My wife and I are both avid gardeners, but we typically only find time to sit and enjoy the landscape at dusk or after sunset. To maximize the evening appeal of our landscape, we have incorporated many plants that provide visual interest and scent as night sets in. If you’ve considered creating a moon garden for evening relaxation, I’ve compiled a few ideas to get your design wheels turning.

When lighting is limited, certain colors and fragrances become more pronounced, impactful, and memorable. While sunlight provides roughly 100,000 lux (lumens per square meter), moonlight offers only 1 lux. In the moon’s relatively weak light, objects that are white, silver, gray, light pink, or pale yellow appear almost luminous, while darker colors become muddy and muted.

A true moon garden forgoes artificial light

To maximize the impact of your moonlit landscape, it is important to block or eliminate as much light pollution from streetlights, exterior security lighting, and other sources as you can. Remember, it takes about 10 minutes for eyes to fully adjust to a moonlit garden scene, so be patient and resist the urge to flip on the porch light.

Plant for all of the senses, not just the eye

It is possible to put together a dynamic mix of perennials, annuals, trees, and shrubs that will give you abundant interest and a progression of flower displays over the entire growing season. Make sure to include plants with a variety of flower forms and plant architecture.

Position plants that emit pleasing fragrances close to seating areas; a pot of angels’ trumpets (Brugmansia spp. and cvs., Zones 9–11) tucked in near a bench is a recipe for pure magic! Many plants become more fragrant in the evening including seasonal evening bloomers like moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba, Zones 10–12), night phlox (Zaluzianskya capensis, Zones 9–11), and some selections of flowering tobacco (Nicotiana cvs., Zones 9–11).

Use plants with “light-catching” foliage

The foliage of many plants is also useful for “illuminating” the moonlit garden. As you build your nocturnal plant palette, include some cultivars with prominent silvering, variegation, streaking, spotting, or glossiness. During the day, the whites and silvers will help to unify the composition, and in the evening hours they become the stars of the show.

Plants with fine hairs called pubescence on their leaves look especially bright under moonlight, since the hairs increase the surface area of each leaf significantly. I love the bright nighttime effect of silver sage (Salvia argentea), ‘Berggarten’ sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Berggarten’, Zones 5–8), cardoon (Cynara cardunculus, Zones 7–10), and dusty miller (Senecio cineraria, Zones 8–10).

After you’ve got your plant list figured out, consider bringing in some design elements to enhance your evening retreat. You could include water features, garden art, or structures that provide privacy, sensory engagement, and relaxation.

For more Midwest regional reports, click here.

Looking for more fragrant, night-blooming plants? This article has some more selections worth considering.

Click here to listen to a podcast episode that’s all about silvery plants.

Still can’t get enough silver plants? You can find seven more here.

—Mark Dwyer is the garden manager for the Edgerton Hospital Healing Garden in Edgerton, Wisconsin, and he operates Landscape Prescriptions by MD.

Photos: Mark Dwyer

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

The New Organic Grower, 3rd Edition: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener, 30th Anniversary Edition

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Since its original publication in 1989, The New Organic Grower has been one of the most important farming books available, with pioneer Eliot Coleman leading the charge in the organic movement in the United States. Now fully illustrated and updated, this 30th Anniversary Edition is a must-have for any agricultural library.

Buy at Amazon

A.M. Leonard Deluxe Soil Knife & Leather Sheath Combo

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

MULTITASKING DUAL EDGES: a deep serrated edge and a tapered slicing edge ideal for tough or delicate cuts. DURABLE 6-inch stainless steel blade withstands 300 lbs of pressure. TWINE CUTTING NOTCH, DEPTH GAUGE MARKINGS & spear point - no need to switch tools when using this garden knife. LEATHER SHEATH: heavy duty, protective, clip on sheath to keep your knife convenient and secure. LIFETIME WARRANTY.

Buy at Amazon

Gardener's Log Book from NYBG

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

This weatherproof five-year log book includes the following features: · Sturdy waterproof cover to protect pages from rain and muddy soil · Lined pages and gridded paper for plotting beds · Five years of 12-month bloom and harvest grids for recording what you planted and when · Authoritative appendices on composting, pruning, pest and disease control, and container gardening · Useful reminders by season on fertilizing, mulching, and transplanting · Space for listing your favorite sources and suppliers.

Buy at Amazon