Familiarizing yourself with the characteristics of both types of plants, however, allows you to make informed choices that will suit you and your site. Without making large structural changes, there is little you can do to affect the amount of sunlight that falls on a particular area of your yard. Matching plant material with the amount of available light is key to whether the plants thrive or languish. The best way to determine how much light a garden gets is to check it hourly. Our perceptions of what is sunny and what is shaded are often based on limited observation.
Full sun is considered to be six hours of direct sunlight.
The afternoon sun is stronger than the morning sun, which gives it a bit more weight in the equation. Generally speaking, the more sunlight a garden has, the more bloom you will get. Perennial plants for the shade tend to produce their showiest blooms in the spring, before the trees fully leaf out, or late in the year, as the trees begin to lose their leaves. For a continuous show of color in a shaded location, pockets of annual flowers are essential. Few plants will bloom in the deepest shade, but you still can create a native woodland garden or a restful setting with contrasting foliage colors and textures.