Full Shade Now, Partial Shade Later

[justmeinflorida]

I was wondering if I could plant in my presently unused large planter boxes that have full shade till mid summer? As summer progresses it gets partial sun. If I can what can I plant there?

[rainbowgardener]

Depends a little on what you mean by partial sun. But yes, most of the shade tolerant flowers will also be happy with part sun, if that means indirect, filtered, or a few hours of direct morning sun. The things that you could plant now in shade will not like it if later they get direct afternoon sun or more than a few hours of sun.

Shade flowers that won't mind some part sun include: astilbe, begonia, bleeding heart, brunnera, coleus, coral bells, ferns, hostas, foamflower, solomon seal, toad lily, and others.

[justmeinflorida]

Hi rainbowgardener,

I mean I get NO SUN on the planter boxes (now) that were there before I bought the place. But when mid-summer comes the sun shifts and I get about 4-6hrs of direct sunlight. I was hoping I could plant some veggies, maybe leaffy types but from your list it doesn't seem like I'll be able to plant anything...LOL!

[rainbowgardener]

It is a challenge. 4 -6 is kind of a big range. If it is really 6 hrs a day of direct sun, that's not even part sun any more. You can grow tomatoes with that. So you are looking for things that can go from full shade to full sun.

There are a few, but I'm not sure they are what you are looking for. Plumbago (leadwort) is one I can think of. It's a nice flowering ground cover whose leaves get nice fall foliage color. But a ground cover isn't too exciting in a big planter box.

Your leafy greens will do fine with 4 hrs of direct sun and probably would be ok there if it is 6, especially if you can give them a little afternoon shade. But they are not likely to survive the full shade time.

It sounds like you aren't really excited about growing flowers. I think most of the flowers I mentioned would handle the shade and would be ok when it gets sunnier, again especially if you can give them a little afternoon shade.

[!potatoes!]

assuming your heat will be up at midsummer in florida, consider heat-tolerant greens, transplanted in when there starts to be enough light. new zealand spinach, malabar spinach, egyptian spinach, chard? etc

[barnhardt9999]

I was successful with leafy greens on a similar setup. Window planters only got direct sunlight from about June through August. I was just across from a building painted white so there was a lot of reflected light from March - May. I'm sure that helped a lot.

One year I even did a cherry tomato upside down in a 5 gallon bucket. I got a few dozen cherry tomatos but not enough to justify the effort.

[applestar]

We're talking Florida sun too.... hmmm?... I agree short maturing leafy green that can tolerate what is probably already pretty warm temps for right now --

Marlingardener in Texas said she's planting out tomatoes and sowing corn right?

So how about Orach, beets and Swiss chard? Is it too late for turnip? Potatoes! mentioned Malabar spinach -- I'm trying Malabar spinach this year and cultural requirements sound like it would grow there and takes longer to mature, but will keep going full season -- that one's a climber, btw. So you'd need a tall trellis.

How about bush beans? I would give strawberries a try too, though my best shade/less sun performer is Fragaria virginiana wild strawberries.

Can you grow currants and gooseberries? I'm not sure about them because I can't grow them here due to local restrictions and I haven't done enough research to know if they grow in Florida. But I've heard they grow in shade. Blackberries fruit in shade too though not as well as in full sun.

I think more wilder strain tomatoes can handle shadier conditions. Try small fruited ones like grape and currant tomatoes. I'm trying Matt's Wild Cherry this year and will be putting some in sun restricted areas due to space constraints. There is a black fruited tomato cousin called Wonderberry that I think will handle shadier conditions but I've read varying comments about its flavor.