If you want to enjoy the night in your yard then planting night blooming flowers is the ideal choice for you. These flowers are amazingly beautiful and will greatly enhance your backyard.
The flowers will provide a beautiful and fragrant backdrop for any moon ritual you do not want to miss.
These plants have some of the most fragrant blossoms – and rightfully so. If not for a strong scent, they would never get pollinated. By emitting a strong fragrance, they lure in nighttime pollinators so they have the chance to bloom.
Night Phlox
Growing night phlox is a great way to add evening fragrance to the night blooming garden. Perhaps you have other night blooming, fragrant blooms in a moon garden setting. If so, night phlox plants, also called Midnight Candy, are a good companion for other plants growing there.
Night blooming phlox is easily started from seeds. They can be started three to four weeks before the last projected frost date in your area indoors or planted outside when danger of frost is past. Seeds germinate in 7 to 14 days. Night phlox plants do well in large containers and equally well when planted in the ground.
Night phlox information says they prefer rich, well-draining soil and a sunny location. Night phlox care includes planting them 12 to 18 inches apart to allow good air circulation. Night phlox care also includes keeping the soil slightly moist for best performance. Once established, the plants will tolerate drought, but the best blooms of night phlox plants come from regular watering.
Moonflower
If your garden area is used for evening relaxation and entertainment, add the enticing fragrance of moonflowers in the garden. Large white or purple blooms on a climbing vine offer an amazing evening smell when growing moonflowers.
Moonflower plants are perennial vines in sub-tropical areas, but gardeners with cold winters can successfully grow moonflower plants as annuals. A member of the Ipomea family, moonflower plants are related to the sweet potato vine and the morning glory, with flowers that open in the late afternoon. Large, heart-shaped leaves further enhance the attractive moonflower vine.
Moonflowers in the garden do not need much ground space, as they readily climb upward. Provide a trellis or other support for the vigorous vines. Growing moonflowers can reach up to 20 feet (6 m.), happily twining around anything within their reach. You can pinch back growing moonflowers at the top of the vine, as a part of your care for moonflowers, to force flowering downward.
Moonflower plants are winter-hardy perennials in zones 10-11, but in cooler zones, they can be grown effectively as annuals. They grow easily from seed when planted in somewhat fertile soil, but they are adaptable to other soil conditions. In colder climates, seeds can be started six to eight weeks before the soil outside has warmed. Plant moonflowers outside when outdoor temperatures are consistently 60 to 70 F. (15-20 C.)
Some growers think the crowding of roots in the pot encourages an earlier bloom on moonflower plants. Moonflower vines can grow in large containers or you can plant them in the ground. More moonflowers can be started from root division of existing plants. Mulch the roots of moonflowers in southern zones, and dig them up for winter storage in colder areas.
Dutchman’s Pipe Cactus
The beautiful queen of the night cactus, also known as the orchid cactus, is one of the most commonly cultivated species of the genus Epiphyllum. This species boasts large, fragrant white flowers that open only at night, as its common name suggests. These perennial cacti are native to the dry regions of Mexico and South America and thrive best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 through 12. In cooler zones, these cacti can be raised indoors as houseplants.
Four O’Clock Flower
Four o’clocks are bushy flowering perennial plants, a long-standing garden favorite often grown as an annual outside its hardiness range (zones 9 to 11). This tuberous-rooted plant produces slightly pointed oval leaves on multi-branching stems. It is an unusual plant, in that it may produce flowers of different colors on the same plant—including white, yellow, and a variety of pink, red, and magenta colors. Individual flowers may also feature a mixture of colors. The plant can be expected to bloom from mid-summer all the way until frost.
Four o’ clocks thrive in full sun (six hours per day) but will tolerate part shade, although the plants may become somewhat leggy in shady locations.
Any soil type will suffice, but rich, loamy soil is ideal. The plant prefers neutral to slightly acidic pH levels.
Do not let these plants dry out; water whenever the top one to two inches of soil becomes dry. Avoid overwatering, as soggy roots can be a problem.
Tuberose
Fragrant, showy flowers in late summer lead many to plant tuberose bulbs. Polianthes tuberosa, which is also called the Polyanthus lily, has a strong and enticing fragrance that furthers its popularity. Clusters of large white blooms form on stalks that can reach 4 feet in height and rise from grass-like clumps. Keep reading about the care of tuberose flowers in the garden.
Learning how to grow tuberose in the home garden is simple; however, care of tuberose flowers after bloom requires effort, proper timing and storage of the tuberose bulbs (actually rhizomes), which must be dug up before winter in some areas. Tuberose plant info indicates the rhizomes can be damaged at conditions of 20 F. (-7 C.) or below.
Plant tuberose bulbs in spring when all danger of frost is past. Place the rhizomes 2 to 4 inches deep and 6 to 8 inches apart, in well-draining soil in a sunny spot.
Note: Polyanthus lily likes hot afternoon sun. Keep the soil consistently moist before and during the period of bloom that occurs in late summer. Enrich poor soil with compost and organic amendments to increase drainage and texture for the best show of tuberose flowers. Best results of blooms come from the cultivar Mexican Single, which is highly fragrant. ‘Pearl’ offers double blooms as big as two inches across. ‘Marginata’ has variegated blooms.
