Hi Vera, I was born in Puyallup, WA. I'm sure you know where that is, but we moved to WI when I was a year old. I've been back there to visit a few times, but mostly to visit relatives in Tacoma. As I can recall, Eastern WA is much different than Western WA......Eastern WA much flatter? Anyway, about the weather here - you can expect anything and everything. Our summers can be extremely hot, in the 90's,or 100's, dry or humid, droughts and flooding, long cool rainy Springs that never seem to end, or so short we seem to go from Winter to summer. (Same for Fall) No matter what the weather is, the Hostas survive. And as Ken mentioned above, plant whatever you want, and if it doesn't do well, move it. Have fun experimenting. I know I will. Julie

well ... hmmmm .... you are on the right track ... but working on the wrong variables ... i am going to come at it from another angle ... hosta are VERY HEAVY WATER USERS ... and they use the most water.. in the most heat .. which is why they struggle in the deep south ... they simply cant pump enough water to offset the loss ... and part of that is ... night temps.. they can cope better up here in MI because at night it cools considerably ... hosta actually sweat ... transpire ... in england.. which is above the 60th parallel.. or 2/3 of the way to the north pole.. they are ALL FULL SUN ... partly because the sun barely shines.. lol .. but also because of the declination of the sun.. the British are a pasty peeps.. because the sun is not as strong.. so the hosta can cope ... compare that to LA.. and you can see a stark difference. .. so.. hosta can grow in full sun .. hosta are only shade tolerant.. but the sun .. or conversely.. the shade is not really the issue.... its all about how effectively they can pump.. enough water. and if they have a recovery period to cope ... the fact that a hosta looks ratty in late summer.. is more a function of not enough water.. rather than too much light ... ken ps: zone.. which is.. in its simplest form.. MINIMUM WINTER TEMP ... has nothing to do with it .... pps: i have tons of wood hyacinths.. i dont know why you failed with those.. unless there are multiple plants under that common name ... ppps: hosta also have a requisite dormancy period.. and if you go too far south.. they dont get it ...

The should be OK and should appreciate partial sun at this point. The only time I keep them mostly in shade is when they are very young seedlings or maybe for a short while after raising the caudex on a more mature plant.

Thanks for the input everybody. And good point on not attaching to the light fixture because of strong wind could pull at it. Anyway I know myself and I'm definitely not going to do anything that involves PVC pipes and sewing and all that. The DWI worm thing looks nice but it's obviously insanely expensive and I don't want anything even with a small footprint on my balcony floor I wanted something off the floor. I'd previously looked into sun umbrellas that are on a pivoting arm and they can be affixed to a balcony rail but all the reviews I found suggested that most of them the locking mechanism on the arm eventually stops working. So it sounds like unless I want to invest in a professional custom-made cantilevered canopy type thing that I can wind open and close over my entire balcony that I'm just going to be stuck not sitting out on my balcony during the mid day hours.