Plants for Full Sun

Full sun on a plant label means six or more hours of direct light a day, and if that describes your beds, this collection was assembled for you. Rather than fighting the light with shade cloth and constant watering, the smarter path is stocking those beds with plants that treat strong sun as fuel.

Begin with a simple sun map. Walk the garden at 9am, midday and 4pm on a clear day and note which areas stay lit at all three checks; those are your true full sun zones, and they often cover less ground than you expect. Within them, group plantings by water needs, a practice known as hydrozoning, so heat lovers that want dry feet are not sharing irrigation with thirstier flowering shrubs. Flower production is the payoff of full sun, since most heavy blooming species produce noticeably more colour with every extra hour of light, which is why the brightest bed in the garden should almost always be the flower bed. Soil preparation matters more in sun than shade: dig through compost before planting and water in with a seaweed solution to reduce transplant shock during warm weather.

Expect a short adjustment period. Nursery grown stock is raised under partial protection, so even genuine sun lovers can show minor leaf bronzing in their first fortnight of full exposure. It is cosmetic and new growth emerges fully acclimatised; just avoid planting out during a declared heatwave and keep water up for the first six weeks.

If your project leans toward trees and large screening specimens for hot sites, the sun tolerant trees and plants collection covers the same territory at greater scale, and pairing sun lovers with an easy watering routine is exactly what the moderate water collection is for. For riotous colour in baking positions, see our bougainvillea care guide, and for a native that flowers hardest in open sun, the kangaroo paw care guide.