Has anyone tried growing taller plants to shade other plants from direct sun?

Or plant windbreaking shrubs to filter the wind from other plants that cannot take high winds.

I have Hellebores planted with Giant hostas

Jo, love your avatar!!

That sounds pretty and unusual all at the same time. Do the hostas shade your hellebores from the sun?

Thank you.
Christine

Tried a castor bean next to Acanthus Molis. Not big enough yet.

I hope you're able to come up with something for your situation.

I'm trying to come up with something to shade some hydrangeas and brugmansias from 4-5 hours of late afternoon baking sun --we lost a huge tree to the west of them last June in a really bad storm.
They barely made it through last summer with the heat and drought.. Its not looking good already.

I can see the caster bean trees I planted aren't going to get big enough soon enough to shade them. There's not enough sun for them to grow big and fast as they're shaded most of the day and the other tree roots just suck all the water up.

So now I'm thinking about erecting a cheap temporary trellis and growing a fast growing vine that can take mostly shade and a blast of 4 hours of really hot sun. Something like black eye'd susan vine might work there, or some sweet potato vine maybe.

We'll replace that tree this fall but it will be quite a few years before it will be able to shade the area again.
If that doesn't work I may have to rescue/move those plants in the dead of summer and pot them up until I can find more shade for them.

I thought about some elephant ears planted close by, but I can't dig a big enough hole to plant them! Too many huge tree roots right where I need to put them.

Melvalena, I've been successful with the trellis idea, cucumbers in front of flowers that don't like the afternoon heat but, they weren't as big and bushy as the hydrangia. I like the sweet potato idea!

For my brugs, now I just put them in pots so I can move them out of the hot sun when they can't take it! LOL

My hubby made a nice cheap trellis that I just love, made with two stakes with rope running thru the holes, it works great for beans and cukes!

I have all but one brug in the ground. I just can't haul them around any longer.

Haven't set up the trellis yet.. just keeping an eye on things. If the area got more sun I wouldn't hesitate to do a vine/trellis combo.. but I don't think there's enough sun there for any vine to get big enough fast enough to do any good.

I may just have to go set up some poles and hang a sheet for the afternoons! Or even easier... just throw the sheets over the plants for a few hours every day.
Its in the back yard so no one is going to see it but us.

I hear ya on moving pots!! I meant to say my dh moves them for me! I like doing things the easy way and a sheet is definitly in line! LOL

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, we should have some cooler than usual temps this summer here in Tx! I hope they are right. It was pretty hot today but looks like we might get some rain this week! what are the chances, the weather report could be right too!?