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My handy, creative husband constructed a continuous flow of bench seating and large planter “boxes” of varying heights and lengths to surround our patio. All the planters get sun although some become more shaded in the afternoon. I have a few questions for which I’ve yet to find answers over the years: What type of flowers can I plant that will survive both full sun and part shade and still flourish? Or should I plant different flowers in the boxes to accommodate the amount of sun? If the latter is the best choice, what types of flowers will look nice together so the patio area is appealing? And, most importantly, over the last three seasons, all flowers planted in one particular planter eventually die over the season – stems become weak at the base and break or shrivel, leaves drop, etc. I’m guessing the soil has some type of disease? I tried replacing (most of) it but that didn’t solve the problem. Thank you so much for your help and expertise. I refer to your blog and garden information frequently. ntoma@nycap.rr.com

and there are others.
Full sun is generally considered to be 6 or more hours of direct sun per day.  Less than that would be part sun/shade and no sun at all of course would be shade.
Certainly if some of the planter boxes get more sun than others, you will have more success if you choose plants based on that.   Read lots of tags when shopping for the plants.
As for the one “problem” box, I’d investigate to make sure that it is draining properly or is getting more water than the others for some reason.  The problem you describe could simply be drowning.  If that is not the case, I’d remove and replace the soil.

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