Native Plants
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Friday - February 22, 2013
From: San Marcos, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant, Herbs/Forbs, Shrubs
Title: Enough sun from San Marcos TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
I would like to plant both Lantana urticoides and Salvia farinacea in area that only has morning to 1pm sun..Will this amount of sun be enough?ANSWER:
Follow these plant links:
Salvia farinacea (Mealy blue sage)
Lantana urticoides (Texas lantana)
to our respective webpages on each. Scroll down the page to Growing Conditions. When we refer to Light Requirements, we say that "sun" is 6 hours or more of sun a day, "part shade" is 2 to 6 hours of sun and "shade" is less than 2 hours a day. You will see that both require sun. Spend a few minutes every day observing the spot where you want to plant these excellent native plants, and do so at several different times of the day. If it is borderline, say 4-1/2 hours of sun a day, you might give it a try, using just one or two plants of each as test cases. They might make it, plants do not necessarily grow in the best places, but where they can get away with it. These are both profusely flowering plants, popular with bees, butterflies and even hummingbirds, but blooming plants normally need a lot of sun to do their best blooming. Since we don't make house calls, only you can make the decision in this matter. We hope you can find a place where both can thrive!
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