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.

My Pink Knockout rose is blooming fairly well and has tripled in size since I planted it early this spring. It gets maybe an hour of direct sunlight early in the morning, then another hour in the early afternoon. The shade is open and airy, though - there is the corner of the house abt 5' away to the west and a huge, high-canopied maple about 15' to the east. It doesn't have that classic rose shape but the color is snappy and livens up my shade garden. I plan on getting more next year.

Starting your collection in pots is a steep learning curve. You would have such a higher success rate by putting them in the ground. Sieboldii is inferior to diversifolia and chinensis in terms of HWA immunity. Your failure wasn't the result of diversifolia's intolerance to sun/heat, but rather the fact that you had a recently transplanted tree in the fast draining 5-1-1 mix in full sun. Sieboldii would have failed here too. 5-1-1 needs to be watered every 2-3 days when in full sun. New transplants should be giving filtered sun/shade for a year. I'd recommend a drip line on timer for the 5-1-1, too easy to underwater this mix, and almost impossible to over water.

Trish, I love it! I feel much better about wandering around the backyard in my robe or jammies. As you can see, I’m in a ratty old robe, right now. I was reaching for a cane of Evelyn to take more pictures this morning, when I slipped with my finger on the camera...... I was about to delete it, and decided it was actually kind of funny. The weather has been perfect for the past two days, overcast and a high of 75F. I like it cooler yet, but I’ll take it! By the weekend, it will be 95F again. A rose that’s stated to grow 6’ 7” and then grew 10’ x 20’ ? Oh, I’d be in trouble! I already have 7 of the 55 gallon black trash bags full of yard waste from just this week! I’d be cutting a Rose back like that constantly, or I’d have no room from anything else. Mel’s Heritage is already that size here. I wouldn’t know what to do with one that grew so large if I wasn’t expecting it. I’m already leery about ‘Pomponella Fairytale’, and hoping I haven’t made a mistake planting that one. I’ve heard it gets pretty big. My Bourbon rose, ‘Comice de Tarn-et-Garonne’ better grow tall quickly, before Pomponella shades it out. Thankfully, Pomponella was planted as a band directly into the ground in March, while Comice de Tarn-et-Garonne was a large specimen, planted in January. Pomponella has cute little pink ball-shaped blooms, but the bugs have been into it. Here’s the pictures I just took of a few more Evelyn blooms. The ones that just opened during this cooler weather are much more peach colored than the earlier pink ones that opened while it was warmer. Those bug chewed buds drive me nuts! I wish I knew of a simple, nontoxic fix! Below is ‘Mystic Beauty’. It’s supposed to be similar to Souvenir de la Malmaison, but opens more easily in damp weather.(Not that damp weather is an issue here.). It’s been amazing all summer. My hydrangea ‘Incrediball’, behind Mystic Beauty turned from white to green so quickly this year. It was just too warm too soon. Tiff, that’s so sad about the potato bugs eating your Zinnias from Annie’s. When I pay $5.95 for a single annual, I expect it to self sow and give me loads of freebies. Aren’t potato bugs those huge nasty looking bugs? I rarely see them here, if ever. I’m mostly having trouble with caterpillars and thrips. I’m happy to hear you’re an Annies fan. Much of my garden is from Annie’s, or descendants from Annie’s plants. I had a hard time resisting their sale over the weekend, but it feels like I just got the last batch from Annie’s planted. Do let me know how the soap works out. SO many blooms are being ruined that I have to do something! Lisa