Not sure if this is possible or not, but it would be great to be able to list plants as heat tolerant, if they are in fact heat tolerant. It can get very hot where I live during summer, and while many plants are listed as being "full sun" plants, they don't all tolerate the heat without some shade. Knowing that a plant is heat tolerant would be a great help to those of us who have little to no shade in our gardens, in areas where full sun can be much more intense than in other areas where it doesn't get that hot.

Thanks for considering this!

This is an issue I deal w as well sometimes. Many plants say full sun, but that would vary depending on if you live northy or southish.
If you are north, those plants will like full sun. But in the southern states, they burn up in the afternoons and appreciate some shade. Some plants just simply go dormant, or the foliage dies back. Then in the fall they come back when the temps have cooled some. So those plants are not good to use where you want something pretty all summer because they disappear. I think this could be hard to put into the database because it would vary. The comments section would probably be the best for people to report how the plant did for them in the summer and where they live. I do think there is a field to fill in the maximum zone for heat tolerance as well as the usual cold hardiness zone. But full sun or not is more varried and may be a matter of soil or water differences or even preference. What I think does ok in full sun, another person may disagree with. Does full sun tolerance mean the plant survives? flowers,fruits? or that it doesn't nee water everyday? the leaves wilt in the afternoon but perk up in the evening? So may difference ideas of what is acceptable for a plant's performance.

Frilly, I live in North Central Idaho, so it applies to the North sometimes too. Knowing that a plant is heat tolerant wouldn't matter to those who don't have the problem, just as salt tolerant or dry shade tolerant wouldn't apply to people who don't have that problem. But, those are both part of the plant database.

Also, just because a plant will survive in a warmer zone, it doesn't mean that it will survive in full sun, or high heat. I never use the "warmest zone" as an indication of how well a plant will tolerate heat. Some of those plants are for full shade only. I was kind of thinking that having this as a searchable feature would be very helpful. So, I wasn't looking for "full sun tolerance", but for heat tolerance.

Good idea Natalie. I have learned if a plant tag says full sun, I better put it in filtered sun here.

Natalie ...

I agree that this would be important information for the database and is very important for gardeners.

The AHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, that you recommended that I purchase a while back, does give heat zones, but the problem with using it as a definite guide is that arid heat and humid heat are included in the same heat zone category.

Plants that will do well in humid heat zone 8 will fry in my arid heat zone 8.

I think the best I can manage is to look for plants for heat zone 9 or above.

Smiles,
Lyn

There is a "humidity tolerant" option in the database, so adding heat tolerant would help with that, I'd think. Maybe a arid heat or humid heat entry would be needed as well? Not sure if Dave will even agree to any of this, but I hope he will consider it!

This is something that would be of great value to me too.