The sun has almost completed its wide arc around your house and is low on the horizon, finally lighting up your back patio. Beads of moisture start to form on your icy G&T. After hours of chilly AC, you’re loving the heat. But for your flower-filled planters, maybe not so much.

If you walk out onto your patio at the end of a long day to find pots filled with plants more horizontal than upright, you’re not alone. Finding great looking container plants that only need partial sun is challenging enough. Trying to find plants that don’t mind shade and heat is something else.

For a special spot in your garden or a condo balcony that only gets sun in the afternoon at the peak of the day’s heat wave, here’s a short list of gorgeous container-friendly plants to colour up your cocktail hour. Click on any image to start the slideshow.

Stained Glassworks Eruption is a coleus that can take the heat and keep looking vibrant in glaring sunlight thanks to it’s velvety, non-reflective leaves.

Catalina® Midnight Blue Torenia surrounds bright green ColorBlaze® LifeLime coleus, both heat and shade tolerant plants that will perform well until frost. Photo courtesy of Proven Winners.

Impatiens ballerina are off limits now that downey mildew has struck, but there are impatien hybrids that don’t succumb to the disease and are very heat tolerant. One great performer is the SunPatiens® collection offering bright coloured blooms set off by large, dark leaves. They can take full sun or part shade and bloom from planting until frost.

For an airy cloud of delicate petals, plant a couple of heat and drought resistant Diamond Frost® Euphorbias. Photo courtesy of Proven Winners.

Dragon wing begonias don’t mind the heat and can part to full shade. Their glossy leaves will light up a