parts of my front patio (west facing) doesn't receive sun until 3 or 4p. at first i thought maybe this could be considered a shady area and looked for several shade plants for the spot, but my attempts have resulted in wilting plants that can't take the afternoon texas sun. i now know this is not a "shady area" and might be considered more of just a "sunny" area...
any ideas for flowering perennials/annuals that can bloom with just 4-5 hours of late afternoon sun? and even the last hour or so of that is weak. it would be more 3-4 hours of intense sun with 1-2 hrs of a weaker light afterwards. this is my first summer at my new place and i've never experienced this growing condition. thanks :)
recommendations for area with sun after 3p?
I have areas just like what you describe. Pentas do very well under these conditions and they attract a lot of butterflies. Others: vinca, liriope, wax leaf begonia (bronze-leafed one tolerates more sun than the green-leafed one), ornamental peppers, 'Mona Lavender' Plectranthus, heat tolerant coleus (adds color without blooms), dwarf cannas, salvia coccinea 'Coral Nymph', Salvia splendens 'Red Hot Sally', Wild Petunia (Ruellia elegans), dwarf Mexican petunia (Ruellia brittoniana - 'Katie') ... I need to go to the store, will add more later.
actually you can grow roses in Sun like that. I have a simiular spot and grow roses there. Got to the Antique Rose emporium just south of you (San Antonio close to I-35 and 1604 north) and they can tell you varieties they have that can handle a little shade. Also Elephant Ears and Caladiums would grow great in that situation (I have some in a simular spot also).
I'm back ... some more:
dwarf Mexican petunia (Ruellia brittoniana - Bonita, AKA: Poquito Pink, Katie's Pink, 'Colobe Pink'), Garden Phlox 'John Fanick' (Phlox paniculata - more heat tolerant than other garden phlox), Perilla 'Magilla' (for foliage, has more colors in sun than shade), Japanese Spirea 'Little Princess' (Spiraea japonica), African Daisy (Osteospermum), Knotweed 'Red Dragon' (Persicaria microcephala), Garden Phlox 'David' (Phlox paniculata), rose of Sharon 'Minerva' (Hibiscus syriacus) and other rose of sharon, Firecracker Plant (Crossandra infundibuliformis), English Stonecrop (Sedum anglicum) and other sedums, cuphea varieties, Eyelash-Leaved Sage
(Salvia blepharophylla), dwarf plumbago, Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii)
I'll add more when I think of some.
This message was edited May 22, 2005 12:48 PM
htop, thanks for all the recs! i am off to the nursury now to spend some money :)
jester, i have a gruss an aachen rose i got from the antique rose emporium that is sitting on that patio and it is doing wonderfully! you are right, the growing conditions for my gruss is perfect on that patio. my first blooms are about ready to open and the anticipation is killing me :) maybe i could have the entire patio covered in gruss's ;)
I wanted to plant some Hibiscus in my shade area. Thanks for the advise on the rose of Sharon 'Minerva' (Hibiscus syriacus) htop. Do you know a good place to get them here in town?
George in San Antonio
George, you might want to call Rainbow nursery and see if they have any. Because I haven't been browsing the area in which they would be located, I don't know if they have any. I have some very, very small Rose of Sharon cuttings (about 4 inches or so, 3 types) that I am rooting. They grow pretty fast once they become established. I'll give you some if you want some small ones.
eviestevie, I had added some more plants to my last post above. I don't know if you had seen the additions.
yes, i did :) and i am excited about my future garden in this area with all the recs!
I will check. If they don't then I will trade for your cuttings.
Thanks, George in San Antonio
Well, I am very sad today. My neighbor to the west cut his oak tree which was close to my fence completey down and the limbs on his other oak tree in half last year which flooded one part of my yard with hot afternoon sun and I had to change my plantings. A week or so ago, the electric company trimmed the trees away from the electrical lines along the back fence behind all of the houses to my west which desperately needed to be done. This was not a problem.
My wonderful neighbor 2 houses down (who has no trees in her backyard) and my next door neighbor insisted that they come back and cut everything to the ground. Now, my once extremely shady tropical looking area receives full sun from about 2:30 to 7 or so. I don't know what to do. I have ferns, acuba, hosta, impatiens, Brazilian plume flower, calla lilies, gerbera daisy, gardenia and other plants that can't take full afternoon sun in this area. It is also where I made a patio for my dogs and where I could chain my big old dog when I needed to do so.
There are no trees on the farm behind me close enough to ever provide any shade in my yard . As the sun moves to the north, I am going to have a similar problem in all areas of my backyard. I will no longer be able to sit in my backyard in the shade in the afternoons. The afternoon sun is shining in the window that goes completely across my diningroom. I have my bromeliads there and now need to move them from their happy home. The only thing I can do with them is place them outside somewhere.
Not only is the shade gone, but the birds and lizrds have lost their wonderful sanctuary.
I have thought about attaching big beach umbrellas to my fence angled to stop the afternnoon sun. I thought about putting up a trellis and covering it with a shading material until I can start some vines, but I don;t think that I can attach a tall enough one that will do enough good. Maybe tarps stretched over the plants from one end to the other would work, but this would be so ugly. I thought about buying large Rose of Sharon and plant them in my neighbor's yard against the fence, but they lose their leaves in the winter. Besides they have no plants and have killed any I have given them by not watering them. I have to do something fast. The plants will be scorched fairly quickly. The 4.5 foot tall calla lily was wilted completely over yesterday. I can move it because it is in a container. The cyclamen that were still blooming are scorched.
My whole yard's plantings are based on the movement of the sun in the summer and it has taken years to to find just the right plants for the different areas. What has happened will affect almost every plant in my backyard except along the east side of my backfence Of course where I needed more sun, they refused to cut any branches from my oak tree or the oak tree behind my fence (branches are touching the cable, telephone lines, and one electircal line that is not the "hot" electrical line). They told me to pay someone to do it.
I am devastated. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to provide immediate shade in the one area?
This message was edited May 24, 2005 7:06 AM
oh man. my only suggestion would be to maybe get one of those landscaping design sails (same material as boating sails) and post them up where the trees would be. the sails last a long time and will provide the necessary shade but also look good. keep us posted on what you decide
four post and shade cloth go a long way (like at nursary or home depot)
I agree with Jester. Most of the open air nurseries around here use that shade cloth now.
eviestevie, thanks for the suggestion. The sails may work, but I'd have to put them in the neighbor's yard which I don't think that he would agree to let me do so.
jester and trunnels, thanks for the suggestion. I have temporarily covered the plants in the most harm with blue drop cloths spread, manuevered and tied between my trees. Not a pretty sight, but is saving them until I can do something else.
My husband may attach posts as tall as he can to our fence and then spread shade cloth. It will have to be very high and I don't know if we can manage to do this. My brother suggested getting long pieces of English ivy and plant them in the containers I have attached near the top of my fence and let them grow into my trees as a barrier. The only problem with this is that it will eventually cover my aborvitae trees. This might work temporarily if I top trees and hope that they branch out to cover the gap. Then, I can remove the ivy. The bottom branches had died because they weren't getting enough sun.
The worst was yet to come ... The tree guys came back and cut most of the lateral limbs and many huge limbs in the center from my oaks that provided shade for my east facing flowerbeds all along the outside of my privacy fence. Of course, they wouldn't cut the limbs from over my perennial sun loving flowerbed (which needs more sun) and which are growing into the wires when I asked them to do so. The plants in this very long bed as well as the plants right inside of my fence are almost all shade or filtered shade loving plants.
I don't have the time to save everything as well have no place to put them if I dig them up. The strawberry begonia, Louisiana phlox and one colony of hardy begonia's leaves are already scorched. My huge over 4.5 foot tall calalily will be the next to burn up. As the sun moves to the north, more areas of this bed will receive too much sun for the plants to bear. After this, my greenhouse is no longer totally protected from the glaring sun for hours and everything in it will probably cook. I can put shade screen over it, but have to wait for my payday at the first of the month. My husband said now he can grow his peppers and tomatoes because there is enough hours of sun for them. I guess there is a bright side.
I think I would be contacting a real estate agent. :-)
Need help? We can find some tall post. As for planting tree Palonia trees. Find 2-3 foot trees and they will be 10 feet tall by the end of the summer and 35-50 feet tall in 3-4 years with nice flowers . Grow very, very fast!
wish I was closer I would come over and help ya - so sorry for all this... I am planting trees for more or less the same reason but we had just bought the place and I had not planted anything yet... Trees sell the place and then on moving day poof they are gone. If their is anything i can do LMK - Mitch
trunnels, the oaks will branch back out eventually, but it will take years for them to fill back in. There was a beautiful oak tree growing in my same next door neighbor's yard. Its trunk was about 4 feet from my fence. I loved this tree and it provided shade over my patio. One day I heard a chain saw as I watched television, but didn't think much about it. Then, I heard a tremendous crash as part of the tree hit my roof knocking the rain gutter off and then bounced into my patio. Its branches almost came through my living room and backdoor windows. I asked him what he was doing to the poor tree. He said he was cutting the whole tree down because it was killing his other oak tree. I couldn't believe it. Oak trees don't kill each other. It had blocked the sun on a couple of his other trees lower limbs so they had died back. Then, he proceeded to cut the rest of the tree down after assuring me that he had figured out how to make the cuts with the chainsaw so that the tree branches wouldn't fall in my yard ... not! They all fell into the fence knocking a lot of the boards loose and into my plants. My husband had just redone the fence 2 weeks prior to this.
Last year, he mutilated his huge oak tree in his backyard by cutting all of the limbs back by about a third. These had provided shade in my yard in the afternoon and evening. I asked him why and he said he wanted his oak tree to become "bushier". These 2 acts had already caused me to redo parts of my yard. Other than random acts of idiocy, he is a good neighbor.
jester, thanks for offering to help and the suggestion. I can't plant any trees because they would have to be in my neighbor's yard or behind his back the fence. I am dealing with the situation and probably my husband is going to attach tall posts to the fence and then we are going to stretch shade cloth between them. I am afraid that me neighbor will complain about this and turn me into the neighborhood association because "no structure may be attached to the fences". I may plant vines because the neighborhood association can't slap a lawsuit against us for this.
Mitch, thanks. All of the utilty wires are underground in my neighborhood except for along the side of my yard and behind our block. I didn't think about the oaks having to be cut from the wires when I bought my house. I had hired people to trim my trees from them every few years. Last summer, they trimmed them, but could not cut the 4 limbs that were coming close to the "hot" wire because it was too dangerous. They were professional tree trimmers and were so careful to shape my treees beautifully. If the utility tree trimmers had cut only these 4 limbs, I wouldn't have the problem on my side yard. If I had not asked for the utility people to cut these 4 limbs, I wouldn't have a problem. I didn't know they would go chainsaw crazy. I have learned to be careful about what you ask for.
I have grapes growing on my west facing wall...
They love it there...
-T
seedpicker_TX, grapes are a great idea. What kind did you plant?
eviestevie, what plants did you buy for your area? I didn't mean to take your thread in a whole new direction.
I planted Thompson red seedless and Thompson white seedless.
Both were one gallon pots at Walmart last Spring.
-T
Hazel!! Oh my gosh!
I just posted some pics on this thread if anyone is interested:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/486069/
-T
Seedpicker, Wow, your grapes look great. I didn't know they would do so well in Zone 8. Thanks for sharing the information and photos.
You are welcome
:o)