Moon gardens are simply a way to add interest to your landscape that can be enjoyed at night. This includes plants that open at night or are fragrant at night. Moon gardens typically incorporate white blooms and bright foliage that bring unique color, texture and shape to your garden. Here are some of our favorites for creating a moon garden.
Vining Plants
Morning Glory Moonflower
This annual vine displays large, fragrant, luminescent white flowers that open at night making it the perfect addition to a moon garden. Combine with the Heavenly Blue Morning Glory and you can have beautiful blooms during the day and at night. These annual vines can grow over 12 feet high and 2-3 feet wide in full sun conditions and will require a trellis, fence or landscape structure to climb up.
Clematis ‘Guernsey Cream’ (Guernsey Cream Clematis)
We offer a variety of clematis that feature white blooms for evening interest, but the Guernsey Cream Clematis is one of the hardiest and most reliable of the white clematis making it a great choice for a moon garden. As a Growing Place Choice Plant, this clematis is a great choice for novice and expert gardeners alike. The spectacular soft white blooms are produced on old wood from the previous season in early summer with a second flush in late summer. This low maintenance woody perennial vine should be planted near a trellis, fence or landscape structure as it can grow up to 8 feet high and 2 feet wide
Groundcover Plants
Oenothera berlandieri ‘Siskiyou’ (Siskiyou Mexican Evening Primrose)
The Siskiyou Mexican Evening Primrose has masses of beautiful lightly-scented shell pink cup-shaped flowers with rose overtones and yellow eyes that bloom from late spring to early fall. A vigorous ground-hugging grower makes it a great groundcover for a moon garden, and are most effective when planted in groupings. This herbaceous perennial can grow 12 inch high and 30 inches wide in full sun and is drought tolerant. This plant works well with tree root competition.
Galium odoratum (Sweet Woodruff)
Sweet Woodruff is a deer resistant, fragrant, heirloom perennial. It has attractive dark green, fragrant, finely cut leaves are topped with masses of tiny, star-shaped flowers white flowers late spring into early summer. It makes a wonderful groundcover that performs well in moist shade. It’s perfect under hosta and ferns. It will grow 3″ – 6″ tall by 18″ 24″ wide.
Shrubs
Hydrangea arborescens ‘Abetwo’ (Incrediball Hydrangea)
This fast-growing deciduous shrub produces huge, basketball size, white flowers that are sure to standout in a moon garden. The Incrediball Hydrangea is a new and improved version of Annabelle with stronger stems and more flowers. It grows best if treated like a perennial and pruned to a few inches from the ground in spring because it blooms on new growth. Indrediball Hydrangeas prefer full sun to part shade and can grow up to 5 feet high and 5 feet wide in ideal conditions.
Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ (Dappled Willow)
The Dappled Willow is one of the showiest of shrubs for foliage color, which makes this a great specimen in a moon garden. New growth emerges soft pink and white, literally bathing the plant with color in spring, then fades to white variegation in summer that will glow in the moonlight. This tough and adaptable shrub should be grown in full sun and will grow up to 8 feet high and 8 feet wide at maturity. While it prefers to grow in average to wet conditions, it will even tolerate some standing water making this a great choice for many landscapes.
Perennials
Phlox paniculata ‘David’ (David Garden Phlox)
David Garden Phlox features bold, fragrant, conical white star-shaped flowers that bloom from early summer to early fall that are sure to add brightness to a moon garden. An herbaceous perennial with an upright spreading habit of growth reaching 30 inches tall and 30 inches wide in ideal conditions. This Growing Place Choice Plant does best in full sun to part shade and average to evenly moist soil conditions.
Hosta ‘Fire and Ice’ (Fire and Ice Hosta)
The Fire and Ice Hosta features a white leaf center with wide, streaky dark green margins. Leaves have a rounded heart shape with good substance with spikes of pale lavender flowers in mid to late summer. This low maintenance perennial is a beautiful light-color addition to the moon garden border.
Annuals
Impatiens ‘SunPatiens Compact White’ (SunPatiens® Compact White New Guinea Impatiens)
SunPatiens® Compact White New Guinea Impatiens features bold white round flowers that bloom from mid spring to early fall. This plant performs well in both full sun and full shade. However, you may want to keep it away from hot, dry locations that receive direct afternoon sun or which get reflected sunlight, such as against the south side of a white wall. These annual flowers will a grow to be about 24 inches tall with a spread of 24 inches. They look great when grown in masses, used as a bedding plant, or individually in containers, making it a very versatile flower for a moon garden.
Senecio cineraria ‘Silver Dust’ (Silver Dust Dusty Miller)
An interesting and beautiful variety producing silver-gray, deeply lobed, fuzzy foliage. An excellent choice for edging, containers, or massed as groundcover in a moon garden. Silver Dust Dusty Miller will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 12 inches. This plant does best in full sun to partial shade and prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil. It is considered to be drought-tolerant
Don’t Forget the Accents!
Add a Seat
A bench, a swing, a bistro set, a fallen log, a rock. There’s all sorts of ways to add a place to sit and relax to enjoy your beautiful garden at dusk.
Enlighten the View
Lanterns with battery operated candles, solar powered edging lights, and whimsical solar garden accents are a delightful way to add some illumination to your garden.
Landscape Design Services
Do you want to create a moon garden but not sure how to pull it all together? Do you need some design help for an area in your yard? We can match your personal style with the right plants in the right place so you can enjoy your outdoor spaces more.
Visit our Landscape Design page for more information and to request and appointment.
