With 2 hours of sun you have a shade garden and there are only a few annuals that like almost total shade. Impatiens and begonias are the 2 that give you the most bang for your buck. I would invest in a few perennials like hostas and fill in with impatiens and begonias. Neither are easy plants to grow and take 2 or 3 months of ideal growing to be transplanting size. If you don't have a light set up for them to grow under then you will not have sucess growing from seed

There are different types of shade. What kind of shade is it after the 2 hours of sun?

Coleus is another that tolerates a good deal of shade.

tj

Handsome, stay tuned to this forum for more information about shade loving annuals and perennials. We'll have to start reminding people to avoid Impatiens lest they run the risk of losing their entire planting to a fungus-like disease called Downy Mildew of Impatiens....which has become officially rampant all over the world where Impatiens is grown. This disease is ubiquitous. It doesn't matter if you buy plants or grow your own from seed.

If you do a search in this forum, you'll find some older threads about this subject. We've also been discussing some alternatives....coleus seems to be top of the list!

Regarding your Begonias. I assume that you want to grow the wax begonia...Begonia x semperflorens-cultorum? Such a popular and easy bedding plant. Those are the common red or green leafed little plants that do so well in our gardens. But, as hybrids, they don't produce seed very well.

But even if they did, I would still recommend that you search down a company which sells begonia PLUGS rather than buy seeds. The seeds are so small, tinier than a grain of pepper, that they can be a real pain to handle. Plus, they need sunlight in order to germinate, which makes maintaining humidity levels a challenge.

The plugs are a great deal of fun to work with, and under the right conditions, you'll have sturdy little plants in no time.

Now...have you ever grown anything from seed before?

Handsome, I did a 'search' in just this forum and found a good thread worth resurrecting. There are quite a few good suggestions for shade alternatives.

Here is a link that might be useful: Click here

Thanks folks! The Impatiens I grew there last season did just fine with the sun that's available...... After 3-4 hours of morning sun, there's still filtered sun all afternoon... I'm set up to start seeds indoors (ie, propagation chamber,lights,etc) but I think I'll take rhizo's advice & try begonia plugs...

This post was edited by Handsome54 on Wed, Jan 9, 13 at 17:17

"After 3-4 hours of morning sun, there's still filtered sun all afternoon."

You could likely grow all but the most sun loving annuals.

tj

Thanks tsugarjunkie! Perhaps I have more options here than I first thought.......???

Yes, you have more options. Those conditions are what I call part shade.

I have grown rudbeckia, nasturtiums, marigolds and petunias (to name a few) in such conditions and they did fine.

tj

Thanks tj! Now THESE are some annuals I have a little experience propagating...

Browallia

OP here... With an update.... Seems sometimes I don't ask the right questions or give adequate info in my attempts to have GW help resolve my many growing issues ;) This thread should have been titled "Need A Part Shade Annual"..... I've decided to go with Glorious Double Petunia Mix for this bed. Anyone grow these?

A whole area of nothing but Petunias?

purpleinopp, are you perhaps suggesting I should plant something besides just Petunias? ;) I'm always open to suggestions..........

An entire bed of petunias is boring and won't look good. I like Nicotiana, Snapdragons, Petunias and annual dwarf phlox together. Perhaps edged with alyssum. They all require the same light conditions and watering. In fact they have pretty similar germination times and growth. While I do like the double petunias they don't produce as many flowers as the single ones. I use mixed planting with the single petunias

Whether this bed would look good or not is purely subjective. Truthfully, there are some perfectly acceptable reasons for implementing single species plantings. I've used the technique many times in my commercial and residential designs. It's a look much preferred in more formal designs.

The size of the planting area is another determining factor. A small bed makes a much bigger impression if a mass of one plant is used.

Anyway, it's a person choice, handsome. There is no "good " or "bad ". Find some pictures of different kinds of bed designs and see what kind of look YOU are attracted to.

Some things to think about when selecting plants are : required maintenance (I despise deadheading, so you'll never see a petunia in my yard.), expected pest or disease problems, longevity of bloom period, watering needs, etc. Even the smallest of plantings are worthy of some homework.

I wasn't trying to tell you what to do via question... While blooming, I think it would be smashing. As Rhizo said, they need deadheading to keep blooming (no matter what the label says, IME.) Petunias are famous for dying well before summer is over, and they're very short plants. Although I love them, especially those that smell good, it's not a plant that's reliable or showy enough to warrant its' own area, especially if the amount of sunlight is iffy, but that's just an opinion. Bottom line, if it would make you happy, it's THE thing to do!

Thanks folks! When the job requires creativity, I'm at the back of the bus! While I've been a long time "old school" (ie, before computers)gardener, I'm recently retired and now have time to pursue vegetable/flower gardening in depth. I've been propagating for 3 years (cudos to digdirt Dave) & have only scratched the surface....

The bed in question is 5'W x 20'L, so I might just mix things up a bit...... Just hate to get too strung out with propagating too many varieties......

Hey, there's nothing wrong with old school! And it's better to go with something simple than go overboard with diversity. Your bed is large enough to play with.

The one "hint " I'll offer is that white can be the ultimate unifying element in a mixed design. I like to use a border of low growing white annuals as a sort of petticoat. My favorite is the small Zinnia angustifolia. The white selection blooms nonstop until frost in my full sun, Alabama clay. If I lived in a cooler location, Alyssum would be a choice. It dies out here.

But, one color can help unify a very mixed bed and make it look like you did everything on purpose.

Thanks rhizo! This gives me food for thought.... I have a little experience propagating Zinnias, so either of these are a possibility.....

I didn't mean to imply that zinnias would be a good choice for you. I'm not sure that you'll have enough hours of full sun. Maybe someone with some actual experience can chime in. I've only grown zinnias in locations where they've received 8 or more hours of direct sunlight. They would be fine with less than that but I don't know about as little as you have to offer.

Yes, nobody wants to see you end up with struggling plants, or spend all summer waiting for blooms that may not show up. I know it's already been said, but I'm in the Coleus camp!

Sorry rhizo....... I misinterpreted your post.... Yeah, Zinnias no workie....

purpleinopp mentioned Coleus, which I've had very little experience growing. I've viewed several pics of Coleus being used as a boarder, & I must admit, they're very attractive!

Problem is - petunias don't perform their best in part-shade, it's full sun that they thrive in.

You could always try some petunias intermixed into planting in the bed to see how they perform in your specific conditions, but I wouldn't plant a whole bed of them in less than ideal exposure w/o testing first, you might be disappointed.

Man, you guys are making me dig up my ancient scrolls.

This pic was from 2000. These purple wave pets got 3 hours sun...max. And the dark purple ones further to the left got even less sun. I did not dead-head these and they looked fine all year.

{{gwi:1493}}

How tastes change.

Similar view last year.

{{gwi:1494}}

I do agree, however, you may want to test your conditions before doing a whole area.

tj

I vote for coleus. As you can see from purple's picture, they give you lots of color, more than flowers would, and are pretty care-free. There are literally hundreds of new hybrids on the market now, with wild colors and shades and all sizes.

Here's a pic of some of my coleus.

Where is the best place(s) to buy some of the "newer" coleus types/selections (e.g. those not grown from seed)??

At a real garden center, not just a store like Lowe's or WM, although they usually have a selection of a few types.

There are places that sell seeds for more unusual varieties beyond rainbows and wizards.

To anyone who is so able, I recommend visiting Baker's Acres. They breed new Coleus, as well offering an incredible selection of unusual plants of all types but especially unusual annuals and hundreds of Coleus (of which there are over 2,000 named cultivars.) It's not hard to predict folks are likely to see these varieties in stores this year.

When you find one you like, save some for next year if at all possible in your house. They might not have the same one again.

I've been at my current place now for 7 years, and only get afternoon sun, starting from 1pm to dusk. I have all planters on the back deck with this kind of sunlight, and even though it's full on sun for that many hours, I can't get snapdragons to flower or petunias to flourish (amongst the sun/part sun flowers I tried). My neighbor, who only gets morning sun, grows almost anything she wants/doesn't want! So, from what I've observed in my envy that if you can get a few hours of morning sun, with the exception of very strong sun lovers, you can grow whatever you like. I would give zinnias a try, and I've seen cosmos UNDER TREES flourish, because they get that early morning sun. I have also noticed that a local shop had some nice dark purple vincas in window boxes that did well and that only got morning sun. Only shade plants work for me ever, plus browallias, torenias, lobelias, fushias and coleus. Surprisingly, sage was very happy, so that may be something to consider as a textural thing.

Post a picture at the end of the season for us!

Thanks started with bean! This was a new bed last year planted in Impatiens, which did well..... But I'm getting bad reviews on Impatiens due to their Downy Mildew issues... I do get 3-4 hours morning sun (which is supposed to be best) & some filtered afternoon sun, so I may be underestimating how much sun I actually have. Right or wrong, I'm waiting for my Petunia seed to arrive (very soon I hope.)I'll keep GW posted!

Ummmmm kaaaay........ UPDATE! Just talked to Jung Seed & the Petunia seeds I ordered 10 days ago have been back ordered until February. Guess it's a good thing I decided to call them....

This raises another question... When do I sow Petunia seeds indoors? I'm getting from 4-6 weeks before LFD to as much as 10-12 weeks???

This post was edited by Handsome54 on Sat, Jan 19, 13 at 17:58

Hi Yankee,

This is Johnny's Selected Seeds online seed starting calculator. Don't forget to enter your Frost Free date at the top. It will currently have today's date, which obviously isn't what you want there. Notice that Petunias are down in the table, in alphabetical order. Petunias have very small seeds, so they get off to a slow start because the baby plants are so small.

ZM

Thanks ZM For an Ottawa Cyclone you're alright! ;)

I usually start petunia seeds 7-8 weeks prior to planting out date, indoors under lights

Thanks mxk3! 8 weeks seems to be a pretty uniform starting time. My web search turned up a vast difference from 4-12 weeks..... I'm much more confident when using information from trusted sources!

4 weeks isn't enough time IMO - they are tiny seeds and very small seedlings, they need time to get big enough to plant out. They are easy to grow and do grow at a good clip inside under the lights, that's not it - just that they're so darn tiny at first. 6 weeks maybe, but not 4.

rhizo_1, after my experience with 'downy mildew' last season I am washing my hands of the up till now wonderful shade impatiens. I do very much like wax begonias but I find that they are not the equal of impatiens when in a significant shade location. Do you not find similarly?