I think this post is needed as a corrective to the thread that has recently been revived here about giving this plant needing shade, and giving it only a few hours of filtered sun. Post after post in that thread talked about the need for shade, and only one FLA poster said give them sun.

Cestrum grows like a weed. Mine have grown from a 12" new plant to a 5-foot monster in a 14" pot in just one summer. They love sun! Hot, miserable, blinding, no mercy St Louis sun. More sun = faster growth, more flowers and more scent. When the pot gets too big to handle, I just start over with a small one rather than try to haul a huge pot around.

But remember that inputs to plants have to be in balance-- more sun = more water. In a pot, cestrum is a water hog. It grows so fast and fills its pot with roots so fast that it becomes potbound in 6 weeks or so. At that point it needs water constantly. This may not be true in the ground. I simply don't know about growing it in the ground.

But if your cestrum droops every afternoon and looks pathetic, it is whining for a bigger pot and more water, not to be grown in shade.

I'm not trying to say they won't grow at all in shade, but the growth will slow, and there will be many fewer flowers and less scent (not that sometimes less scent wouldn't seem like a blessing-- up close a 5' cestrum can give you a headache with the power of the scent). This summer I'm planning to put mine at the far end of the patio, far away from my deck so that I can enjoy the scent from far away.

Don't stint on sun, water (and fertilizer).

There, that feels better.