Hmm...I don't know who would recommend part shade for an Italian cypress, Barbarak. Even in our hot summers, they do better in full sun--shade makes them lose their shape. Do you know what the exact wording? Or can you direct me to the website? Sometimes plant lists will use phrases such as full sun to part shade routinely without further explanation, or, sometimes, without thinking! :}

I'd go with the RHS advice. that has been collected and complied by horticulturists/botanists and checked and verified.
as Tug says the labelling on plants is often not thought through. ludicrously one grower near me had a water lily label saying 'reliably damp humus rich soil or open water' need I say more.

In general, in agreement with Seaburngirl,, its best to look up the RHS site for any plant if possible - sellers of the plant naturally 'tailor' the information to sell the plant, so believing what they say would be a bit like believing anything a politician or an estate agent says... To be fair though, some online sellers are better than others with their info - Jackson's nurseries used to be pretty honest and clear, saying things like, 'this one doesn't like much sun' or 'won't do well if not in damp soil'.

I'm glad for technology - when I first started gardening, I used to cart my very heavy RHS Encyclopaedia of Plants and Flowers with me when I went plant shopping, because I discovered early on you couldn't trust the label if it said 'hardy' and often, the staff had no knowledge or worse, were dishing out misinformation...

The next part of the question leads to - which part of the year. for instance- in winter the sunny days are few and far between here in the north and the sun is always low in the sky so parts of the garden may not receive any sun which I don't see as a problem in the dormant period but in the height of summer the same parts get more than 6 hours sun (when it shines!). I want to place the trees to mask brick areas either side of a window. Our patio/seating area is at the bottom of the garden so looking back at the house but an access path also runs in front of the window.
Tugbrethil - the words used were full sun or partial shade.

Cupressus sempervirens needs full sun - that means it should be out in the open, ready to be bathed in sunlight whenever it occurs at any time of year, including winter, especially given where you live. If you haven't bought these already, you'd be better off using Yew - Taxus baccata fastigiata, which will tolerate shade.

Hi, welcome to the club Barbarak, I think we all feel the same as you, the reason I first joined GoY, was because I was buying some seeds, and 1 of the seeds I was going to order was Leycesteria crocothyrsos, which I had always known to be only frost hardy, but the web site were saying they were fully hardy, so that was my first question on here, and as I expected, my feelings were correct, you can't trust any one these days to give correct information, and I would say that most of the staff in garden centres are just sales people, with no knowledge at all about what they're selling, I recently went to a ''Clematis specialist'' grower, I asked about some herbaceous Clematis, and the sales person just looked at me blankly, he'd never heard of them, {some specialist}, Derek.

I had the same experience when I took my framed joint
second prize Certificate (Best Back Garden Council Competition) to the garden centre where I go every week and have spent lots of lolly............the staff just gaped at it. It was obvious to me they were just smiley sales people working on commission, no experience of gardening at all.
Ugh !

I find that the comments concerning garden centres quite interesting. I did listen to one of the gardening 'celebrities' talking about his concerns as to why youngsters weren't going into horticulture. What I don't think that he understood was that many in the industry were on minimum wages. There are a few garden centres with staff who are enthusiastic about their plants but at the risk of being ageist, there are also some, in my experience that have semi-retired staff who just love the environment and enjoy enthusing and sharing their knowledge of plants. On the other hand, yes, garden centres are there to make money and the only people who do well are the owners who are often quick to describe their staff as experts, so beware!

Well you're right there Jimmytheone - but I'm not sure I'd class working in a garden centre as 'going into horticulture' anyway. Garden centres are merely commercial outlets, or shops, and as such, employ sales staff on minimum wages who could just as easily be working in a supermarket. Those sales staff work hard, because they also have to water, stack shelves, unload lorries daily, clean up all the time and so on. Garden centres only remain viable if they can sell all the other stuff they stock, like candles and garden books and wellies, and turn themselves into Christmas emporiums, selling more decorations and trees than plants during winter, manage on as few staff as possible and with most of those staff on low wage. Keeping turnover as high as possible with maximum prices is also why most garden centres sell plants which are in flower rather than your being able to find that species Fuchsia you want in April. All the plants sold in most garden centres are bought in, none is grown on the premises, so its not surprising the staff are horticulturally ignorant really.

The old idea of a nursery was nothing like that, they were usually smaller, they grew many of their own plants, it was plants all the way, and you were still able to buy plants in winter, even if the pots looked like they didn't contain anything because of winter dormancy, as well as at least one of the staff knowing their plants. Plants weren't presented in displays, but in rows or ranks, and you needed to know something about plants to make your choice, or ask for help and advice, though to be fair, many nursery owners weren't skilled at handling the public, they're not sales people. Taking a job in a nursery would have meant learning about plants, so that could be classed as entering into horticulture, to a small degree. But, you also couldn't get lunch or a cup of coffee, nor buy yourself a waxed jacket or whatever in those places - I guess, in the end, the public ends up with what most of the public wants, and they appear to want garden centres. Larger, out of town garden centres are really a day out for many people, with lunch and browsing as part of it - the staff just supply the sales service.

Two of my colleagues, both Nursery Professionals--one step below Master Gardener, here--and fairly knowledgeable about horticulture, went to work in the garden center of the local DIY. Within 6 months, one wound up in the paint department, and the other in plumbing. The eighteen-year-olds continued to run the "garden center".

Oh, how sad, Tug - but not surprising, horticultural knowledge is not valued in such outlets. I often think older retired people with knowledge should be able to volunteer at garden centres if they want to, as a source of knowledge for customers and staff, might be a good idea. Though in my case, I expect they'd lose sales because I'd be telling the truth if asked about a plant's suitability, lol!

Hi, a few years ago, I was looking round a garden centre, examining a few plants, when a lady came up to meand asked if Lonicera periclymenum was hardy, I told her that it was, and she said she had asked a member of staff, but he wasn't sure, and that I looked as though I would know the answer by the way I was examining the plants, on another occasion, I overheard a young couple, who were considering buying some Leylandii for a hedge they wanted to plant, there were some for sale at 4'6" and some at 3' high, at half the price, and as they needed quite a lot, were considering what to do for the best, and could they really afford the larger ones, when I told them that the following year, the smaller ones would then be at least 4'6" they made up their minds to get those, I tried to get them to change their minds and go for something else, but they had set their minds on Leylandii, you can't win them all, Derek.

Horse, water and drink spring to mind, Derek...

Too true, Bamboo! I spent 5 minutes the other day politely trying to dissuade a woman from using neonicotinoids on her roses. I had to give over when her tone of voice indicated that she thought that I was being a prat. Her attitude was, "Why should I care about the bees?"
As for volunteers, chances are that either or both the stores' insurance policies and the labor laws would preclude using volunteers.

Worse than that (but in the same vein) are the folks who actually ask for advice, but don't like the answer they're given - on odd occasions on various websites, after they've argued, trying to get me to give an answer they do want or like, I've actually resorted to saying they didn't need my permission, all I could do was give a fact based opinion, but whether they followed it or not was absolutely their choice. That usually ends the conversation... but I recall fairly recently someone asking a question, not liking the answer (on another website) and then I found they'd posted the same question on a different garden site;-)) Made me laugh out loud, but I often wonder what they go on to do, whether they buy that plant or use that treatment they were so fixated on!

Yes, my question (unvoiced) has often been, "If you already know, then why did you ask me?" ;)

Or similarly, why keep a dog if you're going to bark yourself;-))