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[SHADEGARDENS] Shade loving tolerance.

Dear Sombreros and Debra Teachout,

My Lonicera nitida 'Beggesen's Gold' has done nothing (4in by 4in by 4in)
for two years in half day sun. And it was Robyn Duback of Robyn's Nest who
told me it would do better in the shade.

In our friendly discussion of shade tolerant versus shade loving I think
that several other points of interest have come up. I will pursue them (not
from the point of view of an expert, as I am not one at all). The only ace I
had was W. George Schmid's statement, "There are no shade loving plants."
And I am pursuing it without any desire to be proven right or wrong. It's
just interesting.

Few people living in Canada ever realize that the distance between Vancouver
and St John's Newfoundland excedes the distance from St.John's to Europe. I
have seen people living in Cassiar BC getting up in the morning and
blowtorching their propane tanks to thaw thme so they could cook breakfast.
In a smaller way the members of this cybergroup come from a similar
geographic diversity and distance. It has already been raised here by others
in earlier postings that an Aconitum that needs shade in the South would
have to have sun in the Pacific Northwest.

Hosta 'Aphrodite' (a double plantaginea) will rarely flower here in
Vancouver even in full sun. Hosta plantaginea happily flowers in Southern
France. Since most hostas grow in the shade is Hosta plantaginea an example
of Darwinian adaptability? Did forests in Southern China die out suddenly
millions of years ago and plantaginea just adapted to the new conditions?

Some plants in areas of Hawaii never see sun, just rain. Would they grow in
Washington State in the Sun?

Euphorbias grow wild in the deserts of Mexico yet several forms grow in
almost absolute shade here in Vancouver and can take over like a weed.

Native plants that grow in diciduous forests bloom in early spring before
the trees leaf out. Natives that grow in conifer forests are even more shade
tolerant/loving. What happens when we carefully put these plants in other
environments? Has anybody grown Cornus canadensis in the South? Does it do
well? How about Vancouveria?

For several years I have been playing chicken with the placement of Hosta
'Gold Standard' until I have found the right combination of sun/shade so it
colours to almost white without burning in late August.

Variegated plants and plants that have near white or yellow leaves are more
often than not cultivars. In the wild, when they appear as sports they soon
die, they cannot compete with their neighbors that have more chlorophyll
content. Schmid said this. Is he right?

If phlox is sun loving, what would it do in the Sahara? In Iceland in the 24
hour summers? I admit these are extreme examples!

Absolute shade is darkness. Would a shade loving plant thrive in a 24 hour
night?

In our discussions of a plant's reaction and sensitivity to light levels we
have yet to touch on plants' sensitivity to the ever more abundant levels of it.

A plant under a tree, the same plant under a tree in an almost identical
situation yet close to a white wall that reflects light (not sun) into the
shade. Are these similar shade conditions?

Has anybody ever measured shade using a light meter that set designers use
in the movies? You can measure light in lux units.

The colour temperature of light in degrees Kelvin ( a l00 watt bulb's light
is 2900 degrees Kelvin, Washington DC, midsummer, midday 5500 degrees
Kelvin, overcast day 7000 dgrees Kelvin.) which has nothing to do with the
heat/cold temperature but its colour from red to blue (so that blue stars
are hotter than white stars that are hotter than red). How does the colour
temperature of any region (bluer in the Pacific Northwest at a more northern
latitude, redder in a southern latitude like Georgia ) affect the quality of
both sunlight and shade as far as a plant is concerned?.

It has been said that a plant's hardiness is more connected to the plant's
ability to tolerate large fluctuations in temperature in a short time than
its ability to survive very low temperatures. Does anybody know more about this?

So should sun, shade thus be considered only in their relation to moisture,
duration, intensity, angle, gradual or immediate and other factors?


Alex
Vancouver BC Zone 7/8 but sometimes 6.
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