Hi Julianna - Of COURSE I'm interested in what you're growing! This "bright shade" situation is most interesting and will require experimenting. I started this thread LESS than a month ago and already I see a difference in the number of hours the back of my balconies get sun. On the same token, the sun spots for the items hanging off the balcony are also lengthening. Right now, due to the containers I used for most of my succulents being bulky, they've been placed to the back of my patio where they get a brightness all day long (bright shade, as you called it) but direct sun is for but an hour plus a day? I have to wait and see how these do moving forward... This is balcony 1 -- the one with full sun up front. I bought a bunch of those white balcony pot hanging thingamagics -- and it's pretty useful. It's smaller than balcony 2, but deeper. What's not shown is that further in to the left, you have two shelves full of plants--where most of the succulents are as well as my infamous gardenia, which Purple has been helping me with, haha. This was taken moments ago and today is a bit stormy and cloudy but it's still bright out there at 3:30 pm. This is balcony 2. It's significantly wider with about 3-4 feet MORE to the left than is shown here; that part is obviously full shade. The remainder is all less full sun than balcony 1 and in the afternoon, it quickly goes into no sun as to the right of this balcony, the building juts out with an overhang to the lobby area below. That seems to block out the sun instantly. Unlike you, my area requires me to bring in virtually nothing as we rarely hit 40* and if a plant's lowest tolerance is 50* (which is basically our entire winter) -- then either I don't get it, or it evolves quickly, haha. Thank God, because my house is full enough with houseplants -- I need outside plants to come in like I need a hole in the head. I was browsing some ferns yesterday! Are they hard to grow? I have a Venus Maidenhair here inside, but I don't believe I've ever had ferns in my yard. In the past when I had homes, I've usually had full sun and have much, much less experience with shade plants. I'm messing with the idea of hostas and I'm definitely getting some coleus and begonias, but on balcony 2 - where most of my shade gardening would be -- you can see that the depth of the balcony is minimal; putting large pots out there means no walking area. This puts a damper in my idea of creating cascading containers w/ spillers, etc. I might have room for... uh, ONE. After all of this, I'm of the mindset to move back to a house, haha. I find myself driving around town and looking at homes to figure out, "Is that yard facing south? No, wait...east?" It's sad, really!! Your post is missing photos. I'd love to see!!!!!!!!!!!! -Grace.

Thanks everyone. So, I will move the Oncidiums to a little morning sun, then mostly bright light. I think I'm okay with the Catts. now. I may try just a little more morning sun for them. About the dendrobiums...orchid 126, you said they like western sun...should I move them so that they don't get morning sun, but do get the really hot western sun? I can do that. What about the vandas? Should they be in the sun all day, or just morning sun, or just really hot afternon sun? I'm confused about the vandas. I thought they liked it really hot and really bright all day, but they seem to be burning up. What about shade cloth? Does anyone use it? Should I drape it over the catts and oncidiums? Thanks for everyone's help. Liz

Hello, snowling888. Too much sun would cause the leaves in direct contact with the sun to turn all yellowish or even white-ish. Hydrangeas wilt when the amount is water lost thorough the leaves is more than the amount absorbed by the roots. So anything that promotes water loss (say, temperatures, windy location, not enough water) will need to be looked at. As for the F&E shrub, your soil could be alkaline. If it is acidic, this could be a new plant whose potting soil is not acidic and whose roots are still growing in the original alkaline potting medium. Acidic soils will result in blue blooms and alkaline soils will result in pink blooms. If your soil is acidic then you need to amend it with dolomitic lime (follow the label directions) or grow the shrub in pots where the potting medium is neutral to slightly alkaline. If this is a new plant whose potting mix was neutral or alkaline then just wait until the roots have grown into the surrounding garden soil that is acidic. Adding some phosphate will also help. As the blooms age, they will change colors. I observe the first change sometime in the month of June. The exact change in colors will depends on the hydrangea variety that you have. Luis

thanks for the tips...I suspected that might be the best choice, the downside is that the north facing side of my GH is really isolated and out of view from about everything. So they wont get many "looks", but maybe I can figure a way to position them on the corners so that they can peek around from each end and be seen.