Sunlight and Plants

Sunlight and Plants

How much sunlight a plant needs is always a tricky topic when planting decorative plants around your home or placing potted ones inside your home or office.

In this article we will go over various types of popular plants and show you which ones need a lot of light, partial light or grow nicely in mostly shaded areas. It is funny how it always seems to be that the area near your home or office where you wish to plant beautiful and colorful flowering plants always has the least amount of sunlight.

All plants need sunlight to photosynthesize. There are three basic categories plants are put in. The first is a plant requiring “full sun” or at least six (6) hours of direct sunlight a day. The second category is “partial sun/partial shade”. This plant requires at least three (3) to four (4) hours of direct sun each day. The third is “shade”. A shade loving plant needs less than two (2) hours of sun a day will grow nicely with filtered sun or filtered shade. A rule of thumb is the lower the light, the slower the plant grows.

There are other options with indoor plants. Light can be supplemented with artificial light to achieve your light requirements. Always keep in mind the strength of the light makes a difference. More is not necessarily better and can harm your plant or kill it.

Full Sun Plants:

Aloe Vera plants grow easily outside or in in, but require full sun. This plant has beautiful flowing leaves and the juice or gel from inside the leaves can relieve pain from scrapes and burns. This is a great medicinal plant to have around.

Aster with its beautiful daisy like star-shaped flower is a plant and is a beautiful addition to any yard!

Black-Eyed Susan is one of the most popular wild flowers around. They feature red, orange and yellow flowers.

Daffodils with their attractive orange, yellow and white flowers can get by with a little less than full sun and are a sure sign that spring has arrived.

Partial Sun/Partial Shade Plants:

Asparagus Fern– This decorative fern can grow up to ten (10) feet and is a lush addition to any area.

Bear’s Breeches – these are large mound forming perennials with bright green leaves that can grow as much as one (1) foot wide and beautiful white or pink flowers.

Christmas Rose – is an easy plant to grow. It has the ability to bloom in the darkest months.

Creeping Lily Turf – this grows eight (8)” to ten (10)” and is a grass like ground cover that provides tiny flowers in late summer and dark blue berries in the late fall.

Shade Plants:

Bleeding Heart is a shade loving perennial. It gets its name from the unique flowers in pink or white heart shapes with what appears to look like drops of blood at the bottom.

Buckshaw Blue Hosta has rich blue-green leaves with white flowers in summer.

Jerusalem Sage – is a beautiful ground cover in a shaded area. Its flowers go from pink to purple as well as yellow showing off their hooded flower. They are easy to grow under trees or shrubs.

White Trillium – grows nice in a shaded area. It has large three (3) petal white flowers shaped similar to a triangle.

Mrs Popple Fuchsia – this plant has stunning scarlet and purple flowers that hang from stems during June to October.

Your Green Goddess associate can help direct you to the plant that works best for your sun exposure and the area with which to plant. Come check us out!