Hi Carolyn ..........
Yes, the light at a higher elevation is more intense. It's hard to explain, but just watching plants, you can almost see that they respond differently.
During the summer, that bed gets sunlight until around 2pm. Clearly the rose needed more light. Since I pegged it towards the light, it has put out a lot more foliage and is even putting on new growth at the base of the plant because it is being fed by photosynthesis. Fertilizers, compost, mulch can only do so much. The plant has to perform its own function of producing food for it to thrive.
All of the new growth on the rose is growing straight up to reach the light, so I will continue pegging it and will probably end up with a decent shrub on that side of the bed.
So learning from the rose, the bed has had at least 6 hours of sunlight ... the house faces southeast ... but it still did not thrive. It's very possible that the light did not reach the base of the rose for all of that time. I am thinking plants needing less sunlight will do OK. Since the base of the bed already looks dark, I would think I need to stay away from the dark leaved heuchs to create a better impact.
I removed a lot of bergenias from the front of that bed this spring. There is a Margo Koster rose under where the CH cane is leafing out. I had previously left it uncaged hoping the deer would eat it to a nub. I hate the color, but it might just look good with CH burgandy blooms growing through it. In case you don't know the rose 'Margo Koster', it is a polyantha with kind cantaloupe colored blooms. In nine years, the deer haven't managed to kill that rose for me.
Of course, it's probably been there for 50 years.
I am currently growing 'Autumn Leaves', 'Silver Scrolls' and 'Amethyst Mist' on the house pad level with AM getting the most direct sun. All three made it through our last week of triple digit temps.
Smiles,
Lyn
