a rainbow of hues.

When you plant Diamond Frost euphorbia, you're planting one of the most award-winning plants ever developed. More than 400 universities and botanical gardens have named it one of their top plants. This easy-care gem forms a blizzard in a pot, opening white flowers all season long. It grows best in sun, but flowers well in part shade, too.