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| When choosing night-blooming plants, there are a couple of key characteristics that you may want to look for. Foremost, look for plants that have large, light-coloured blooms. Light colours, especially white, show up better when the sun goes down. |
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| The reflective properties of some white flowers may even give a glowing appearance on nights when the moon is bright. Fragrance is another consideration. Even if you can't see plants blooming, strong fragrances will remind you of your garden's presence. |
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Oenothera speciosa - Evening Primrose
These soft-scented flowers have four satiny heart-shaped petals that come together forming 2 inch open cups with frilly long stamens. When they open in the evening, the blossoms are a soft clear white that gradually fades into pink as the flowers mature. Their scent is reminscent of a cross between honeysuckle and lemon custard. The flowers open every evening throughout summer until first frost.
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Nicotiana - Tobacco Plant
Nicotianas have creamy-white tubular flowers borne in graceful sprays on softly draping branches. The 2 to 3 inch trumpet-shaped blossoms are closed in the daytime but in the late afternoon and evening they fill the air with a jasmine-like scent. Lime Green is a half-hardy upright perennial that in late summer and autumn has racemes of open trumpet shaped, greenish-yellow flowers that are extremely fragrant at night.
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Ipomea alba - Moon Flower
These 6 inch trumpet flowers unfurl in slow motion every night just at sunset. Pure white with faint green tracings, the blossoms are very fragrant all evening. By noon, the flowers dwindle and close and are barely seen in the dense foliage. Ipomoea alba is a soft-stemmed evergreen, twining climber with prickly stems that exude milky juice when cut. In the right location this delightful climber can reach heights of up to 7m (22ft).
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Zaluzianskya capensis - Night Phlox
These tidy upright plants bear umbrella-like clusters of small, delicate phlox-like flowers. The insides of the petals are pure white and the outsides are a satiny maroon with a hint of white where petals overlap. During the day, the flowers are tightly closed, just showing a hint of colour. As dusk comes on there is a magic moment when they open like a display of little firework stars, releasing a delicious almond/honey/vanilla-like fragrance that wafts throughout the garden.
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Brugmansia / Datura - Angel's Trumpet
Brugmansia (syn. Datura) has six-inch white trumpet flowers that open at night and remain open well into the following day. This is an evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub, tree of annual, primarily cultivated for it stunning flowers borne mainly in summer and autumn. Ideal for conservatories, patios, tubs and planters. Will need protection and shelter from frost as is not frost hardy at all. Brugmansia was also used by Native American Indians as a narcotic for the youth to seek their visions and be initiated into society. Warning: all parts are hgihly toxic if ingested.
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Night Scented Stocks
Deliciously scented flowers which open in the evening. Sow anywhere that is close enough to the house to get the benefit of such a beautiful fragrance. Below windows, patio tubs, window boxes, even a small sowing in hanging baskets. Try mixing with Virginian Stock before sowing to provide a mixture of attractive flower and fragrance. Flowers summer. Height 12in.
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Mirabilis jalapa - Four o'clock flower or Marvel of Peru
In late afternoon, Mirabilis jalapa's two inch trumpet-shaped flowers unfurl, releasing a rich jasmine-like perfume. These plants, with blooms in pink, rose, white, orange, and yellow, are very easy to grow and fast growing. This plant is also known as "Marvel of Peru".
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Hosta 'Frangrant Bouquet' - Plantain Lily
The leaves are about 6 inches long and 4 inches wide, with 8 pairs of impressed veins. The white, waxy, trumpet-shaped flowers appear on 30 inch scapes and each is 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. The scent is of pure honey.
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Hesperis matronalis - Sweet Rocket / Dame's Violet
Also known as Dame's Rocket, Dame's Violet, and Mother of the Evening, Hesperis matronalis is perfect for a night garden. Colours range from white to purple, and the smell, which is released in the evening, is incredibly delicious. At full height Sweet Rocket can get to about 3-4 feet high.
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