Climate Tough Flowers: Which Plants Can Withstand a Changing Climate?

Climate change is bringing harsher conditions to gardens and wild landscapes alike. Around the world, we are seeing more intense droughts, heavier downpours, heatwaves, and other extremes. Australia in particular – the world’s driest inhabited continent – faces a future of longer dry spells and unpredictable rains.

Yet nature offers some hope in the form of resilient flowering plants. These hardy “flowers of the climate change” have evolved to survive and even thrive under extreme conditions, from parched deserts to flooded wetlands. By learning from scientific research, sustainability practices, and Indigenous knowledge, we can celebrate and cultivate these resilient blooms.

Below, we explore several categories of climate-hardy plants – focusing on Australian flora where possible – and highlight specific species that can help create beautiful, sustainable gardens despite the challenges of a warming world.

The team and I at Lily's Florist took ages to create this article. In fact, the original is over two years old, but after we read it again we were not overly happy with it. So below, you will find the updated, refreshed version of our take, on what may or may not lie ahead for us all! Hope you enjoy xx.

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Drought-Tolerant Plants

With worsening droughts and water shortages, drought-tolerant plants are more valuable than ever. In Australia, drought is a recurrent fact of life – about 90% of all rainfall evaporates, and less than 10% becomes runoff to feed rivers. Climate projections show winter and spring rains could decrease by around 15% by 2030 in southern Australia, making “water-wise” gardening essential.

Drought-hardy plants have adaptations that allow them to survive with minimal moisture. Many have deep root systems to tap groundwater, small or waxy leaves to limit evaporation, or succulent tissues to store water for dry times. Succulents are classic drought survivors – their fleshy leaves act as water reservoirs and often have a waxy coating to seal in moisture. Even during prolonged dry spells, these plants stay plump and alive when others would wilt.

Australia’s native flowers includes a remarkable array of drought-tolerant flowers. The Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa), for example, comes from central Australia’s arid interior and flaunts brilliant red blooms after rare rains. Once seedlings establish, this plant needs “minimal watering” and absolutely demands perfect drainage to avoid rot. Its strategy is to grow and flower quickly when moisture is available, then endure long dry periods as a hardy seed or tuber.

Another resilient bloomer is the Strawflower (Xerochrysum bracteatum), also known as the paper daisy. Native to Australia’s dry grasslands, the strawflower is “drought tolerant” and produces vibrant, everlasting blooms that can continue for months. These cheery daisies have stiff, papery petals that conserve water, allowing the flowers to hold their colour even when dried – hence their popularity as “everlastings.” Gardeners value strawflowers as they need little water and almost no pampering once established.

Shrubs and trees can be drought-hardy too. Grevilleas – a diverse genus of Australian native shrubs – are noted for coping with very limited water. In fact, many grevillea species are “drought-tolerant, making them ideal for water-wise gardens.” Grevilleas reward minimal watering with spectacular spider-like or toothbrush-shaped flowers rich in nectar, which not only brighten the landscape but also feed birds and pollinators.

Similarly, bottlebrush plants (Callistemon spp.), famous for their bristly red flower spikes, survive dry spells once their roots reach deeper soil moisture. The Australian National Botanic Gardens notes that most bottlebrush species are “very hardy and will tolerate drought and limited maintenance” despite also tolerating damp conditions. This toughness makes bottlebrushes a popular choice for tough sites – they’ll put on a gorgeous floral show even if you forget to water them for a while.

Globally, many beloved “low-maintenance” garden flowers owe their success to drought tolerance. The Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) of North America’s prairies is a prime example. Once established in a sunny spot, coneflowers are “heat and drought tolerant champions,” needing only occasional rain to bloom summer after summer.

Likewise, Mediterranean plants like lavender, rosemary, and sage are adapted to hot, dry summers – their aromatic oils and small grey leaves are evolutionary tricks to reduce water loss, and they thrive in gravelly soils where few other flowers persist.

Even edible plants can be drought-hardy: Aboriginal Australians have long harvested native bush foods such as quandong (Desert Peach) and old man saltbush, species that survive in some of the country’s driest, saltiest soils. These plants provided sustenance in lean times, and today they’re finding new roles in sustainable farming and gardening because they require so little water or fertilisation.

Incorporating drought-tolerant plants into gardens is a smart climate adaptation strategy. Not only do these hardy species keep blooming when water is scarce, they also help save precious drinking water. Landscaping with natives that “evolved to cope with seasonal drought” means your garden can stay green (and multicoloured) through the next dry spell.

It’s a beautiful win-win: you get reliable flowers and foliage, and you use a fraction of the water required by thirstier exotic plants. With drought-tough plants like succulents, grevilleas, and strawflowers on your side, a garden can survive and shine even under a merciless sun.

Flood-tolerant plants

Ironically, even as droughts worsen, climate change is also causing heavier downpours and flooding in many regions. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, so when it rains, it can pour. Garden plants that can’t tolerate saturated soils may suffer root rot or literally drown during prolonged floods.

Enter the flood-tolerant plants – species adapted to “wet feet” and periodic inundation. These plants often come from wetlands, riverbanks, or monsoon climates and have unique adaptations for an aquatic lifestyle. Some develop spongy tissues (aerenchyma) in their roots and stems to transport oxygen when the soil is waterlogged. Others can survive submersion by going dormant or growing new shoots above the water.

Having a few flood-hardy flowers in your landscape is insurance against water-logging disasters, especially in low-lying garden spots or areas with clay soil that puddles in heavy rain. It’s a popular myth that all Australian natives love dry, sandy soil – in reality, “thousands of native Australian plant species have adapted to damp, boggy wetlands”, as ABC’s Gardening Australia reminds us.

Water-loving natives can turn a soggy corner of the yard into a lush habitat. One charming example is Water Hyssop (Bacopa monnieri), a creeping groundcover with small succulent leaves and pretty white flowers. It naturally grows along creek edges and in shallow water. In a garden, Bacopa will cheerfully spill over the sides of a pot with no drainage, essentially creating a mini wetland.

Another wetland specialist is the Knobby Club-rush (Ficinia nodosa), an Australian sedge. This rush thrives in boggy soil and even standing water, making it perfect for rain gardens that catch storm runoff. It features clumping grass-like foliage and little brown ball-like flower clusters on the stem tips – hence the name “club-rush.” Importantly, Ficinia not only survives floods but “works well in a rain garden to filter water” and provides habitat for small frogs and insects. It’s doing double duty for resilience and biodiversity.

Trees and shrubs adapted to floodplains are often excellent garden survivors. The Willow Bottlebrush (Callistemon salignus) is one such plant – in the wild it’s found “along creek beds or in areas which are prone to floods”. Unlike fussier species, bottlebrushes won’t complain if their roots stand in water for a while. In fact, they evolved to handle alternating flood and drought: after the waters recede, they can tough out dry periods too.

Gardeners with heavy clay or seasonally wet soil have long noticed that bottlebrushes and their close relatives, the paperbark melaleucas, grow where other shrubs fail. Paperbark trees (Melaleuca spp.), with their spongy, peeling bark and fluffy white flowers, often dominate swampy coastal flats. You’ll see them tolerating extremes – “dried out by sea breezes and drenched by storms” – without missing a beat. Their extensive root systems anchor them in waterlogged ground, and they can even withstand short-term submersion during floods. When not underwater, these same trees are hardy against heat and salt, making them true generalists (and popular street trees in Australian cities).

Gardeners can take advantage of flood-tolerant plants to create beautiful rain gardens and resilient landscapes. By planting species like sedges, rushes, and swamp lilies in low areas, excess rainwater can be slowed and soaked up, reducing erosion and runoff pollution. Many native wetland flowers aren’t as flashy in colour as their desert counterparts, but they add rich texture and attract wildlife.

For instance, the Swamp Lily (Crinum pedunculatum) produces elegant white spider-like flowers on a plant that happily sits in a bog. The native Violet (Viola hederacea) forms a lovely mat in damp shade, sprinkled with tiny purple blooms. These plants not only survive floods – they thrive in them.

As Australian Plants Online notes, a wide range of natives have “evolved to cope with seasonal flooding” and will even grow “in moist soils that almost never completely dry out.” Many of these can handle dry spells as well, so if your climate swings between extremes, they’ll persist when water is scarce too.

In an era of sudden downpours and flash floods, having some flood-tolerant flowers in your garden ensures not everything will turn to mud soup. These plants can drink up the excess water, protect soil with their roots, and then bounce back with new growth. By “planting to suit the soil” – choosing species that “enjoy rich moist soil” – we work with Mother Nature rather than against her.

Next time your yard has a mini swamp, think of it as an opportunity: with water hyssop or club-rush, that swamp might just bloom into a wetland wonderland!

Heat-Tolerant Plants

As global temperatures climb, heat waves and record highs are testing the limits of even the toughest plants. In recent years, parts of Australia have experienced the hottest summers on record, with days on end above 40 °C. Such extreme heat can scorch plant leaves, stall growth, and cause blossoms to wither before they set seed.

Heat-tolerant plants are those that can keep their cool (literally) when the mercury soars. These species often come from deserts or steppes where searing sun and high air temperatures are normal. They have ingenious adaptations to avoid overheating: light-coloured or fuzzy leaves that reflect sunlight, narrow or lobed foliage that dissipates heat, or the ability to ramp down metabolism during hot midday periods. Some even have heat-shock proteins to protect their cells when temperatures spike.

For gardeners, incorporating heat-hardy flowers means your garden won’t faint in the summer – it will continue to bloom and provide shade and cooling benefits even during heatwaves.

One strategy plants use to beat the heat is sun-reflective foliage. In the quote above, UTS plant ecologist Associate Prof. Andrea Leigh notes that in deserts and alpine areas alike, many plants have “very pale, waxy or hairy” leaves to reflect excess radiation. The Australian desert shrub Eremophila (also called emu bush or desert fuchsia) exemplifies this – its small grey-green leaves are often covered in fine hairs. These hairs give the plant a silvery sheen under the sun, bouncing away light and helping the plant maintain lower leaf temperatures. Eremophilas can thrive in places where summer ground surface temperatures bake above 50 °C. Despite that, they produce beautiful tubular flowers (purple, pink, red depending on species) that attract hummingbirds or honeyeaters. Evolution has essentially equipped them with sunblock and a cooling system!

Similarly, saltbushes (Atriplex spp.) in Australia and sagebrush in North America have grey, dusty-looking foliage – a telltale sign of a heat survivor.

Heat-tolerant plants also often have seasonal rhythms to avoid the worst stress. Some will only leaf out or flower during cooler months, then go semi-dormant in peak summer. Others time their life cycle to complete before the hottest part of the year.

But a few champion flowers just love the heat. Think of the classic sunflower – as its name implies, it’s happiest facing a blazing sun all day. In fact, sunflowers require about eight hours of direct sun daily and are “built to withstand” hot, bright climates like Queensland’s. These cheerful giants not only tolerate heat, they turn it into energy, rapidly producing seeds.

Another tropical beauty that laughs at high temperatures is the Frangipani (Plumeria). This small tree with fragrant pinwheel flowers thrives in tropical and subtropical heat; it actually needs warm weather to bloom. As a bonus, frangipani is drought-deciduous – it drops its leaves in dry or extremely hot periods to conserve water, essentially shutting down to survive the worst conditions, then leafing out again when rains return.

Many traditional garden ornamentals are tougher in heat than we might expect. Hibiscus shrubs, for example, adore warm, humid climates. They put out dinner-plate-sized blooms in the height of summer. As long as their roots have some moisture, they can handle relentless sun (though they appreciate a drink now and then). Bougainvillea, with its vibrant papery bracts, is famous for flourishing on sun-baked walls in Mediterranean and tropical regions – it actually blooms more profusely under heat stress.

And let’s not forget cacti and succulents – not only are they drought-tolerant, they are inherently heat-tolerant too, often coming from scorching deserts. A saguaro cactus can sit under a desert sun at 45 °C and be unbothered, using its accordion-like pleated skin to expand and store water when it rains, then slowly consume that water through extended drought. Its whole physique is optimised to endure extreme heat without wilting.

Despite these adaptations, there is a limit to what plants can take. A critical insight from recent research is that combined heat and drought is especially devastating – “when you combine drought and heat waves, that spells disaster”, causing plant photosynthesis to fail and flowers to abort. We saw this in Australia’s Millennium Drought: even hardy eucalyptus trees that can take heat struggled when high temperatures and dryness hit together. For this reason, even heat-tolerant garden plants will benefit from some water during severe heatwaves. Mulching the soil and a deep watering once a week can help them keep flourishing when the weather throws a one-two punch.

On the bright side, many plants can acclimate to heat if changes are gradual. Some studies suggest that plants exposed to repeated heat events may adjust their physiology to cope better next time. As gardeners, we can select varieties bred or proven in hotter regions. For instance, there are modern tomato and chili cultivars that set fruit even in 40 °C conditions (whereas older varieties would drop their flowers in that heat).

Choosing resilient native species is also key – Australia’s warm-temperate natives like banksias, tea trees (Leptospermum), and wattles (Acacia) have shown “high resilience” to repeated heatwaves in experiments. These plants might slow their growth a bit under heat stress, but they survive and rebound when cooler weather returns.

In summary, heat-tolerant plants are the ones that won’t flinch when summer turns up the thermostat. By featuring coneflowers, succulents, desert shrubs, and tropical bloomers in our gardens, we create a landscape that stays lively through the hottest months. These plants often come with the side benefit of being low-maintenance (since they don’t need coddling or shade cloth on hot days). And as a bonus, a leafy tree like a frangipani or a vine like bougainvillea can even help cool its surroundings – providing shade and transpiring water to slightly reduce local temperatures.

In a warming climate, planting a heat-hardy garden is not only smart but also comforting: it means stepping outside to a bit of greenery and colour, even when the weather is boiling. Your geraniums might fry in a heatwave, but the paper daisies and pigface (Carpobrotus) will still be blooming strong, true flowers of the sun.

Generalist Survivor Plants

Climate change is chaotic – one year a site might face drought, the next year floods, and some years everything in between. This is where generalist survivor plants shine. These are the tough all-rounders of the plant world, able to handle a wide range of conditions. They might not be specialised to one extreme, but they possess enough versatility to survive multiple stresses. Gardeners sometimes call them “bulletproof” plants or “hardy perennials,” the ones that seem to live through anything.

In natural ecosystems, generalist species often become dominant when conditions shift, because they can tolerate new circumstances that specialist species cannot. Think of them as the ultimate survivors – if you imagine a post-apocalyptic garden after a climate catastrophe, these are the plants likely to be still standing (and possibly flowering!).

A perfect Australian example is once again the bottlebrush (Callistemon). We’ve already noted how it grows near creeks and withstands flooding. Incredibly, “most [bottlebrush] species can tolerate (or thrive in) damp conditions, yet most are very hardy and will tolerate drought” as well. In other words, wet or dry, this plant soldiers on. That kind of dual tolerance is pure gold in an uncertain climate.

Another Aussie champion is Lomandra longifolia, a strappy-leaved groundcover often used in landscaping. Lomandra is so adaptable it grows from Tasmania to Queensland in all sorts of soils. It is “frost, heat and drought tolerant,” and certain varieties have even been bred to handle periodic waterlogging. No wonder you see it planted alongside highways – it’s tough as nails.

These broad-tolerance plants are invaluable for low-maintenance gardens. If a spot in your yard goes from boggy in winter to bone-dry in summer, a generalist like lomandra or bottlebrush will cope with both, whereas a fussier plant would give up.

Generalist survivors often have broad native ranges or have become naturalised in many places. One might call them cosmopolitans of the plant world. Dandelions and plantains (the lawn weeds, not the banana) are a great example – found on every continent, in dry cracks of pavement or waterlogged ditches, thriving in sun or part shade, poor soil, high pH, low pH, you name it. They aren’t picky, which is why they survive our efforts to remove them. An Ensia report on climate-resilient crops notes that even “edible ‘weeds’ such as dandelion and burdock” are hardy enough to survive where others fail.

Of course, those aren’t typically welcome in ornamental gardens (unless you have a taste for dandelion greens). But their hardiness is worth noting. We can seek out similarly resilient ornamental species. For instance, the daylily (Hemerocallis) is famed for tolerating a huge range of conditions – it will grow in soggy clay or in drought once established, in sun or half-shade, and it reblooms reliably. Many old cottage gardens in Australia have clumps of orange daylilies that have survived decades of neglect, outliving their planters!

Another example is sedum (stonecrop), a succulent that can handle drought, yet certain sedum species are also surprisingly cold-hardy and will not rot in rain. These all-terrain plants might not be the rarest or showiest, but they provide a backbone of resilience.

From an ecological perspective, generalists may become more important as climate change progresses. Research suggests that as conditions become more variable, generalist species often gain an advantage because they can exploit different scenarios.

n gardening terms, planting generalists is like buying insurance. If the next summer is unusually wet, your swamp hibiscus will be happy; if the following one is brutally dry, your saltbush or lavender will be fine – but a generalist like a certain hardy geranium or salvia will tolerate both scenarios to some degree. In fact, plant nurseries have noticed a shift in customer preferences: there’s a “significant shift towards climate-tolerant species” in recent decades. Gardeners are consciously seeking plants that aren’t prima donnas.

Sustainability-wise, that’s great – hardy survivors typically need fewer resources (less water, less fertiliser, fewer pesticides) because they can handle stress without intervention.

Indigenous knowledge around the world also identifies many “survivor” plants. First Nations Australians, for example, recognised species like native millet (Panicum) that could persist through both drought and flood, providing reliable grain food. In Africa, the Endorois people of Kenya plant “drought-resistant crops such as cereals and tubers” in anticipation of dry periods – these are crops that also handle the occasional heavy rain. Such practices emphasise resilience and versatility, traits prized in traditional agriculture and equally valuable in modern gardens.

In practical gardening terms, to leverage generalist survivor plants, pay attention to plant labels and descriptions for keywords like “tolerant of a range of soils” or “adaptable.” Native plant societies and extension services often have lists of “toughest plants” or “plants for difficult sites” – those lists are gold for finding generalists.

By including species that can roll with the punches, you ensure your garden will have some stalwarts that live on even if a once-in-a-century event (be it drought, flood, or an early frost) occurs. They are the marathon runners of the plant kingdom, not specialists in speed or high-jumping, but able to go the distance no matter the obstacles. And many, like bottlebrush or black-eyed susan flowers, still put on a splendid show.

In a climate-change era, resilience is a beauty of its own.

Quick-Growing Plants

Not only do we need plants that survive climate extremes – sometimes we need plants that quickly bounce back after a disaster. This is where fast-growing, fast-reproducing plants come into play. After a bushfire or a drought breaks, quick-growing species are the first responders of the ecosystem. They germinate or resprout rapidly, stabilising soil and providing cover, and often bloom within weeks to start the next generation. In a garden setting, quick-growing flowers can fill in bare areas and restore greenery faster after something like a heatwave-induced dieback. They also adjust rapidly to changing conditions.

Interestingly, scientists have found that “quick-growing plants such as weeds may cope better with global warming than slower-growing plants such as redwood trees.” The logic is that fast growers have shorter lifecycles, meaning they generate new generations (with new genetic combinations) quickly – effectively they can evolve or adapt in real-time. Slower plants, like centuries-old trees, don’t have that flexibility; they’re stuck dealing with changes within a single long lifetime.

A famous study demonstrating this looked at field mustard (a common weed/flowering plant). Researchers grew seeds collected before and after a five-year drought in California and found that the post-drought generation had evolved to flower earlier than the pre-drought generation. Early flowering allowed them to set seed before the soil dried out in spring – a direct evolutionary response to drought pressure. This happened over just a few generations, a blink of an eye in plant time! It underscores how powerful a quick lifecycle can be for adaptation.

Many of our favourite fast-growing garden annuals – think marigolds, zinnias, cosmos – exhibit a similar trait: they sprout, bloom, seed, and die within one season. If that season is cut short by heat or lack of rain, as long as they managed to seed, their offspring will try again when conditions improve.

In Australia, a classic quick-grow response is seen after bushfires. Certain plants are known as “fire followers.” For example, Acacia wattles often germinate en masse after a fire, released from their hard seed coats by the heat. They grow with astonishing speed, sometimes several feet in the first year, draping the blackened landscape in frothy yellow blossom within a year or two of a wildfire. These fast-growing wattles act as pioneer species – they rebuild an ecosystem’s ground cover and add nitrogen to the soil, paving the way for slower trees to return.

Similarly, after good rains in the desert, there’s an explosion of wildflowers in Australia’s Outback or Western Australia’s arid zones. Seeds that sat dormant for years suddenly burst to life. Sturt’s Desert Pea, mentioned earlier, can flower just 4 months after sowing from seed under the right conditions, which is remarkably fast for a perennial plant. Many desert annuals like pink everlastings or daisy bursts complete their life cycle in a single season of moisture – a quick strategy because who knows when the next rain will come?

In gardens, leveraging fast growers can be very rewarding. Sunflowers are a prime example of a quick-growing annual that provides ecological benefits. In a matter of weeks, a sunflower seedling turns into a towering flower that produces food for bees, birds, and eventually seeds for us or wildlife. If a heatwave knocks back your slower perennials, quick-blooming annuals like sunflowers or portulaca can still bring colour and life. Fast-growing vines like morning glory or native kennedia (coral vine) can cover a fence in one season, providing shade quickly where needed. And after flooding, plants like purslane or nasturtium often pop up rapidly, taking advantage of the sudden moisture and preventing weeds from taking over bare ground.

There is a flip side: many of the world’s worst invasive species are quick growers. Kudzu vine in the southern US, for instance, can grow a foot a day and overwhelm native plants. So while we admire fast growth, it’s wise to choose species that are non-invasive or native to your area, so they don’t cause ecological harm. Fast growth in a controlled garden context = good; fast growth running amok in the wild = problematic.

That said, there are plenty of responsible choices. For instance, bamboo is a famously quick-growing plant (some types can indeed grow inches per hour), and clumping (non-spreading) varieties can be used for quick hedges to sequester carbon and provide cooling shade rapidly.

In the vegetable patch, quick crops like radishes or certain kale can ensure you get a harvest even if the season ends up shorter than expected.

In terms of climate adaptation, the trait of rapid growth and reproduction will help natural plant communities adjust. If some plants die out in an extreme event, fast-colonising species can fill the void, preventing erosion or ecosystem collapse. They are nature’s emergency repair crew.

For gardeners, planting a mix that includes some quick growers means your garden can rebound from setbacks more readily. It’s the difference between waiting five years for a slow shrub to recover versus having a self-sown flower patch spring up next month.

To harness this, consider allowing some annuals to self-seed in your garden – you might be pleasantly surprised by spontaneous flower displays. And don’t overlook weedy “pioneer” species that are not obviously ornamental; some, like goldenrod or fireweed, can actually be quite pretty and superb for pollinators, all while being tough and speedy.

The key is balance: a resilient garden will have its stalwart long-lived plants but also the sprinters that fill in gaps. As one report put it, certain tough annuals and weeds “may cope better with global warming” by evolving faster. In any case, watching a fast-growing plant take off can be a joy – there’s something hopeful about that rapid greening and blooming. It reminds us that nature has an incredible capacity for renewal, even in tough times.

Global Provenance of Hardy Resilient Plants

Around the world, different climates have produced their own cast of hardy, resilient plant species. Gardeners and scientists are now sharing this global knowledge to prepare for climate change. The reality is, no single region has a monopoly on tough plants – they hail from deserts of Africa, mountains of South America, floodplains of Asia, and everywhere in between. By exchanging these species (responsibly), we diversify our gardens and farms with plants that have “been there, survived that.”

In fact, there are five regions on Earth known for their climate-hardy floras: the Mediterranean Basin, California, central Chile, South Africa’s Cape, and Australia’s southwest – all of which have a Mediterranean-type climate with wet winters and dry summers. These areas, though vastly separated, have remarkably similar challenges and have “exchanged, and continue to exchange, weedy plant species” (and garden plants) for centuries. A shrub from Western Australia might feel right at home in a California garden, and vice versa, because they evolved under analogous conditions of drought and fire.

Global plant exchanges have long been happening. The bottlebrush tree (Callistemon) from Australia was introduced to English gardens as early as 1789 and is now grown worldwide in warm climates. Conversely, Australians decorate their yards with hardy imports like agave and oleander from the Americas or lavender from the Mediterranean. These plants travelled because people noticed their resilience and ornamental value. In many cases, they became naturalised or even invasive (e.g., Australian wattles are invasive in parts of Africa; South African lantana is invasive in Australia). The Mediterranean-climate regions in particular have swapped a lot of flora – one study noted aggressive annual weeds from the Mediterranean Basin colonised California, and later woody shrubs from California went back and invaded the Mediterranean.

While invasiveness is a concern, this also means we have a huge pool of tested-tough species across the globe to draw upon for gardening in a changing climate. We just must choose wisely and avoid known invasives.

One trend in horticulture is the breeding of climate-resilient varieties using global genetics. For instance, breeders might cross an ornamental plant with a wild relative from a harsher climate to impart drought or heat tolerance. Already, we see nursery catalogues highlighting plants “from the dry plains of XYZ” or “discovered on a windswept seashore,” using provenance as a selling point.

A recent horticultural review cited Lomandra (L. longifolia) – that tough Australian grass-like plant – as a top variety for climate resilience now being popular in Europe. They praise its ability to handle drought with “no problems whatsoever,” providing year-round green without irrigation. From the opposite side of the world, consider Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) from Central Asia – it’s a perennial now grown globally because it “withstands heat and requires minimal water,” thriving in arid gardens while still offering lovely lavender-blue flower spikes.

By mixing and matching such plants, we create gardens that are both beautiful and rugged.

Indigenous peoples have long curated resilient plants suited to their environments, effectively doing climate-smart selection over millennia. This knowledge is increasingly being respected and integrated. For example, many Australian Aboriginal communities cultivate bush foods that naturally survive Australia’s erratic climate – species like yams, bush tomatoes, and finger limes that can handle drought or poor soils. These foods are not only culturally important but also position communities to be food-secure under climate stress.

Similarly, in East Africa, the Endorois and Maasai plant sorghum, millet, and cassava – “drought-resistant crops” – as core staples. Such crops might not have huge yields in good years, but they won’t fail completely in bad years, which is crucial for resilience.

We can take inspiration from this by including edibles and ornamentals in our gardens that are known survivors. Even if they’re not the highest-producing or the showiest, they’ll be the ones still standing (or fruiting) when others falter.

The provenance of a plant – meaning where it originally evolved – often holds clues to its toughness. A cactus from the Sonoran Desert, a protea from South Africa’s fynbos, an oak from a fire-prone Californian woodland, a lotus from a floodplain in India – each carries genetic tools for its native trials. By bringing these together, we create a mosaic of resilience.

Of course, it’s best to favour local native plants first for ecological reasons, but there’s also value in “climate analog” gardening: if your region’s climate is becoming more like somewhere else’s used to be, try plants from that somewhere else. For instance, some gardeners in southern Australia are now planting Western Australian natives from drier, hotter areas, anticipating those conditions in the future. Likewise, European gardeners are experimenting with African and Middle Eastern xerophytes (dry plants) as summers get hotter.

One must always be mindful of potential invasiveness and ecological fit – not every tough plant should be unleashed in foreign soil. However, many public gardens and arboretums are actively trailing global species for climate adaptability, essentially future-proofing our plant palettes. Projects in botanical gardens are exchanging seed banks of “climate-proof” plants that could become staples in restoration projects decades down the line.

The international community of horticulturists is in a sense banding together to embrace resilient plants for a changing planet. As a 2025 gardening article put it, “by choosing adaptable species, we create landscapes that are not only beautiful but also robust in the face of climate extremes.”

Final Thoughts

the flowers (and trees and shrubs) of climate change – whether drought-busters, flood-endurers, sun-lovers, multi-talented survivors, or rapid responders – give us hope and practical tools to keep our world green. They teach us that for every challenge nature throws, there is a plant that has evolved to meet it.

By learning from Indigenous practices and the latest science, and by sharing knowledge across cultures and continents, we can cultivate gardens and farms that withstand the tests of a changing climate. These hardy plants not only persist themselves but often support pollinators, stabilise soil, and lift our spirits with their blooms against the odds.

Sources

Supporting information and plant examples were drawn from a range of credible sources, including climate science publications, horticultural experts, and Indigenous knowledge accounts. Key references include:

• Government climate impact reports from NSW Environment – Climate Change

• Botanical garden databases from the Australian National Botanic Gardens

• Research news on plant heat and drought adaptations via Phys.org and Innovations Report

• Reputable gardening resources highlighting resilient species such as Queensland DET – Gardening and Australian Plants Online

• Scientific plant exchange studies via Springer Link

These sources are cited throughout the text to provide further reading and evidence for the claims made. By integrating scientific and traditional knowledge, the information above offers a comprehensive look at “flowers of the climate change” and how we can all foster a more resilient natural world.

First published on 13.12.23. Republished with updates on 13.5.24. On 28.3.25 the article was given a huge makeover, like every word.