It depends on the plants.

It also depends on the state the plants are in, what zone you are in, and what the weather is like. Not many things like to hang out in the sun when it is 100 degrees outside. Plus there is a difference between morning and afternoon sun. And you'd never want to put a struggling plant or cutting out in the sun.

Perhaps where you live, it is so hot that it is recommended not to leave (most) succulents out in it. But as I said, morning sun is different in most places. I must put mine out in the morning and take them back when it gets too hot. But I live in an east-facing apartment in sunny southern California.

Where do you live? What is the weather like? Where are your plants? What plants do you have? What shape are the plants in? These are the major factors you have to consider, not just sun or no sun.

Those thIngs are true.

With plants, we can generalize on which genus' prefer more/less shade and that helps but only a little. I could say that cacti and Agaves prefer more sun than other plants but general statements lead to general damage, just like with people. I could tell you that Haworthias and Gasterias prefer more shade in general but this might cause you to miss out on some of the wonderful colors that can occur with a little stress. You'll get a feel for it eventually. Just keep an eye on your plants after you position them. Watch for changes, bad or good.

Thanks for the tips. I'm in sunny southern CA. While we recently had some cooler weather, it is now starting to get hot again. All cacti (except most of my rhipsalis), are out in full sun and some of my succulents are in bright light on my small shady front porch. I'm a teacher but I don't work in town and don't have the time or space to move my succulents in the shade everyday. Unlike you wonderful folks, I don't know the true names of a lot of my plants but will learn when I retire. All I know is that I'm a crazy, obsessive lover of cacti/succulents. I will try to improve. And one of the posts are right, the colors the sun produces are not to be compared. Thanks!

Pics of your collection would be nice :)

SouCal - then you can leaf (yuck, yuck!) all your Rhips and other epiphytic cactus in shade, if possible, because they'll always get indirect strong sun. So those are solved.

Most other succulents will grow, if acclimated, to full sun. But until we see pics, and you learn more about them as you get more experienced, many plants will do OK in some sun (maybe less than optimum, but if you don't overwater them they won't unduly suffer).

This post was edited by cactusmcharris on Wed, Aug 21, 13 at 11:46

Also how close you are to the coast. Santa Monica is a lot different than Riverside.

For some reason, it only lets me upload one photo, so I'll try other ways later. I've only had one succulent who looked like it was getting dried out too quickly in full sun. I don't know why, it has the same soil mix as all the others.

Here's another pic. I am inland at least 50 miles from the coast.

And finally, another one. Can anyone tell me how to post more than one picture at a time! I took this at 5:30 when it was still over 100 degrees!