Some plants naturally bloom late in the season or do not seem to mind the heat. If we plant them in early fall, they will bloom until the first freeze.

For late summer color, tuck Mexican bush sage and Maximillian sunflower into the back of a flower bed. Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) grows all summer to a height of 3 to 4 feet before setting lavender blooms as soft as an old-fashioned chenille bedspread. Maximillian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) grows from 4 to 12 feet tall, depending on the amount of water it receives. This perennial sets all of its yellow blossoms in the fall to the delight of lesser goldfinches and other birds.

In the front of a border or in the wild spaces between desert trees and cactus, plant Angelita daisy and blackfoot daisy. Angelita daisy (Tetraneuris acaulis), a native wildflower, maintains a petite mound of thin leaves with bright yellow daisies and yellow centers floating on wiry stems. With or without water, once established, this indomitable plant blooms 10 months of the year. Charming white daisies with yellow centers cover Blackfoot daisies (Melampodium leucanthum) all summer and fall. This mounding plant gets about a foot wide and a foot tall and requires little water. Both of these wildflowers grow in full sun.

New Gold lantana (Lantana camara ‘new gold’) and gazania (Gazania species) are visitors from other hot climates. As long as water is applied regularly, the hot days of summer drive new gold lantana to a four-foot diameter of rich gold flower clusters that last until the first freeze. Gazanias migrated to our desert from South Africa. In colors of yellow, orange, pink and white, these plants will fill an area with multiple daisy shaped blooms from sunup to sunset. These flowers close at dusk or on a cloudy day. However, they often will bloom even during our winter warm spells.

For a bright spot of color in the garden, plant Mexican Fire (Anisacanthus quadrifidus wrightii ‘Mexican Fire’). The orange-red tubular flowers attract hummingbirds. This 3 foot tall and wide shrub wakes up slowly in the spring, but makes up for its slow start with brilliant blooms from June through October.

Grasses are especially appealing, as their seed heads stretch above the leaves, giving them a soft look when they are backlit and blowing in the breeze. Purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum' ) --everyone’s favorite grass -- reaches its full potential in fall, when the weight of the showy purple seed heads causes the grass to weep above its dark leaves. This grass grows to four feet tall and wide. It is often sold as a perennial, though, to gardeners’ disappointment, it more often acts like an annual. Regal mist (Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘Regal Mist’) creates a smoky burgundy mist above 3-foot mounds of blue-green leaves in fall. This grass is reliably perennial and is related to many of our native grasses. Our native deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) has white spikes above a mound of weeping green stems.

Our gardens need not be boring at this time of year. We can plant some of these tough but beautiful performers to bloom through the fall. Then we can sit back on the patio and enjoy the season.