While the heat of a summer day may make most people retreat indoors, a summer evening in an outdoor living area can be quite enjoyable. Especially with a fragrant, night-blooming garden.
If you are considering adding a night blooming garden to your landscaping plans you should have some idea what plants you want. There are many night-blooming varieties, from vining to flowering and many different and creative ways you can enjoy them in your garden, patio or yard.
You can create your own nocturnal paradise. A place that comes alive after the sun goes down. Though the plants are the main stars, there are certain elements to a night-blooming garden that can make it really shine. First you should get a good idea of what you want your magical midnight place to look like.
Ways to Get Started
- A design or a general idea is a good way to start.
- Decide if you would like a theme, like a Japanese or Water Garden.
- Draw out a sketch and decide where you would like your plants and features.
When you are trying to decide how you want it to look, remember that there is a certain ambiance you want to create. How do you want it to make you and others feel when you enter this space? At peace and ease? Inspired? In love?
Here are some key points to consider when designing your own personalized evening space:
- Originality
- Lighting
- Pathways
- Water and Other Features
- Plants and Their Needs
Originality – A Vision of Your Night Blooming Garden
What is your style? Neatly sculpted, or wild and free? Benches, whirligigs, wind chimes, sculptures, statues, or birdhouses are all cute accessories to a garden. In addition to accessories, you can choose between having a versatile container or a more permanent in-ground garden. With all the options where should you begin?
Browse the scene. There are so many expert gardeners out there and we are lucky enough to have them posting and educating us online about their amazing living creations. Besides that, there are many themes and designs out there. Two of those are the Water Garden and the Japanese Garden.
Two Kinds of Garden Styles
The Japanese Garden is a style that exudes peace and tranquility. Features such as gravel pathways and koi ponds aid in both meditation and reflection as one peruses among the plants. Statues, art and sculptures are usually found as well.
A Water Garden can be a beautiful and enchanting addition to anyone’s back yard. Features can be found in many sizes from small fountains to large ponds with bridges. From waterfalls to natural swimming pools all kinds are available to either be Do it Yourself or installed by professionals.
Lighting In the Garden
What good is a night-blooming garden if you can’t see anything? Lighting provides the garden with a needed and attractive safety feature, but you want to be careful how bright it gets.
Night-blooming flowers are usually white with fragrant blossoms. These attributes are to attract insects. In some cases, like the Yucca, very specific insects. Moths are especially attracted to night bloomers. Pollinating your flowers just as butterflies would, they can also be just as attractive.
Low-Key Lighting Options
Bright lighting throws off the natural radar of insects at night and causes them to lose their way. You don’t want to lose a beautiful Luna moth to a spotlight it might have thought was a Moonflower, nor do you want your Moonflower pollination interrupted, so the best thing is low-light.
Solar spot lights, Non-Insecticidal oil lamps, Christmas lights, low-light path lights, and paper lanterns are some good options.
Creative Pathways to Guide the Mood
Paths and walkways give a sense of order to even the wildest gardens. One can be led safely through all of the plants and features of your creation. While paths will form eventually on their own if you are out there enough, it’s always nice to have well defined ones that are easy to locate. A few benefits to having pathways around your outdoor spaces are:
- They keep your plants safe from being walked on or accidentally kicked around.
- Available options such as pavers and kits, give opportunities for creativity like setting handprints in concrete, painting stones, and creating sand art.
- Educational plant identifiers that can be set along the path. This is a fun option for the little ones to learn about plants.
- Safety walking through the garden at night. Sticks and things that could trip you will be easier to see.
- Wildlife such as snakes and spiders can be seen easier.
- Softly lit pathways add to the ambiance of a night-blooming plant garden and help guide your stroll and make it enjoyable.
Water and Other Features in the Garden
Just the soothing sound of a bubbling fountain or stream might be what you need to cool off on a hot summer night. Combine that with the sweet smell of jasmine on the breeze and a cool stone bench, and you won’t even remember it’s the middle of July.
There are so many original and creative things available to you to decorate and add interest to your night-blooming garden. The ideas are limitless. Some common elements are statuary, benches, light poles, birdhouses and birdbaths, fountains, windchimes, and bridges.
Adding a water feature to your outdoor space doesn’t have to turn it into a full blown Water Garden. Even a small water feature can affect the experience the garden presents. Fountains, birdbaths, rain chains, and small waterfall ponds are some good ideas.
Also good to consider are things that shape your plants. If you have decided to incorporate night-blooming vines into your design, they can easily be trained to grow over trellis’s, fences and archways. Hedges can be sculpted into shapes and mazes. This is one area where you can really express yourself and get creative.
Plants of the Night Blooming Garden
One of the main things to consider when choosing your night-blooming plants is timing. The best results can be achieved when the plants are coordinated to flower and bloom all together. This creates a really impressive garden and can be accomplished by checking the bloom time and prime season of the plants you want to use. Just because you plant them all in the Spring does not mean that they will all bloom together in the Summer.
Night-blooming flowers can be quite impressive and can also be great focal points for parties or events centered around when certain plants are going to bloom. Why not celebrate your new night-blooming garden with a party for that next big Cereus bloom?
Planning and Planting
Another thing to consider is where you are planting or placing your plants. How is the lighting in your secret garden? Is it shady? Really bright and sunny? Half and half? You want to make sure that the plants are in their element. A shade plant will die very quickly in the sun. Ironically a lot of the night-blooming plants require full sun wherever they are planted.
Something that tends to go unnoticed until the last minute is water. It’s strange but until the moment of taking the hose to the plant, people tend to forget it. Make sure you have access to enough water to take care of your plants. Night-bloomers tend to be very thirsty and a 3 gallon watering can against even 5 large yard plants can become tedious. Quickly. Check your hose connections or sprinklers and establish a convenient daily watering system.
Night-Blooming Plants
Now here they come! The stars of the show! As the sun dips down under the horizon, the temperature falls and relief from the heat of the day urges their flowers to open. Hand-sized Luna moths, tiny bats and lightening bugs, attracted to the pungent fragrance of these nocturnal flowers, add to the wonder of it all.
Angel Trumpets – Datura; Jimsonweed
- Blooms: Early Summer through Fall
- Zones 8-10
- Perennial
- Full Sun
- Highly Fragrant
- A native of South America
- Sphinx Moth Favorite
Angel Trumpets are beautiful, showy plants and all parts of this plant are extremely poisonous to humans and animals. So while they do well in containers, it’s best to keep them away from pets and small children.
If you are ready to see the results of your garden right away, you should go with a plant that is already blooming. Angel Trumpets started from seed can take up to 5 years to bloom and possibly 3 to 4 years from a cutting.
Cereus – Cactus; Queen of the Night
- Blooms: Blooms one night between Late Spring and Early Fall
- Zones 10-11
- Perennial
- Full Sun, Indirect Sun
- Highly Fragrant
- A native of South America
The Cereus comes in many different forms but most of them have the same characteristics. A showy, one-night stand, it only blooms once or twice a year with tons of beautiful, large, and fragrant flowers.
It may be in the cactus family, but the soil needs to stay moist. Check it regularly to make sure your plant does not dry out. A Cereus night-blooming cactus likes a lot of water and a tight pot. They make great hanging basket plants.
Daylily Nocturnal
- Blooms: Early Spring through Early Fall
- Zones 4-9
- Perennial
- Full Sun to Partial Shade
- Highly Fragrant
- Native of Asia
Daylilies come in many colors, forms, and types. There are early, mid, and late bloomers. As well as plants that range from full sun to those which are happier in partial shade. The same goes for the watering requirements. Though Daylilies love water and should be given drinks frequently.
They are all beautiful, and we are lucky enough to have some that only bloom in the evening and are perfect for the night-blooming garden. Alna Pride, Citrina, Pardon Me, Flames of Fortune, and Velvet Shadows are the names of some different kinds.
Evening Primrose
- Blooms: Late February to Early July
- Zones 4-9
- Perennial
- Full Sun
- A native of North America
Evening primroses are typically grown from seed though they have been seen in garden centers from time to time. These sprawling, fully edible, beauties go dormant in the summer once it starts to get hot. They wake up again in fall, ready for the spring show.
Low to medium watering requirements in well-drained soil that shouldn’t be allowed to dry out completely.
Four O’ Clocks
- Blooms: Late Spring to Mid-Summer
- Zones 7-10
- Perennial
- Full to Partial Sun
- Highly Fragrant
- A native of South America
Like the name says, Four O’ Clocks open around 4:00 pm. Though it’s good to keep in mind that some late bloomers can arrive as far into the evening as 8:00 pm.
These gorgeous, multi-colored flowers like deep containers if they are not in the ground; and appreciate some light, regular watering in well-drained soil.
Jasmine – Nicotiana and Night Blooming
- Blooms: July through October
- Zones 9-11
- Perennial
- Full to Part Sun
- Highly Fragrant
- A native of South America
- Attracts Hummingbirds
Always reliable, night-blooming Jasmine is guaranteed to be on time. This plant does not bloom according to light and temperature changes. It blooms to the tune of its own biorhythm. This means every night in season, as long as it has buds, it will bloom. Water regularly about twice a week.
While the night bloomer may look like any regular shrub during the day, the Nicotiana can easily appear as if it is dying. Though this changes completely as the sun goes down and the entire plant perks up. Nicotiana also has larger flowers than the Night Blooming.
Moonflower – Ipomoea Alba
- Blooms: Early Summer through Fall
- Zones 10-11
- Perennial Re-seeder
- Full to Part Sun
- A native of South America
- Luna Moth Favorite
A couple of different plants are also called Moonflowers. One is a White Datura Angel Trumpet and another is the Cereus Cactus. With its heart-shaped leaves and glowing white flowers the size of small moons, the Ipomoea Alba, is the classic plant of romantic lore.
A type of Morning Glory, this plant thrives in moist soil. Therefore water regularly and do not let the soil dry out.
Ruellia Noctiflora – Wild Petunia
- Blooms: May through November
- Zones 8-11
- Perennial
- Full to Part Sun
- A native of the Southeastern United States and Mexico
These delicate flowers require lots of water in well-drained soil. Found growing naturally along the Gulf, they grow in the wetlands and hammocks along the coast. As a result of development, they are currently considered a threatened plant in Florida.
Tuberose
- Blooms: Early Summer through Fall
- Zones 7-10
- Perennial Bulb
- Full to Part Sun
- Native of Mexico
- Favorite for Perfumes
Tuberose is a bulb. That should be kept in mind when propagating them as they will take 100 days or so from bulb to flower. As well as being beautiful and fragrant, they are excellent for containers.
They prefer well-drained, nutrient-rich, sandy soil and a whole lot of water. In addition to that, expect to water your Tuberoses lightly, at least every other day.
Yucca
- Blooms: Mid-Summer through Fall
- Zones 5-10
- Perennial
- Full Sun
- A native of South America
- Attracts Pronuba Moths
Yucca flowers stretch up and open at night yielding a sweet fragrance, and it’s a fragrance that attracts a very specific moth. The Pronuba Moth is reliant on the Yucca like the Monarch Butterfly is on Milkweed. So the moth’s entire life cycle can be observed on the Yucca’s bell-shaped flowers.
Yucca plants like sandy well-drained soil and deep containers. A drought-resistant plant, it has minimal water requirements. But don’t let the soil dry completely out.
Conclusion
In the end, your night-blooming garden can be done however you choose. Just make sure you’re choosing the right plants, that are going to bloom at the right time. Get those great elements and features like water, windchimes or sculptures in there and make it a truly original garden. Not only that, but it will be a place customized for you and your needs as well.