Most plants and flowers tend to thrive with heat. Excessive heat , of course, works against you(take it from the Arizona gardener who's had to give up on growing some of her favorites!). However, a moderate amount of heat is certainly good for most plants, especially if you can provide partial shade. Most plants and flowers do in fact want some heat to grow. Cold is another matter. Most plants just don't like too much cold. One flower that comes to mind that can take the cold is pansies, but even they will die off if it gets TOO cold. Most people do not maintain very big gardens during winter months, and that is largely because it's simply too difficult to maintain one. A couple of hard freezes will kill off pretty much any garden you have, so if you live in an area that gets very cold weather, you can't really expect to keep outdoor plants and have them thrive through the cold. The best climate I ever lived in for gardening was New Mexico. Nice moderate weather, very dry, and didn't get too cold usually. It was often possible to keep a garden in winter there.

mavis