A Garden For The Night

~ By LadyGenes ~

I have been wondering about flowers that bloom at night and decided to do this article on this topic. I have heard of the Moon flower that opens at night and wondered if there were any other flowers that do the same. Was I surprised by how many there are after a search on the internet. So not only can we have a wonderfully sweet aroma coming from our gardens during day light hours but also at night!!

Here is a list of flowers that I have found that will bloom at night and sleep during the day.

Moon Flower ~ This flower is a relative of the Morning Glory flower and has a 5-6 inch white flowers with heart shaped leaves that starts to open at dusk. Use caution with this flower though, it is supposed to be poisonous. It is highly toxic but at the same time, at suitable levels it has medical effects. It can be used to induce hallucinations in folk medicine. Before planting this flower however, make sure it is not illegal in your area. Some states in the United States have banned this flower.

Moon Flower ~ This is a hardy plant in zones 5-9. It has soft white, pink and yellow flowers and has a sweet scent that opens in the evening.

Angel's Trumpet ~ This plant has large 6 inch white flowers that vine and start blooming from midsummer till frost. That open at night and remain open until well into the day light hours. Fragrance is more prominent in the evening and it grows 3-4 feet tall and wide with blue-green foliage. As with the Moon flower, this plant is also poisonous. Keep all children and pets away from it.

Night Phlox ~ The flowers on this plant stays tightly closed during the day and when open at night they emit a honey-almond-vanilla fragrance.

Evening Stock ~ This flower has small pink or purplish flowers with lance style leaves and grows to one foot tall. Has a very pleasing scent.

Four O'Clocks ~ This is a bushy plant that grows to 2 feet tall. It has colorful trumpet shaped flowers that have a jasmine scent and opens in the afternoon.

Nottingham Catchfly ~ These flowers are found in England. The flowers will bloom three consecutive nights before they fade and have a hyacinth scent to them.

Night Blooming Cereus ~ This flower or cactus will not grow below 55 degrees F. It has large white fragrant flowers and can be grown in containers and brought inside during the winter.

Daylilies ~ Two varieties of the Daylilies that bloom at night are the Moon Frolic and the Toltec Sundial.

Yucca ~ These flowers are open all day long but only at night will the flowers lift up and emit a soapy scent. They are hardy only on zones 4-9.

Here are some Night Fragrant Plants

Flowering Tobacco ~ They have a long trumpet flower that have an intense evening fragrance.

Night Gladiolus ~ This flower is creamy yellow in appearance and has a spicy scent to it.

August Lily ~ Has trumpet shaped flowers that are waxy in appearance. The stems are 30 inches and each flower is 5 inches long and 3 inches wide and has a honey scent.

Fragrant Columbine ~ Creamy white flowers with a honeysuckle scent.

Pinks ~ Pale pink flowers with a clove scent.

Fairy Lily ~ This flower has few yellow blooms on each stalk in the mid summer and you have to take the bulbs up and store in the winter.

To this mix you can also add Mock Orange which is a fast growing shrub that grows up to 10 feet tall and has white, orange scented flowers that come out in late May through early June. This is hardy in zone 4.

There are also a lot of white flowers with reflective foliage that you can plant as well. A few of them are:

Purity Cosmos, Armour White Verbena, Alba Foxglove, Summer Hyacinth, Bride Impatiens, Alba Bleeding Heart, Moonraker Cape fuchsia, Perry's White Oriental Poppy, WhiteSwan Camellia, White Forsythia, Whitelace Dianthus, Silver Artemesia, Lamb's ears, Silver sage, White Christmas Caladiums.

You can also add to all this some fragrant herbs and vegetables. Some ideas are:
Silver Thyme, Alba Eggplant, Casper or Boo white pumpkins, Basils, Mints and Oreganos.

This list has really given me good ideas of things to try for an evening in the garden. I can just imagine now sitting out on the patio at night with a light breeze blowing and the smell of these wonderful flowers flowing in my direction. This is the perfect way to relieve the stress from a hard day at work. I hope this has been beneficial for you also in giving you ideas for a mix to your day garden.

         

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