The After Hours Garden: Designing for Evening

We spend so much time in our gardens during the day, we tend to forget them at night. But there is a whole other world waiting to be discovered once the sun...

Callirhoe alcaeoides 'Logan Calhoun'
Item # 28032 		Callirhoe alcaeoides 'Logan Calhoun'
Logan Calhoun White Flowered Poppy Mallow

each $5.99
3 to 6 $5.79
7 or more $5.59
Penstemon palmeri
Item # 75755 		Penstemon palmeri
Pink Wild Snapdragon

Each $5.29
3 to 6 $4.99
7 or more $4.79
Oenothera macrocarpa ‘Comanche Campfire’
Item # 72130 		Oenothera macrocarpa ‘Comanche Campfire’
Silverleaf Evening Primrose

each $7.99
3 to 6 $7.79
7 or more $7.59
Stomatium mustilinum
Item # 92971 		Stomatium mustilinum
Night-blooming Ice Plant

each $5.49
3 to 6 $5.29
7 or more $4.99
  • Topic: Evening Gardens
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: design, moonlight, Garden Design, gardens, night blooming, evening scented
  • Date: January 2004

© All articles are copyrighted by High Country Gardens. Republication is prohibited without Permission.

Years ago I visited a friend living in the hills outside Austin. She was a wonderful gardener and had especially planted some night blooming, evening scenting flowers next to the porch. I recall we had wonderful evening talks, made even more delicious by her gardening efforts and foresight.

Another time when I was teaching school on the plains, one of the other teachers came running over before the sun came up. “Come quick. You gotta see this,” he cried. His container potted Night Blooming Cereus had finally burst forth with bloom.

We spend so much time in our gardens during the day, we tend to forget them at night. But there is a whole other world waiting to be discovered once the sun goes down. On one of the local garden tours last summer one garden was especially designated the ‘evening garden.’ I wish I could have seen it in the moonlight. I imagined all the whites and pinks glowing feverishly under a silver moon.

Flowers take on new colors, shrubs assume new shapes at dusk, under the moon and in the porch light. Shadows reshape a garden.

If you want to remake part of your garden, cull plants that aren’t stunning by day and add nothing at night. Then start small by adding a few plants at a time, and see how they look in the different phases of the moon. But don’t limit yourself to nighttime. Fading afternoon light makes yellows, reds and oranges stand out. Oncoming evening light brings out blues, mauves and magentas; and the pinks and pale purples almost shimmer.

When designing for the night, work with an eye toward plants that will show up and not fade into the foliage such as whites, yellows, pinks and pale purples. Variegated leaves and silver foliage work well too.

Following is a list of flowers for the evening garden:

White flowers

  • Callirhoe alcaeoides ‘Logan Calhoun’ (Logan Calhoun white Flowered Poppy Mallow)
  • Zinnia acerosa (White Flowered Bush Zinnia)
  • Achillea serbica (Serbian Yarrow)
  • Zephyranthes candida (White Rain Lily)
  • Penstemon tubaeflorus (White Plains Beardtongue)
  • Tanacetum nivetum (White Bouquet Tansy)
  • Phlox paniculata ‘David’ (Tall White Garden Phlox) [fragrant]

Yellow flowers

  • Oenothera macrocarpa ‘Comanche Campfire’ (Silverleaf Evening Primrose)
  • Oenothera macrocarpa (Missouri Evening Primrose)
  • Stomatium mustilinum [a highly fragrant night blooming rock garden plant]

Pink flowers

  • Oenothera speciosus ‘Rosea’ (Showy Pink Evening Primrose)
  • Penstemon palmeri (Pink Wild Snapdragon)
  • Fallugia paradoxa (Apache Plume)

Pale purple

  • Aquilegia caerulea (Rocky Mountain Columbine) [has white petals]
  • Lysimachia clethroides (Gooseneck Loosestrife)

Variegated leaves

  • Marrubium rotundifolium (Silver Edged Horehound)
  • Aegopodium podagraria ‘Variegatum’ (Variegated Bishop’s Weed)
  • Lamium maculatum ‘White Nancy’ (White Nancy False Nettle)
  • Pulmonaria longflora ‘Roy Davidson’ (Roy Davidson Lungwort) [speckled leaves]

Silver foliage

  • Artemisia versicolor ‘Seafoam’ (Curlicue Sage)
  • Cerastium tomentosum (Snow-in-Summer) [fragrant white flowers]

The evening garden can also incorporate things other than plants. Think of light colored walls, pathways, gates and trellises. Use those tiny clear Christmas lights in trees. Place white statues around.

Don’t forget height. Tiers from low to waist high to vines and trees—if planned right, a garden can be a swirl of floating white and pale colors in the moonlight.

So…if you’re gonna spend all day working in the garden, why not put some of that effort into creating a garden you can relax in at night?