*You read that plant tag & picked out your plants with a care for the amount of sun the tag said it needs.*

But finding a place for your plant to call home in the garden requires knowing what ‘FULL SUN’ or PART SHADE” really means.
And that tag isn’t going to tell you but I will friend! The simple terms of ‘FULL SUN” and ‘PART SHADE” can be tricky especially if you are a rookie gardener.
*Read on to learn more and steal my cheat sheet for a plant’s sunlight requirement*s

native carolina rose lazy dirt flower farm.jpeg

Seems so simple. You just place the plant in the “right light conditions” listed on the plant tag and give them a bit of TLC to settle in.

Only to watch them struggle to thrive the rest of the season or worse die! GASP the horror…WHY? WHY? WHY does it happen?!?

Well friend…

SUNLIGHT could be the culprit.

It is not quite as simple as that plastic tag makes it out to be! While it certainly could be other factors like soil, condition of the plant’s roots, and water… it’s a good chance SUNLIGHT played a factor too.

Plant ID tags are part of the problem…

Friend, there’s only so much room on those little plastic tags—

FULL SUN. PART SUN. SHADE.

Short phrases that fit on the tag are a must for manufacturers of those plastic plant labels.

*note: we do not use these plastic labels at the farm. Instead we use wooden tags to reduce plastic in your garden!

To really understand what KIND of light a specific plant needs you want to really KNOW more about the plant.

Here’s what the tag won’t tell you:

Does the plant need FULL SUN but also afternoon shade?
If part sun/shade, what time of day should the plant receive it?
Where would this native plant be located in the wild? Open meadows? Deep woods with morning/evening light? Or along woodland edges with filtered light coming through shrubs?

Take this Blue False Indigo for example

You’ll find it’s sun requirements listed on tags as needing ‘Full Sun’. Many would read this and assume the plant needs constant sunlight for at least 8 hours a day.
*However, FULL SUN can be spread throughout the day!*
The Blue False Indigo pictured here is located in our “East Garden’ where it receives direct sunlight from dawn until just about noon.

Summer afternoons are for sitting in the shade

During the high heat of the day (Noon-4pm) it receives partial shade then full shade for the rest of the day.
This means in Summer it has protection from the highest heat of the day. No worries on it getting enough sunlight because it received it’s required hours of sunlight all morning!
A very happy plant indeed! .

So what exactly is Full Sun? Part Shade?

At its most basic level, it is the hours of light a plant needs to THRIVE.

This of course varies based on the plants unique needs. Again, it is helpful to know WHERE in Nature you’d find the plant growing.

Our friend Becky’s pollinator garden is a great example of the role of sunlight upon a plants health.

In 2022, she filled this ‘hot spot’ garden with our Purple Coneflowers, Anise Hyssop, Rudbeckia plus Prairie Dropseed. This South facing garden gets over 8 hours of sun a day!

All of these native plants would naturally be found in open fields & meadows. In that wild setting, full sunlight and competition from tall grasses forces meadow plants to reach for the sunlight adding height to the blooms.

Here in Becky’s garden they seem to be celebrating having 8+ hours a day of sunlight all for themselves!

Just beautiful and what a great spot to watch hummingbirds, bees & butterflies!

So how many hours of light are we talking about anyway?

Regardless of SHADE or FULL SUN— these terms are the hours of LIGHT a plant needs to thrive not the hours of shade!

**Quick Tip:**

Watch and note how the sunlight changes per time of day and throughout the seasons in your garden.

Plants that need ‘FULL SUN’ want to bask in 6 or more hours of direct light a day. Note that some native plants like native sunflowers may actually want MORE light than that.

Remember~ SHADE is not the hours of shade. It is the hours of sunlight the plant needs..

Partial Shade plants like Rose Mallow Hibiscus need 4-6 hours of sunlight preferably filtered as they are often found is swampy forests.

Shade loving plants still need light usually need 2 or less hours of direct/filtered sunlight to thrive. Placing these shade loving plants under trees & shrubs or along a north side of the garden easily achieves this.

How? The trees, shrubs or structures shelters the plants from the suns strongest rays between 9am and 7pm. As the sun rises & sets is when these plants will get their 2 hours of less a day of sunlight.