Sun or Shade

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billyporter Nichols, IA(Zone 5a) May 18, 2006

When your flower order arrives do you find you've ordered more flowers for the sun, or shade? I buy what catches my eye, and find I end up with more sun than shady plants. Unfortunately, I have more shade every year. No wonder I have so many new beds.

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4paws Citra, FL(Zone 9a) May 18, 2006

Right now, it's about 2/3 sun, and 1/3 shade, but the first thing I consider is water use, followed by color, size, length of bloomtime, sun or shade, and for shrubs, evergreen. I can play around with placement if I really want something, I think. Plus, full sun here could fry a lot of plants, even if they like sun, so I don't necessarily do what I'm told per plant labels. Most important in all cases is drought tolerance, since there is little to no rain in the summer and though I like being in the garden when I'm watering, I don't want to be married to it if I have to be away, or if, like this year, irrigation isn't available.

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mgh Willamette Valley, OR(Zone 8a) May 18, 2006

I buy mostly daylilies, so I would have to say sun. But now I am out of room for daylilies, so I am looking at some hostas. I have some coming soon.

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jkom51 Oakland, CA(Zone 9b) May 18, 2006

I think it's hard not to end up with too many sun-lovers as I've noticed that most of my plant catalogs really seem to emphasize them. There's usually just a few pages of shade loving plants, compared with many pages of brightly flowering, vividly colored sun-lovers!

I live in a different part of the state than 4Paws, but I've also found that in CA, what are considered 'sun lovers' elsewhere are often 'partial shade' plants here. I have a beautiful yellow-leafed malva that I planted in my front yard, and every summer it gets a bit toasted from our super-fierce setting sun, even though I'm on the edge of the fog belt and there's two mountain ranges in between me and the Pacific Ocean. It would have been so much happier in the back yard, but it's too big to move now, LOL.

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