We had a high of 79F on Sun, then a low of 32F on Mon night. It was the first real frost of the year and I thought I would share what I noticed in regards to the protected areas around my house. I never paid much attention to this sort of thing until I became intrested in trying plants that are marginal here in zone 9.
The front of the house faces southwest and is shaded by 2 nice size live oaks in the front yard. One side of the house faces southeast and recieves full sun. I had figured the southeast side would provide the best protection given that it recieves full sun first thing in the morning. However it turns out that although the live oaks in the front yard do not give direct overhead protection in front of the house, they still protect the area from frost. The canopy of the trees comes within between 10 and 15 feet of the beds in front of the house and this was enough that there was no frost at all in the front yard between the live oaks and the house
Here is the southeast facing side of the house.
Everything pictured above was hit with frost. Here is the front of the house.
You can see some branches from the live oak in the upper left corner.
There was no frost at all across the front of the house. And in this picture below you will see another area that is not fully protected from the North, but recieved no frost at all. It is surrounded on 3 sides by a roof line, but no direct overhead protection.
So, it seems to me that a shady spot with overhead protection even if only nearby, is better than none at all in full sun. I almost bought some tropical bamboo and heliconia this summer, but decided to wait until spring when I had a better idea of what the frost did around the house. Boy am I glad I waited.