defining.. or describing 'shade' .. in words is impossible ...

most shade plants .. are ONLY tolerant of shade .. meaning they can get by with less that full sun.. which is usually called.. 8 or more hours ...

but i just dont see how we can tell you what will thrive you your set of circumstances.. at this point it should all be trial and error ...

sun for an hour or two.. at noon.. is more an issue of the heat generated .. rather than intensity ... that is why late afternoon sun is worse.. because the ambient heat.. starts drawing water out of the plant. .. they transpire .. and then with the sun actually hitting them .. they might wilt ... but the same length of sun in morning.. or even noon is not that bad.. because the heat hasnt built.. to make them sweat more ... to their detriment ...

just decide by what interests you.. or makes you happy.. and experiment.. is all i can tell you ...

just keep in mind.. that no plant thrives in deep shade [that is why most forest floors with mature trees are barren]... so anything other than that .. is variable ...

ken

Hi, I'm mostly a lurker but I have a situation like that so I can tell you what handles it for me (this is with regular watering):

Heuchera
Toad lilies (Tricyrtis)
Alchemilla mollis
Azalea Autumn Twist
Hydrangea Pia
Japanese maples

Ideally, do a full shade study on the summer solstice to determine the level of shade in the area. There's a lot of shade where I am thanks to giant oak trees but there are different types of shade. Many sun plants will do great in the brighter areas in my garden where they get a couple of hours of dappled shade. For example, I have Russian sage, peonies, coreopsis, dianthus, weigela, daphne, rose of Sharon, astilbe, hosta & butterfly bush growing--happily--in an area that gets only a couple hours of midday sun then dappled shade for a few more hours. Since those were the conditions I had to work with, I decided to see what worked and what didn't. So far, it all works.

I have a similar situation in my backyard-large trees on both sides. The gap in the trees where sunlight gets through is facing south and plants receive sun exactly at midday for a couple hours. I have had quite a few plants do well and some did not. It has been trial and error to see what grows and what grows the way I like. My biggest issue was with plants that "leaned" toward the sun, and that included the flowers when they bloomed. My neighbors see more of my flowers than I do. It is called heliotropism.

Rhonda

I've concluded that translating a few hours of sun into part shade or not depends entirely on what time of day the sun is hitting. The area you describe gets slammed with sun in the hottest hours of the day, which probably means you'd want plants that like more sun than shade plants. I can't tell where you are, so I don't know how hot it gets nor is it clear how much regular water you'd be getting during the hot months. Those factors matter, of course, as plants that prefer some shade generally fare worse if it's hotter and dryer. If your summers are mild and not especially dry, then even baptisia might be okay in that spot. Soil content and moisture retention matter too.

It does seem like there would be a large number of plants that would be potentially happy there. I'd click the "mostly sunny" box of an online search, then look at other factors.

Just my 2 cents. =)

I am thinking that with that limited hours, something like coreopsis is out, but something that go from sun to part shade would work. So stick with something like Rudbeckia hirta, but not goats beard. The problem is that in this area, it can get droughty or rainy.

Paul