View full sizeBrugmansia is a fragrant choice for a night garden.
Some plants can perfume the memory of an evening for years.
Nicotiana sylvestris entices with its sweetness. Asiatic jasmine wafts wonderfully at night in a garden and triggers instant nostalgia.
Other elements to include: light-colored flowers, variegated foliage, water, a place to sit and lighting.
To start planning an evening garden, look at location. If the garden
is exposed to the western sun, consider a spot with partial shade for
the night garden.
The smallest yard can still have a spot for evening enjoyment, on a
deck, porch or small terrace. There’s no reason you can’t have an
evening garden in containers.
NIGHT GARDEN PLANTS
Scented plants:
Brugmansia (datura, angel’s trumpet)
Calla lilies
Daphne caucasica
Geraniums, scented (pelargoniums)
Heliotrope, white forms
Lilies, white Asiatic or Oriental such as ‘Casa Blanca’
Nicotiana sylvestris (flowering tobacco)
Phlox paniculata ‘Norah Leigh’ (variegated phlox)
Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’
Trachelospermum asiaticum and jasminoides (star jasmine) (for sheltered locations)
Vitis species (edible grapes)
Light-colored plants:
Anemone hybrida ‘Whirlwind’ (Japanese anemone, many white hybrids)
Phygelius ‘Moonraker’ (Cape fuchsia)
Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ (variegated willow)
Weigela ‘Briant Rubridor’
Grasses:
Stipa gigantea (giant feather grass)
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’
Elymus magellanicus (Magellan’s blue grass)
Trees:
Acer japonicum (Japanese maple)
Styrax japonicus (Japanese snowbell)
Albezia (silk tree)
MORE ONLINE:
HGTV also offers plants and info on how to grow a night garden, including maintenance tips:
Spend a little
more time deadheading the spent flowers. This will encourage more
flowers to bloom, which in turn means more night color in your garden.
And more night color will beckon you to relax in a garden custom-made
for the stars.
Weekend Gardener has planting a moonlight garden, with more plant ideas (many white ones) plus some suggested combinations.
Overall remember, the idea behind a moonlight garden is to reflect the
glow and stillness of nighttime, and to create a special area that
really offers its best qualities at night.
Dulcy Mahar, in one of her columns for Homes Gardens of the Northwest from 2009, included a list of plants to “perfume your night garden.”
To truly indulge yourself in late-summer evenings, pack the garden with
as many scented, pale August bloomers as you have space for.
Fortunately, scent and pale color often go together. There is a logical
connection.
— Homes Gardens of the Northwest staff
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