It seems like a lot of shade to me. Plus........as Dan says, its not the sun, its the heat that is the problem. Placing them under a black plastic tent isn't going to cool them down. If you are going to try this, I would switch to a white material, even a sheet, and open it up so that there is more air flow under there.

Hi there, I live up in Bucks County and did the same thing with pieris japonica--bought it and planted it in full sun without researching. It was very unhappy. I'd move yours. Maybe you could plant double knockout roses in its place? Sounds like you could use more summer color in front. Hidcote lavender would be nice in front of/under the roses. That's a pretty classic combination, and the lavender would add a nice fragrance. Good luck. I ended up ditching my pieris because I just didn't have a suitable spot for it. I still feel guilty...LOL. Lisa

wow - lots of suggestions over the few days I've been away. Thanks! With regards to basil - I did convert half of one of the 4x4s to basil partway through summer, and I've got a hydroponic basil setup in my classroom so we did pretty well on that this year, but I would like to get into different varieties and see what I can do. With zucchini - we MAJORLY struck out on that this past year. I've never in my entire life done poorly with zucchini or other summer squash, but this year we planted four plants, only got one zucchini which grew to about 6" and then rotted. The other plants failed to thrive....I've NEVER had that problem before, but we'll be trying again next year! Peppers - we had four varieties totaling about 40 plants last year. They were planted a little closely for what the seed packs say, but we did okay. One thing that we don't get to produce well is bell peppers. We had great bells a few years ago in a different location that is now a flower bed, but we can't get them to grow much more than MAYBE tennis ball sized, but usually much, much smaller and more oddly shaped than what you should get. We've done better with banana peppers and two other varieties (including some of those mini bells that you can find at the grocery store...we saved some seeds from them a couple of years ago and they do great!). We are trying to overwinter in pots our two biggest plants from last summer. They're not doing so hot, but we'll see what happens. Melons - last year we did melons and even the watermelons only got to be about baseball sized. They took up a ton of room so we won't be doing those again. Beans - had some in both 4x4s and then planted them across the entire garden late in the season as a cover crop to put nitrogen back in the soil. Hopefully it will help solve some of the problems we ran into last year. Greens - We did really well on greens the year before (chard, multiple lettuce varieties, and spinach) but couldn't get them to really grow well this past year. I'd like to figure out what's going on there because we did really use them a lot when we had them. Cucumbers - two years ago we had so many that we still have pickles in the cupboard. Last year we planted a quarter of what we did the year before and we had enough for fresh consumption but not enough for any canning which was fine. Spaghetti squash - Did well on them this past year but we didn't make good use of them so we probably won't plant them again. Carrots - planted them in one of the 4x4s and got a single harvest. Had never planted them before, so we will be doing them again but will try to adjust timing to have more than one harvest. Beets - same as carrots. Chives, green onions, garlic - did alright with them, dried them, and are still using them. Will happen again! Eggplant - I would LOVE to get good eggplant, but flea beetles DESTROY them every year and don't seem to bother anything else in the garden. We got a single one out of four to fruit this year and got one eggplant that wasn't even of usable size off of it. Potatoes - would like to do these again. We tried them for the first time last year but they didn't get very big (we got maybe 8 golf ball sized potatoes off of two plants. Two other plants died early on). Peas - Always do good with them in fall and spring.

My Evelyn also came from Chamblees and grew the same way. She is in her third year and has put on new growth with thicker sturdier canes. I moved her to a different spot in the garden this past spring so she hasn't bloomed as much yet due to getting re-established. I hope someone else that has a more mature Evelyn will chime in but from what I have learned on this forum is that own root DA roses can take several years to mature.