I have gotten so confused about the various labels for light conditions when growing plants. There's full sun, part sun, part shade, dappled sun, morning sun, afternoon sun, filtered sun....and likely more Oh! Various points of the compass exposure as well, you know, like northern, southern exposure etc. When I read something about a plant needing part sun, I immediately think "Which part?? Morning or afternoon? And if it requires part sun, does that mean that a plant with a part shade requirement would also do? Ot should it be filtered? Or direct sun, but only for a bit of the time? Aarrgghh!!!!!!! Please help, I go through this every season, and eventually just throw up my hands and guess! Is there a special novice gardeners primer for this stuff?
Generally, I think morning sun and afternoon shade. The afternoon is so intense in late Summer that I think most of the part sun plants would get too dry or over exposed causing leaf burn.
Full sun is at least 6 hours of full sun a day no matter which side of the house it is planted on. Part Sun/Part Shade are usually interchangeable depending on which part of the world a person is in. But it means no more than 4 hours of direct sun a day. Dappled sun is under a tree where the sunlight changes when the wind blows the tree leaves around. Total shade is where the plant receives no direct sun. Morning Sun/Afternoon Sun, morning sun is not as hot as afternoon sun. Some plants need sun but can not tolerate the very hot, intense sun of afternoon. So usually plant those on the east side of your house. But some summer perennials zoned for 8-10 will need more afternoon sun because they grow and thrive on heat so morning sun is not good for them. Filtered sun is, I think, a term used mainly for indoor plants...meaning through a shade or light curtain not in front of a bare glass window, but can refer to a patio cover or other covering that provides shade outside. Shade plants and those requiring filtered sunlight will fry pretty quickly in full sun of any length of time. From the Summer Solstice to the Winter Solstice when the earths tilt makes the sun appear lower in the southern sky, the south side of a house will receive more hours of sunlight while the north side is almost always shady. The further north you live the more pronounced that change becomes. From the Winter Solstice to Summer Solstice when the earth is changing it's tilt in the other direction the sun appears to be in a more northern location and in full summer the north side of a building will have more hours of sun.
Wow...thanks so much for the lengthy explanation toni! I'm going to have to digest that a bit...but it's exactly the kind of clarification I needed. Carolyn, I appreciate what you said. Makes sense that the afternoon sun would be more intense than morning sun....I actually experienced that when I first started gardening and couldn't understand why some plants just seemed to wither after a while, not realizing that it was because they got the direct afternoon unrelenting blaze of head and light. Now...the next challenge is to determine exactly where the sun hits when at Ed's house. And it IS a challenge. I need to go outside once an hour and actually make a record of what's sunny and what's shaded where and when. There are so many trees and bushes and structures that I've already discovered areas of unexpected shade. So, more research is needed! Thank you all.
Determining which direction his house faces will be a good place to start. If it faces west there will be a lot of hot afternoon sun to contend with. But, starting a record of the suns location is a good idea. Also, remember that the sun/shade pattern changes every few days as the earth tilts and then there are the shade spots that will sometimes change yearly as trees mature. Sometimes it is better and cheaper to keep plants in pots that can be moved around as the conditions warrant for at least the first year before putting them in the ground.
His house faces north and south. So one side gets full on morning sun, and the other the afternoon sun. The front and back gets lots of sun too, though some of it is shaded in parts due to the tree placement. The porch gets a lot less sun than I realized, so I'm having to re-think the vine I want to grow up the porch upright.....more on that in the other thread. I'm at Ed's house all day today, so I've been faithfully tracking the sun's progress and what areas get the most sun, and when, so I have a better idea of what to plant where as we move through the season.
