Plants for Night Gardens

Cleome Hassleriana White Queen

When you hear the word “garden,” chances are you think of green plants and brightly colored flowers blooming under a bright sun. But did you know that there’s such a thing as a night garden, too—a garden is designed to thrill the senses when the sun has gone down, the air is cool and the bustle of the day has diminished?

Although our ability to see is limited during the night, plants with pale white or yellow blooms and silver foliage can reflect the moonlight in a way that dramatically transforms the landscape. Darkness serves to heighten our other senses in the moonlit garden: nocturnal blooms beckon with their heady fragrances and leaves rustle in the air, lending more enjoyment to the mysteries of night.

1. Cleome hassleriana ‘White Queen’
2. Athyrium Ghost fern
3. Thunbergia alata ‘White-Eyed Susie’ (black-eyed-Susan vine)
4. Centaurea Cineraria Dusty Miller
5. Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Silver Queen’ (snake-plant)
6. Angelonia angustifolia ‘Cart White’
7. Arundo donax ‘Variegata’ (striped giant reed)
8. Salvia argentea (silver sage)
9. Nassella tenuissima (white tussock)
10. Cleome hassleriana ‘White Queen’