Has anyone tried a "moon garden"

[porterlizz]

Has anyone tried to do a moon garden - i.e. a garden to be enjoyed at night time, and one that specifically targets pollinators like moths? I have just found some notes that I jotted down from a while ago about how moths like plants with white flowers (that they can see at night). I have written down a good list of possible plants (see below)

I live in the suburbs of Bristol, and have a smallish sunny front garden and a smallish shady back garden. Our back garden is lovely to sit in at night, thus why i'm contemplating the night time plants. I can't have plants that are TOO rampant, due to my space limitations, and I have fences either side which are just asking to have things grown up them.

Just wondering if anyone has tried any of these plants, or tried the whole "moon garden" idea.. .and if so, what was a failure, and what was a success?

Evening Primrose,
tobacco plant,
moonflower (climber),
four o clock plant,
night phlox,
night scented stock,
sweet alyssum,
white lavender (arctic snow),
jasmine, white campion,
white valerian,
coneflower white swan,
white hebe,
white buddliea,
mock orange.

[Snoop Puss]

I haven't tried this, but what a lovely idea. My dad once grew tobacco plant (south-east Bristol) and they did extremely well. Gorgeous perfume and worth growing in their own right if you like sitting out in the evening.

Good luck. Let us know how you go.

[mothhawk]

If I had a bigger garden I would definitely have lots of night scented flowers, it's a lovely idea porterlizz. And I would surround it with dark hedging, something like yew, to really make the white stand out. Don't forget to include honeysuckle,not white, but worth it for the scent, much more heavily scented at night, and loved by hawkmoths and others.

[Bren In Pots]

I've not tried it myself but I do own a book called 'Twilight Garden' by Lia Leendertz thats full of info on plants that come into their own in the evenings.

[self-contained]

Captain WE Johns (the author of the Biggles books) wrote a gardening column for the My Garden magazine in the 1930s - 1940s. Many of these columns were collected in a book called The Passing Show. One piece is all about having this kind of all-white nocturnal garden. It's a wonderful evocative piece - really Johns at his descriptive best - and I wish I could share it here but "my" copy of the book is really mostly my Mother's copy and our entire WE Johns collection lives with her, many miles away! If I'm ever allowed to visit her again, I will try and rustle up some quotes for you all.