Five plants that still look good in a Utah August

There is a moment every August — usually the second week, right after a run of 98-degree days — when a garden either holds together or gives up. The difference is almost never how much you watered. It is which plants went in the ground in the first place.

Russian sage is the easiest win. It keeps a haze of blue flowers going straight through the heat and asks for a deep soak maybe every two weeks. Plant it where it has room; it wants to be three feet across and it will get there.

Blanket flower is next. It is native to the West, it blooms from June until the first hard frost, and the red-and-gold color looks better in harsh light than pastels do.

Autumn Joy sedum is the one people forget. All summer it is just handsome green rosettes, then in late August the flower heads turn rosy and carry the bed until October.

Add hummingbird mint for the birds and blue fescue to tie it all together, and your yard will look deliberate in the worst week of the year. Come see all five in the yard beds out front when we reopen in spring.