Salvia? There are many gardenworthy species and quite a few modern hybrids that will look great and require little to no extra work from you. They are usually tolerant of heat, draught (once established) and poor soil. Many are long blooming and some are somewhat seasonal but begin blooming when everything else isn't. Deer aren't fond of them and neither are most insects. They are attractive to pollinators, especially hummingbirds. It is my go-to filler.

Culinary herbs are also very useful for this. Some claim that the soil has to be kept too moist for roses, but I've never had a problem growing them side by side. Currently I am growing marjoram, prostrate rosemary, lavender, flowering oregano and thyme. They may need to be pruned a bit, depending on the variety. Since I use mine, it hasn't been a concern.

Limelight hydrangeas are great shrubs for full sun & heat. Also require very little maintenance. Just annual pruning & deadheading once or twice. Any of the paniculate hydrangeas like sun. There is also a smaller version of limelight called little lime. The green & whites look good with roses. I also love

coneflowers - & there is one for almost any colour now. Again fairly low maintenance.

Gaillardia (blanket flower) - easy, colorful perennial.

ornamental grasses - lots of varieties for those, nice contrast of foliage & shape to traditional roses & shrubs.

I love the hardy geraniums, they come in various sizes & colours, I have quite a few ( from dividing) Rozanne, a gorgeous blue that looks good with almost any colour rose. The campanulas are also a favourite & I love my catmints, I grow the Fassenii with my pink roses. I like several annuals too like nicotiana alata, linaria & violas, they all come back each year for me often in unexpected but not unwanted places. Oh, I forgot the delphiniums, esp the white, blue & mauve ones. I'd better stop, I'm getting carried away.

Jane

I wouldn't put Rozanne out in our hot sun all day--I grow my hardy geraniums in some shade part of the day. I don't know about Oklahoma, but it gets pretty hot and sunny there. Blue Clips campanula does well in full sun here, but Canterbury Bells and others not so good. Catmint and salvia do well in hot sun, but don't bloom as long as I'd like, and both split in the center. I do shear them back and they rebloom. Helleniums are good in all day sun, particularly the short annual, Dakota Gold. Coreopsis of all kinds are sun lovers, too. I guess I could go on all day--I'm a plant nut. Diane

I also forgot to add in hardy hibiscus. They love the sun & heat. I like kopper King for its copper-maroon lobed foliage.

Thank you, Kes. I grow rosemary, and it has done well, but I have not tried the others. I love salvia, except for one kind that seems to look "weedy".

Diane, how pretty your flowers are! I love the coneflowers, echinacea, and rudbeckias. When you purchase snapdragons, do you find a nursery with the larger varieties? I am only familiar with the smaller ones. Yours are so pretty. Other plants that you mention I have tried to grow alone, and they cannot take the heat. I ought to try them again in a bed. I am listing to purchase the others you mention. I have grown coreopteris for years, but it is rather "ragged", growing wild it has become large and leggy, but the blooms are not pretty."s

I just lost what I was writing. Halloblondie, I think I will try hydrangeas again. Early on I was told that they really were not sun flowers for Oklahoma. It is so hot here. But so is the rest of the country.

Thank you, Jane. I love geraniums, but they do need more water than some other plants.

If any of you are still with me, how about shrubs that take care of themselves, but grow less than 5 feet if they are cut back in the winter.

Our property is large, and I have tried to get rid of the grass, and use mulch and stones around the beds. Sadly, I was gone for a month, so am starting over now.

Sammy

Hardy hibiscus are great, but their bloom time isn't as long as some other plants since they tend to start blooming later. I like Luna Red and Fantasia, among others.

Hibiscus Luna Red

I love plumbago (leadwort) which goes into bloom when other perennials are slowing down. There's a taller shrubby version with lime green foliage and the same beautiful cobalt blue flowers. It creeps, but slowly so it's easy to control. Tall blue veronicas have a really long season of bloom. And Stoke's aster, which is available in white in addition to pale blue, blooms for months if deadheaded.

Hi Sammy, have you looked at High Country Gardens website? They have salvias intended for western gardens that are shrub sized (and gorgeous!) I can't grow many of their salvias and agastaches here because we receive too much rainfall so they might be perfect for you.

Sammy, what Cecily said. Salvia can be a shrub and I've had several from High Country Gardens. One of my guilty pleasures is the website for Flowers By the Sea. My salvias tend to be very happy here- sometimes too happy- and outgrow their spots by becoming too wide rather than too tall. I treasure my full sun spots so I either move them or give them away. You may not have that problem. Another shrub that comes to mind is ceanothus americanus or New Jersey tea. It's a native that can be found in most states east of the Rockies. It blooms from spring to early summer with fragrant white bottlebrush flowers. Deer tend to leave it alone as the leaves are also fragrant and it was used as a tea substitute in colonial times. It usually stays at around 3', has a strong root system, tolerant of drought and poor soil and it is nitrogen fixing. Some of the abelias may work for you. Ones like Sunny Anniversary and Rose Canyon are supposed to stay around 3' +/- . I haven't grown these two so maybe someone that has can give their experience. They should be able to tolerate heat and cold. These shrubs have a long blooming period and are semi-evergreen. They can bounce back from a hard pruning if necessary.

What about amsonia hubrichtii? Not a shrub but it may as well be for me. The leaves are thread-like and feathery so it doesn't appear as dense as some shrubs and other plants. Mine stayed around 4' but became very wide for me- 5-6 ft. or so, smothering some of its smaller neighbors, and I moved it. It has multi season interest with bunches of small blue star flowers in spring and bright yellow foliage in fall.

About snapdragons- Diane will need to tell us about hers, they are outstanding, aren't they! I grow a type called Spanish snapdragons that can take the heat and sun and seem to want it. My originals were pink and yellow and came from Plant Delights but I lost them to over-aggressive neighbors (see above). I'm not sure that they could stand up well to aggressive weeds. I am now growing another variety of Spanish snaps- antirrhinum braun-blanquettii- that I started from seed that came from Diane's Seed in Utah. This is the first year but they seem a little bigger and tougher and so pretty! The flowers are a soft lemon yellow with a touch of pink. Our summer has been hot and dry so far and they have done well in both pots and in the ground but it remains to be seen how they handle the winter.

We are both z7 but I'm pretty sure our growing conditions aren't the same. I get btwn 40-50" of rain, have dry, rocky, low-fertility, acidic soil and killer humidity. You probably get stronger wind than we do and that may affect what winters over for you.

I'm pressed for time right now, but will return later. I just wanted to say that Butterfly Bush is certainly a shrub, can take heat, and needs lots of sun. The ones I listed are more compact than the older types. I just observed both monarchs and swallowtails on one of my BBs that's in full bloom. Also there are some new spirea listed on Proven Winners website that rebloom. I plan to get at least one next year (couldn't find any around here this year; they are very new, I guess). Diane

Just had to add this. More snaps and they are totally volunteer. Some of my wildest color combos are volunteer seedlings. Diane

Crazy Snaps

Diane, I love your self-seeded snaps the most. They would look great with my multi-colored roses, like Distant Drums and Chipmunk. I've never had regular snaps self-seed before and now I'm a little bit envious!

Nanadoll, thank for the pictures of the hibiscus. Mine were also pretty this year, but they blew fast because of the heat, I had red and white. The red have been here for about 20 years.

My butterfly bushes were not that large. I will look around at different nurseries.

Barbara, I will get plumbago. I have seen it advertised, just have not tried it.

Cecily, thanks. I will look around there.

Kes, I planted abelia, and it did not make it in the heat. However, I should have babied it more the first year -- and mulched it too.

We moved here from Nashville, and the temps are similar, but our soil tends to be alkalide (spell) We need to add amendments to make it more acidic for the roses. This year we have had very hot weather. The heat index seems to be around 110 daily.

I have 95 roses, and work hard to make my yard look like a garden, and not a rose nursery. The distractions are beautiful.

Do any of you grow coryopertis? It is large, but so pretty. Non roses make the brain say AHH when it sees the rose.

Sammy

Research some trees--like cottonwoods?--that can take the heat and plant one or two along the west side of your planting areas. If your plants get even a few hours protection from the long shadows of the late afternoon killing sunrays, they will perk up considerably.

Of course, if you plant a cottonwood--guaranteed heat lover--you better have a larger property or you need to plant the tree 25 ft from the garden plants. But I still remember West Texas--nothing growing anywhere but a solitary cottonwood. Good news--they may grow in that heat, but they only get half as large as a cottonwood grown up north in, say, S.Dakota. I speak from experience.

Kate

Oh, Kate. Cottonwoods are nasty with all the cotton. Actually our property is not that large, we just killed all the grass, and need to landscape what is left. Shielding the entire yard is a good idea for shade, but we had some trees that had ants, so I am a little more skeptical about trees than I was in the past.

Thanks for the suggestion. We do have 16 crape myrtles that offer some shade.

Sammy

Sammy, I split my time between living in Sand Springs and in Wichita, and I'm amazed at how differently the plants grow in the two places.

Hydrangea will need shade from noon on, no way can it survive out in the sun. My roses are all mixed with perennials, and I try not to leave any ground uncovered!

A good place for you to shop for cool shrubs is Bustani Plant Farm just outside Stillwater. He carries a variegated Beautyberry that works well in mixed beds. Tiger Eye sumac is really an eye catcher in with yellow or purple roses. I use black elderberries and ninebark quite a bit to set off pastel colored roses. The newer hardy hibiscus have a much longer bloom period, stay shorter, have interesting foliage, and bloom all along the stem, not just at the top. You might check out some of the smaller varieties of viburnum also. I have some that handle the sun very well.

The tall snapdragons are easy to grow from seed, and mine come back every year. You should be able to grow nice clumps of cannas without having to lift them in winter. Nepeta (catmint)...newer cultivars such as Kit Kat and Purrsian Blue, are a great replacement for May Night salvia, as they require almost no deadheading to stay in bloom all summer. The red greggii salvia do well here and bloom from May until October. The new Russian Sage is much neater in form. Coreopsis do well in lean rocky soil, as do veronicas, baptisia, penstemon and achillea. Check out some of the newer baptisias! They are wonderful! I include iris, daylilies, lilium and phlox in my beds, and most summers do not irrigate and somehow they all survive. I think planting intensively helps because the roots are shaded.

Small trees/or skinny shrubs that also work well are amalanchier (serviceberry) and aronia. Vitex blooms for a long time, starting well before the crape myrtles. Weigela handle the heat and sun, except for variegated varieties. They do require a bit more water than the other plants I've named.

I keep the abelias and beauty bushes in the shade, and even so, they grow very large. Rose of sharon also gets too big for flower beds. I use a lot of ornamental grasses, but I'm careful to find ones that won't seed about. Rudbeckia, heliopsis, gaillardia, echinacea all work for the first year or two, but if you have enriched soil, you may end up with seedlings everywhere and big floppy plants. I allow larkspur and zinnias to drop seed and welcome them back every year. Asclepias, butterfly weed, is a terrific native perennial in our area. Torch lily, kniphofia, is also a heat lover. Right now, the beds are bursting with naked lily (lycoris) blooms.

There's lots more that can take our heat and sun...that's all I can think of without walking outside to jog my memory!

I can't seem to quit posting here. Love all the suggestions. I agree with so much of what Cindi has written, even though our heat is dry, not humid. I won't even try to grow hydrangreas, but if I did it would be in part shade. Also, I agree with trying black elderberry (Black Lace) and the smaller ninebarks like Summer Wine (or Tiny Wine for something small). If you grow elderberry you can limb it up and treat it as a kind of tree, and thus be able to grow plants much closer to the multiple "trunks". Coreopsis like Early Sunrise are neater and tough with a long bloom period. I agree that it's good to have no dirt showing, if possible, just plants. Not always possible in the desert, but I try. They act as a good mulch and keep the ground cooler. As for my snapdragons, I grow from seed mostly, and buy the tall "Rocket" series. Many are volunteer seedlings, though, or rebloomers in my garden. After about three years of coming back, snaps get woody here, and I tear them out. The best seed grown snaps, by far, were La Bella series, available from Stokes in Canada only, but no more. They quit selling this seed, and it's impossible to get. So I've been buying several kinds of snap seeds on the Swallowtail Garden website. What a great website it is, with unusual offerings, but pricey, of course. Diane

Limbed up Black Lace elderberry. It's allowed to get taller than you would probably want--just prune hard for a shorter plant.

This boxwood green shrub does well in the heat with a lot of sun - http://garden.org/plants/photo/397273/ - I can't say for sure that's the variety, but it looks like the one growing around mom's neighborhood - Sun City in Palm Desert, Ca - gets up to 115-120 there during summers now, and walking around the block the last weekend - the boxwoods were looking really good. It sounds like it can get up to 3', and I think I saw some about 3-4' when there. I'll be back out there Thanksgiving, and can snap some pics if wanted. Sounds like it is also okay with cold, but I also saw a site saying it was good down to zone 9, so not sure how it will do in zone 7 during the colder times.

It seems pretty flexible on shaping and pruning it to get it growing where you want it to. And is supposed to be very slow-growing.

But I've never actually grown it myself - just saw many with it at their desert houses last weekend in Palm Desert.

Melampodium is a great choice, but is very short. I love bee balm, flax, salvia, some sages, daisies (one of my favorites), blanket flower, brown-eyed Susan's, echinacea, dwarf Russian sage, dwarf/strike butterfly bushes with roses.

My Rozanne geranium does surprising well in full sun here, but lavender looks better in the winter.

Diane - I envy you your limbed up elderberry! Every time I try to prune individual limbs of my Black Lace elderberry the whole branch shrivels to the roots and often kills off the main trunk. Last winter for some reason the whole thing died off to the ground and I thought it was a goner. Turns out it was just ramping up for the season.

In my yard, the only way to keep its floppy limbs off the surrounding roses (because of course in every bed there are surrounding roses) is to put 5' high green wire garden fencing around it and hold the limbs up. Since I can't cut 'em off, I have to stick 'em up!

BTW, for the OP this bush does indeed love the hot dry sun, though it only blooms the once in the late spring/early summer for me.

Cynthia

That's very odd, Cynthia. I wish I could make a suggestion, but I've never had that dieback happen. In fact, it constantly tries to pop out new limbs once I've gotten it limbed to where I want it. It received a major pruning on the top last year, too, and came roaring back. It does like the sun and heat, too, as you said, and just blooms once. Other than pruning, it's pretty maintenance free, but mine is a lot taller than 6 feet. Diane

Personally I like sea lavender, salvias, snap dragon, mesembryanthemum, bells of Ireland, and achillea. This year I am also trying eryngium and echinops.

Honeysuckles are good too and smell great

Heliotropes are fragrant too

Passion fruit marigolds have long flowering period and makes good cut flowers with roses.