MONTHLY THEME: Magical Moon Garden

During winter, our gardens are resting, but the gardener’s mind is ever busy plotting and planning for the next growing season. Our minds are churning and turning with new ideas and dreams for tomorrow’s garden landscape. Usually, I share with you something I have grown or are growing within my own yard. Instead, this month I’m sharing with you my dream for a magical moon garden.

Moon gardens are also called night, twilight, evening, dream or moonlight gardens. Basically, it’s a garden specifically designed to be enjoyed from dusk til dawn.

Generally, moon gardens are filled with plants with flowers or foliage that perfectly reflects the light of the moon. The plants often have white or pale-colored blossoms or plants with silvery or variegated foliage. As an added benefit, many of the plants have appealing fragrances adding to the whole sensory experience. If you want to add a water element or windchime to the garden area, those sounds can also be enchanting. Keep in mind, tall ornamental grasses seem to sway and dance along with the evening breeze making their own music.

The moon garden comes to life after dark with night-blooming flowers and rich floral scents that fill the night air. As an added bonus, moon gardens welcome nocturnal pollinators like fireflies and moths (luna and Cecropia) into your yard. Plus, insect-eating bats will gravitate to the nectar found in the moon garden.

Select an inviting spot near your outdoor seating area so you can fully enjoy the sights and scents of the moon garden. Try to limit light pollution so artificial lighting doesn’t interfere with the moon’s natural glow. The fun part is choosing which plants to grow in your new moon garden. Don’t forget to select annuals and perennials to create a continual succession of blooms throughout the season. Remember to include white roses or bulbs like snowdrops or white hyacinths.

When it comes to plants selections for your moon garden, the night sky’s the limit! First, one of my beloved plants and favorite smells is Jasmine fondly referred to as the queen of the night. Jasmine is a genus of vines and shrubs in the olive family of Oleaceae. Jasmine produces clusters of tiny, tubular white flowers that secrete a powerful, sweet scent after sunset, which attracts those night pollinators.

Of course, we can’t talk about fragrant plants without giving honorable mention to the Gardenia. Gardenia is a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family, but it has one of the most notable and memorable fragrances. They are not native to the area, so if used in your Ohio moon garden, the plant would need to be brought indoors during the winter.

At my last house, I had Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis). It became a nightly ritual to slip outside after dark to watch the Evening Primrose open its pale-yellow flowers to catch the moonlight. You’ll see these growing wild along with roadside or in fields, but sadly they haven’t been given much respect in our own backyards.

Of course, every moon garden needs White Moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) to grace the landscape. As the name implies, moonflowers bloom after dark and their fleeting bloom only lasts one night. Interestingly, they are related to the morning glory.

Some other good choices for your moon garden include Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia). They produce sprays of delicate, white or pale-pink flowers that reflect the radiance of the moon. Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata) grow upright blooms and offer a delicious scent. You can select from white or shades of pink or purple flowers. The Common Elderberry (Sambuca canadensis) has showy white flowers and elderberry fruit that the birds love. Another top ten of my favorite fragrances is Magnolia. Consider a Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) for your moon garden. I can’t stop myself from bringing a flower or two into the house even though I know it will only last for one brief day indoors. These are trees so they would have to be the backdrop to your garden space. If a Magnolia isn’t to your liking, a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) tree would also make a lovely focal point for your moon garden. If you don’t have room for a small tree, consider anchoring your moon garden with big bloomer like a Snowball Hydrangea.

My mom used to grow Silvermound in her garden. As a child, I loved petting the soft, silky mound of foliage. Silvermound (Artemisia schmidtiana) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and would make an excellent addition to a moon garden. I have an Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) in my yard, which I intend on moving into my future moon garden. The obedient plant produces tall spires of white or pale pink blooms, remind me of foxgloves. I also have Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina), which would make a welcome addition to a moon garden.

Goat’s Beard (Aruncus dioicus) forms cascades of bright white flowers that seem to shimmer in the moonlight. However, these plants can grow 4-6’ tall. Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) is tall with slender flowers. Butterflies love this plant, but it can grow 6’ tall! Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) has a super unique flowerhead, but they require a lot of water so you might want to save this one of your rainwater gardens.

Dusty Miller (Jacobaea maritima) has grey-silver leaves making it an ideal plant for the moon garden. Sweet alyssum lovely flowers smell like honey. If you have some extra variegated-leaf hostas, they would work well in the moon garden. White Bleeding Heart would make a stunning addition to the moon garden, with pure white, heart-shaped blooms that dangle heavily from arching green stems. However, I’ve had a difficult time keeping the white bleeding hearts growing unlike the common pink bleeding hearts. Nicotiana, flowering tobacco, have elegant white flowers and an intense fragrance.

Lastly, another element that would make your moon garden extra special is a stone moon gate. Walking through a moon gate, would create even a greater experience on your evening journey through the garden. I hope this blog has given you some incentive to create your own nature by night experience through a moon garden. After spending your daytime working in the garden, you can relax under the light of the moon surrounded by plants who seem to have come to life in the night skies. May the crickets sing to your soul, fireflies light the night sky, and plants dance in the light of the moon.