Create your own “Moonlit Garden:” Tips from garden designer Scott Ogden

Bellingrath Gardens and Home welcomed Scott Ogden, garden designer and author of “The Moonlit Garden,” for our final Wonderful Wednesday program on July 29, 2015. Ogden gave our guests advice on how to plan their own gardens to enjoy at dusk or nighttime, when everyone’s ready to unwind in the cool of the evening. Here are some of his ideas.

Seek out the late bloomers.

Choose plants with flowers that bloom in the late afternoon, or at dusk, such as Four O’Clocks, Jimson Weed, Night-Blooming Cereus or Phloxes.

Change your color palette.

To create the ideal evening garden, gardeners should think in terms of contrasts, instead of colors, Ogden said. Deep green foliage contrasting with white flowers makes an ideal combination, because it’s easy to see in the dark. Good choices: Native fluttermill primrose with big yellow flowers, one of several evening primroses that open their flowers at night; shasta daisies, which are white and stay open all night; Crinum jagus; Gingers; white flowering Viburnum luzonicum; and white Lycoris lilies.

A garden to enjoy at night needs to be a white or pale pastel garden, Ogden noted. Also, when a gardener adds silvery foliage and white blooms to the landscape, “if you look at it in the evening, it really pops.” Good choices: Kintzley’s Ghost, a native honeysuckle that features fused leaves dusted with silver that resemble eucalyptus; and Begonia ‘Frosty,’ with its abundant layers of silvery foliage.

Click here to learn more about begonias at Bellingrath Gardens.

Water elements, such as a pond or a fountain, and strategically placed, light-colored stones along plant beds and pathways also add contrast and beauty to the landscape of a moonlit garden, Ogden said.

Engage different senses, particularly touch and smell.

Touch: Plant textures are important in an evening garden, Ogden said. Plants that bloom at night tend to be gangly, with sprawling petals, which helps them stand out in order to be visually more obvious to pollinators. Such plants also offer different textures and movement than those in a conventional daytime garden.

Scent: Many plants that bloom at night also emit a stronger scent, or even a different scent, after dark to attract pollinators. One example is Grand Primo, an old Southern hybrid narcissus, which sends out fragrance in the evening, Ogden said. Here again, Jasmine and Phloxes are good choices. Ogden also recommended Darlow’s Enigma, a hybrid musk rose that produces clusters of small, pure white, blooms. At night, “they shift gears and exude a different kind of fragrance,” he said.

Click here to go to Scott Ogden’s website, Plant Driven Design.