Moonlight Brainstorming

Mid-Winter '98

If you really want a *moonlight* garden, then the white plants need to go where the moonlight will find them. Go out in the moonlight and walk around, and try to avoid planting where the trees will cast moon-shadows.

Think about some indirect lighting possibilities in case there's "no" moon. It doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes the light from a house window or porch-light is enough.

Design the garden so that you can find your way around it in the dark. Make sure that you won't be stepping on prize plants by accident. Most of my plants are in raised beds of some sort and I know the paths quite well.

Avoid putting all the scented plants in one place; you can have combinations of scented and unscented. Some scents blend well and others don't, so be mentally prepared to move something if two scents are just deadly together.

Plants with White Blooms

white scented annuals:
For instant gratification and extended bloom.

White alyssum
Annual candytuft in pink and white
White scented petunias-- sniff-test carefully! There's only one type that smells good.
Light, pastel shades of low-growing annual phlox
White snapdragons (sniff-test-- some have excellent fragrance; this year's big success was a dwarf labeled "Apple Blossom", very pale pink and a great scent.)
Four-o'clocks-- they usually come in mixed colors but grow them anyway, they smell so good.
white or light pink stock-- clove scent!

For more, easy white color (unfortunately without scent:)
White pansies
White violas
White cosmos
(Maybe white marigolds)

…and Any other white or cream or light yellow annuals that you like.

Moonflower vine is an annual. Try it. It's not easy to grow-- but it worked once for me and was glorious.

Bulbs:
Early Spring
if you go out in the moonlight that early, some don't but I do: most of these are wonderfully scented in the daytime if you bend down to sniff them but I can't say I've sniffed them at night. (Spring '98-- I did and they do smell wonderful after dark.)
Pushkinia libanotica (white striped squill)
White Grape hyacinth
White hyacinth
Ice Follies daffodils (fades to cream color, great scent)

These close at night but you can still see the closed flower, and the daytime scent is great:
Snowdrops for a very early, sweet-scented start!
White crocuses

Summer bulbs:
Any white or very-pale-colored lilies-- trumpet lilies, oriental lilies (both scented) or asiatic lilies (unscented but pretty.)
Abyssinian gladiolus, also known as peacock orchid-- plant every year; can be dug up in fall

Perennials:
White violets (they spread…)
White Creeping phlox
White bleeding heart, if they'll survive for you…
Oxeye daisies are wonderful. Unfortunately unscented, but in bloom they GLOW in the dark and make a hedge.

White iris, or yellow
White Jacob's ladder
Snow-In-Summer
Feverfew
Marguerite daisies

White delphineum
White foxglove
White dahlias if you like them

White phlox "David"-- mildew resistant! However, Bambi eats mine every year and I have never seen it bloom. I'd move it against the house, but the house is white...
White coneflowers
Shasta daisies
White mums
White asters
Pale or white daylilies (Hyperion works well, so does Catherine Woodbury and Ice Carnival.)

Shade or partial shade:
Sweet Cicely, a ferny herb with white flowers, perennial
hostas: Plantaginea and Royal Standard, both with white fragrant flowers. (I have yet to try Plantaginia.)
there are other hostas with white fragrant flowers, some with variegated foliage.

trees or shrubs:
Any white-blossomed tree would be a huge plus.
White lilac
White butterfly bush (I lost mine last August...)
White or very-pale-pink rose-of-sharon (some have pink centers, some are pure white)
White azaleas
Korean spice bush (I don't have it, but there's one at work... fantastic scent...)
… whatever else you can think of…

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