Need patio plants for instant summer color? Here are my 7 go-to fast-growing flowers to buy right now for joyful pot displays

July is not too late to add colorful plants to your patio. In my experience as a professional gardener, there is still time to be bold with your container displays and inject some energy and impact into the yard.

Patio and pot plants represent the best of summer gardening. You can pick and choose with reckless abandon; well, maybe not total abandon, but you can certainly be more carefree than you might be when picking shrubs and trees. Patio plants are generally annuals or tender perennials, so while they might not survive the winter, they pack a punch and will put on a summer fireworks show in the yard.

So, whether your spring pots have fizzled out or you simply forgot to plant anything at all, don’t hold back. Add in upright blooms, combined with a few trailing species, and let it all erupt. Maximalism is the mood in July, I think, and there are no right or wrong combinations, just joyful blooms. Here are seven flowers to plant in July to elevate your patio this summer.

7 patio flowers to plant in July

While July might feel a little late to be planting up pots for the patio, there are several fast-growing flowering annuals and perennials that will add color to your yard during July, August and September.

These seven plants include bright and brilliant annuals to grow in July that I have tried, tested, and grown myself over my professional career working in public and private gardens across the UK and Italy.

1. Lantana

With clusters of red, orange, pink or yellow flowers, lantana are impactful patio flowers to plant in July.

So easy to grow, perhaps, that lantana might just be the ultimate patio plant that thrives on neglect.

In terms of how to grow lantana in pots, this is a tough, heat-loving and sun-worshipping plant that will grow as an annual in all US hardiness zones, or as a perennial pot plant from zone 8 plus. Wherever you are based, just be sure to provide as much sunshine as possible.

Live colorful lantana starter plants can be ordered via Walmart. Just be sure to give them a deep watering on arrival and get them planted in pots on your patio as soon as possible.

In general, lantana can cope with drought, but I would keep your pots well watered to encourage growth at this late stage in the growing season.

Finally, be sure to learn how to deadhead lantana, snipping any faded blooms as and when you can to ensure that you enjoy flowers until the first frost.

Use these Fiskars deadheading snips to carefully cut down to just above a leaf node, spending five minutes or so a day outside to keep the floral show going. Fiskars deadheading snips are available now via Amazon.

2. Impatiens

Impatiens are some of the best part-shade annuals, tolerating darker beds or north-facing patios.

They can be found in a whole range of colors, from pinks to whites, salmons to yellows, typically blooming for months and months through to fall.

Live impatiens can be ordered now via Amazon. If you get them planted into pots in the first few weeks of July, you should be enjoying flowers right up until October.

In terms of how to grow impatiens, they aren't fussy, really, and can be planted in shade or sun. Just be sure to water every few days to keep them producing flowers.

In hot regions, such as zone 9, I would suggest mulching the top of your patio pots, which should help to reduce the need to water quite so much.

To keep your impatiens in bloom, use something like this organic flower fertilizer, available from Walmart, diluting as per the instructions and applying once every few weeks.

3. Tickseed

Tickseed, or Coreopsis spp., is a perennial flower that is typically grown as an annual in cooler zones, such as zone 4. Yet, there are some hardy varieties, such as 'Rising Sun', that can survive winters even as far north as zone 3, northwards to Maine, Colorado and New York.

I have grown many different tickseed varieties in container gardens, including 'Moonbeam', which has pale lemon-yellow petals that are not too dissimilar in appearance from Cosmos 'Lemonade' (seeds are available via Amazon), which is another patio pot favorite of mine.

Live tickseed plants can be ordered via Amazon.

Helpfully for us, tickseed are long-flowering perennials and annuals, lasting right through until October with regular deadheading.

Just position them in a sunny, sheltered corner, and plant them alongside other colorful annuals and perennials for a maximalist display that is energetic and full of joy. Oh, and a good drink of water every few days will help them on their way, too.

4. Milkweed

Learning how to grow milkweed in pots is an ideal solution for gardeners struggling for space but seeking patio flowers to plant in July.

Most species can survive chilly winter weather down to zone 3, so you might find your pot-grown specimens make it through December and January and return the following spring.

Just be sure to provide plenty of sunshine for this native plant, which thrives in borders or container gardens with six or more hours of direct light. It will do fine in part shade, but you might not enjoy as many flowers.

Asclepias incarnata, a pink-flowering milkweed, is the host plant for monarch butterflies; in other words, where they will lay their eggs and where young caterpillars grow. So, if you are wondering how you can support the monarch butterfly migration, this species is a good one to add to pots.

Live milkweed plants can be ordered online now from Amazon.

Another variety is Asclepias tuberosa, a vibrant orange blooming variety that I adore. It tends to flower right through summer to mid-fall, and when paired with other zingy blooms, like lime-green zinnias or pink cosmos, looks pretty over the top and dramatic... and who wouldn't want that in their summer pots?

Some milkweeds can be a bit leggy or straggly in pots, so I tend to stake lightly using some hazel branches or bamboo canes, before tying a loose ring of string around the stems.

5. Celosia

Celosia is one of the easiest perennials and low-maintenance plants for pots. In a sunny, sheltered corner on your patio or near the back door, they can go on producing dazzling flowerheads for many months.

However, when growing celosia, know that they hate cold and wet weather, so you will want to provide plenty of drainage in your containers. And, most varieties are only hardy in zone 10 plus, so are best thought of as short-lived flowering annuals.

Live celosia plants can be ordered from Walmart.

Celosia plumosa produces plume-like blooms, as you might have guessed by the name, that look impressive when used in most pot displays.

They can be found in a range of vibrant colors, and while they can appear slightly artificial, I think they look best when surrounded by grasses, salvias or coneflowers in a varied display, rather than planted in one solid bedding scheme block.

Try the 'Sunday Dark Pink' for a pink variety, or why not plant 'Arrabona Red' if you enjoy a crimson, darker shade in your yard.

6. Calibrachoa

For me, Calibrachoa is the ultimate patio plant. Add it to a pot, chuck it in a hanging basket, plant in window boxes... it really doesn't matter. Calibrachoa just gets on with it.

It is also known as million bells, for obvious reasons, as each clump will produce masses of tiny flowers that are perfect for summer pot displays.

Sure, it might seem a little traditional in terms of pot plants, but in July, you can still plant this annual, and it will flower and flower.

In terms of how to grow Calibrochoa, it is only hardy to zone 9, so expect it to keep going until the mercury begins to dip, at which point it will quickly brown and die.

Try planting it in front of the verbenas or black eyed Susans, for full-on summer maximalism. And be sure to water your plant every few days to get the most out of it during the hot summer months.

Live calibrachoa plants can be ordered from Proven Winners, sold via Walmart.

7. Geraniums

You might turn your nose up at geraniums. Believing them to be slightly old-fashioned or too traditional? Yet I think that solid pops of bold geranium color in rustic, aged terracotta pots can work wonders.

When gardening in Italy, red geraniums were a common sight across much of Tuscany, and not only did they look good, but they seemed to flower relentlessly all summer long.

Whether sun or rain, wind or drought, geraniums seem to cope with little help needed. So, for a sun-drenched patio, geraniums are surely a no-brainer?

Live pink geranium plants can be ordered now via Amazon.

Position your pots in a location with plenty of sun, and ideally in a place where you can brush the leaves, which kick out a peppery, citrus scent, which I adore.

In terms of how to keep geraniums blooming, do not stop deadheading them, snipping any faded flowers to encourage new ones to shoot.

Whatever you decide to grow, just remember to give flowering plants in pots a good watering every few days (or every day, if the temperature is high), and feed with a bloom booster fertilizer once every two weeks.

Sure, it is late in the season to be planting annuals and perennials, but you can still inject some fun and joyful color into your plot for the months of the growing season that we are still to enjoy.

For more inspiration, see our guide on how to grow salvia in pots, for an easy but impactful perennial that will thrive on sunny patios.

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