Do flowering plants prefer sun or tolerate shade? You can tell by looking at the leaves

1. Coniferous flowering plants. Trees and shrubs with needle-like leaves, such as five-needle pine, cedar, and Chinese incense cedar, mostly belong to sun-loving flowering plants. Those with flat, scale-like leaves, such as Chinese arborvitae and Buddhist pine, can tolerate a little shade.

2. Broadleaf flowering plants. Most evergreen broadleaf flowering plants are shade-tolerant or semi-shade-tolerant, such as lily-of-the-valley shrub, Swiss cheese plant, hosta, begonia, camellia, and azalea; most deciduous broadleaf flowering plants are sun-loving, such as garden balsam, chrysanthemum, Chinese rose, pomegranate, plum blossom, lotus, and water lily.

3. Those with small but fairly dense branches and leaves mostly belong to shade-loving flowering plants, such as asparagus fern, asparagus fern, and nandina; those with sparser, spreading branches and leaves mostly belong to sun-loving flowering plants, such as scarlet sage, pansy, coleus, oleander, and jasmine.

4. Those with strongly leathery leaf surfaces mostly belong to shade-tolerant flowering plants, such as cast-iron plant, orchid, clivia, and rubber tree.