Shade Gardening: clay soil with gravel in it + 3 hrs. hot, hot sun , 2 by Pistil

Pistil wrote:
I have similar clay-with-rocks-and-gravel. Yuck. It does make plant choice difficult.

The hot-hot sun but for a limited time does really restrict your choice of plants. The one tall perennial that immediately popped into my mind is one I planted in my dry shade garden, under a pine tree, and it is doing great. The kind DGer who traded it to me sent me two, so the other is in a much more sunny spot. It is a daylily Hemerocallis fulva var. flore pleno. This is a sterile double or triple daylily, which is mentioned as invasive in some locations, I must warn you. I read about it in a book called 'Planting the Dry Shade Garden' by Graham Rice. It is quite tall, blooms in flushes all summer into fall, even in shade. Thus far, in my dreadful location, it is not invasive. The foliage is not terribly attractive, but one can't have everything. From a distance it really brightens up a dim spot. Here are some photos of the daylily.

In a sunny spot but with the same crappy soil (when I first planted I actually chipped out holes with a hatchet), truly tough survivors for me include:
Geranium x magnificum is over 2 feet tall in bloom. I divided it this spring (it was over 6 feet across) and planted divisions in part sun. So far they look fine, I don't know how well they will bloom, but it is listed a being fine for sun or part shade. I will let you know next June.
Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull' is about 2 feet tall, remarkable survivor (I have tried a dozen Coreopsis, this is the only one that lives). It blooms for about 6 months!
Achillea 'Coronation Gold' about 3 feet tall
It is remarkable these have survived in such an inhospitable spot, which occasionally severe neglect from me (last summer they got no water at all for over a month).

I have found in my clay Salvias and Sages just do not survive, but your climate is different enough you should probably try them, but I recommend you don't buy a lot the first year in case they can't survive. When I gardened on sand about a mile from here they were very happy.

This could be a really fun long-term thread. I have one in my local Pacific Northwest forum I call "My Dry Shade Garden" about the Pine tree garden, I update it periodically with a report on how things are doing.