I have a Japanese Maple in my front yard (I'm also zone 5). I think that they prefer morning sun and afternoon shade (afternoon sun is too hot). I planted my maple during early summer and in the evening so I miscalculated where it was going to get more of the afternoon shade so it gets more of the HOT sun which is not what I intended. It has been where it is now for 2 years so I figured that so far so good, right? They like lots of water so I give it about an inch to 2 inches deep of water once a week and also the sprinklers hit it in the wee hours of the morning. I hope this helps. Good luck.

I don't agree with blanket statements that more sun is always better. While this might be true in places with high humidity and lower elevations, here in the hot arid SW at 5000 feet, there is such a thing as too much sun, and plants which receive a few hours of shade/partial shade always produce better and are less stressed. Plants here that receive 12 hours of direct sunlight will develop a blasted look in the summer where the color is more grayish-green than lush green. The lower leaves get leathery faster than shaded plants, and the leaves rarely provide a flattened surface to the sun, no matter how carefully you maintain moisture levels. At a certain point here, sun ceases to be a critical component and becomes a stress factor. Plants grown in buckets in these conditions do even worse. They dry out very quickly, and the buckets can get extremely hot when placed on surfaces like concrete, brick, or stone. To help, you can put a layer of mulch in the bucket to help retain moisture, and if your ground temperatures are high, you can place the bucket higher up on some type of stand. Regarding your plants, yellow pear does have thinner, more sharply jagged leaves. It's typical of that variety. Under the right conditions, they can become obscenely large. Since you only have one plant to compare, it might not actually be the conditions that are unfavorable, but it could be the individual plant itself. When you transplanted the yellow pear, was it still in any type of peat container?

Issue 1: Succulents and moss don't go well at all together. It holds in moisture where the succulents want it the least. Does the pot have a drainage hole? Issue 2: Your succulent doesn't have enough light to maintain a healthy stem that can support itself. Usually these are full sun plants. Issue 3: Too much water. It sounds like these plants have rot. In this case, its best to cut the rot away until you reach healthy, green stem. Then, let it callus for a few days before planting it in a pot-this time without moss and more light if possible. Rot can spread up the plant, so its best to do this asap. Good luck!

I love growing hybrid tea roses. My favorite is called 'Double Delight.' It's the photo I use for my avatar. Its blooms start out a creamy yellow color, but in direct sunlight, the petals turn a deep red, and they are so fragrant. If the blooms open up on a very cloudy day, then they don't color up as much and stay a creamy yellow color with just a hint of pink around the edges. Your photos immediately reminded me of this trait. It's cool to see happen in other plant species. I can't decide which or your blooms I like more. As for my 'Double Delight,' I prefer it when they change color. It seems like the hotter and brighter the sunlight gets, the deeper red and more fragrant the roses become. Thanks for sharing, they're so lovely.^ I went to check on my garden one night, after a severe thunderstorm rolled through. When I shown my flashlight onto this one, I thought it looked pretty cool. So went in and grabbed my camera and snapped this photo.