I have 2 JF's and both get late afternoon sun.

Our sun here is brutal. It wouldn't last two days in afternoon sun here.

Zone 6 really varies. Even hot plants like echinacea need a break from full sun here. We have hot dry wind to go with the clear skies and intense sun. I tell customers to ignore tags that say full sun. I say, that's the full sun they have up in Wisconsin...not here.
Plants that end up in the fully exposed beds look ratty. Their leaves are smaller, blooms are washed out. If they get a break from the sun of at least an hour sometime during the day, they grow much better.

I live in northern KY and have tried Jack Frost Brunnera for 3 or 4 years without much success. I have planted them in full shade, part shade with good soil. The whole 9 yards. What really drives me crazy is that my neighbor has a huge beautiful Jack Frost Brunnera which is about five years old. I have talked at length about what she does to keep it looking so beautiful. She just shrugs and says it must be that it likes where it is planted. I just recently discovered that the soil where she has it planted stays moist most of the time. Maybe that's her secret. I am gonna give it one more try! Best of luck to the rest of you.

In the UK this plant thrives in cool damp shade and is grown as a woodland plant where our temperatures don't often get above 75F in summer.

I grow it as a mixed shade plant. It is in a lot of shade and usually moist area. I grow it with bloodroot, wood poppies, bleeding hearts, and trilliums

Have a JF in zone 4B underneath crab apples so it has early spring sun, than full shade until mid summer when apple scab hits and its back to partial shade, area is irrigated. Took a hit this past bad winter but is still doing its thing.

clintbrown said:I have tried this plant now 5 times and not one has survived. I'm in West TN. Anyone have any tips for keeping it alive when temps get above 80 degrees? Every day another leaf turns black. I really think it shouldn't be sold here.

Clint, I'm not sure where you are in relationship to Little Rock, Arkansas. But we get temperatures of 90 -100 degrees in our zone 7b. It was 96 degrees this week and it's only May. The first time I tried 3 brunnera Jack Frost, only one survived. The bed was still fairly new and I was experimenting. Last year I planted three more. They are thriving. However, they are in a slightly raised (about 8 inches) bed in almost full shade next to the house.
The best they get is a little dappled light. Compost and mulch is added to the bed yearly. Rain flows off an unguttered roof and I water during drought.

The bed includes hellebores, euphorbia, purple shamrocks, cyclamen and dragon wing begonias for color accent. I do have one corner where nothing seems to grow. But, I'm still trying. Pictures are on another computer. I'll post them later.

Brunnera Jack Frost in Little Rock, AR, zone 7b - 8 during summer 2017.


This was early in the 2017 season, but they are bigger and better this year.




The Lady's Mantle didn't make it. Didn't like the heat and humidity. I've got better placement for the dragon's wing begonia this year I think and more euphorbia.