Does anyone know anything about gardening?

You've probably realised this, but you need something big and high to give partial shade.

But you could do it with a pergola, a sail or some sort of permanent object.

Verbina mixed with salvia would give you different heights. Verbina in particular can grow through stuff. My mum usually has a big leafed mint and Verbina combo that looks really nice. Also there's one Verbina that's a fucking massive version and looks basically the same as the smaller version.... I want to say Argentinian? Anyway you could use the two of them to give variation of height.

If you want big leafed, tropically looking things like in those photos you could try an upper storey of things like tetrapanax, paulownia tormentosa (hard pruned every year not grown into a massive tree), cannas, hedychiums, salvia amistad, tree echiums - all of which will love full sun but most of which will be hard to find in your average garden centre.

I wouldn't plant anything in August, in a middle of a drought and heatwave though - unless you're going to be watering them twice a day. I'd wait at least a month for the temperature to come down a bit and hopefully some rain too.

You may have better luck than me but I've found fatsia japonica doesn't do well in full sun - it won't die but it doesn't look healthy. Mine have grown very well in deepest darkest shade

My next investment is a tree fern. There’s a shady area in my garden that would be perfect. Also looking to add a tetrapanex too for more height and leaf interest.