13 minute read
Evening Gardens: Creating an Oasis Glowing gardens filled with texture and scents
Evening Gardens:Creating an Oasis
by Heather Prince
As we seek accessible escapes in our own backyards, evening or moon gardens have become increasingly popular. They are also a unique way to offer clients relaxing spaces that are easy to upsell with furniture, lighting, water features, and accents. As you consider adding evening gardens to your portfolio, think about going beyond white-flowering plants to provide a private, immersive experience.
Steeped in garden history, one of the earliest moon gardens was the Mehtab Bagh, built in 1652 as a moonlit pleasure garden across the river from the Taj Mahal in India. Modern evening or white gardens first reached U.S. shores with Benjamin Poore’s 1833 white garden in Massachusetts. It featured 700-foot-long borders that were 14 feet deep and filled with all sorts of white flowers. The most storied white garden, however, is likely Sissinghurst Castle in England where writer Vita Sackville-West created an intimate garden of white and silver in the 1950s. Examples are scattered throughout public and private gardens today, and as the farmhouse trend continues, have become once again popular.
As client needs evolve, outdoor spaces are often increasingly smaller. Evening gardens can take nearly any form. From a deck or patio to the garden bed that greets you when you step out of the car to a container on the porch, styles may be formal or informal, depending on client tastes. Mix in white stone, pale concrete, or light decking to create easy wayfinding or focal points once the sun sets. A white bench set off with hydrangeas and white-blooming annuals can become an evening destination. An eclectic corner of lanterns may be dressed up with a white and silver combination in a pale grey urn. Evening gardens can be wonderful ways to explore creativity with a more limited plant palette.
Elements of an Evening Garden
Light As the sun goes down, the subtle light of dusk takes the stage. Capture the moonlight with reflective surfaces, water, and elements that almost glow in the dark. In a rural or suburban setting where dark skies are accessible, embrace the light from moon and stars. In urban settings in more built environments, small moments of light can set the scene. If the setting can’t experience moonlight, strategic lighting can create the feel of a romantic escape. The goal of an evening garden is serenity, so consider low mood lighting, outdoor candles, lanterns, and solar powered accents instead of bright party lights. Mirrored elements, bird baths, and still ponds reflect twinkles of light. Plant choices could include silver foliage, white bark, and white flowers.
Texture With limited light, the other senses heighten. Look for textures to help set the mood. Soft fabrics, curtains, and pillows can be romantic and cozy. Velvety foliage that is brushed or easily reached not only reflects light, but encourages you to reach out and experience the plants. Plus, many fuzzy leaves are also fragrant when lightly bruised.
Fragrance Layer in richness with fragrant plants. Many night-blooming plants are also fragrant and can perfume the garden. There are many flowers that bring fragrance from day into night and solve design issues in tight spaces. Fragrant plants can be annuals, herbs, perennials, shrubs or trees. You can tuck them into containers or use them as a destination. Some plants will bloom all season like jasmine, and some will offer a short time of sensational fragrance like fragrant viburnum. Place scented flowers strategically so that their perfume may be enjoyed up close or be caught on a breeze.
Sound If our goal with an evening garden is to take away the stresses of the day and create a private respite, sometimes sound can be an important element. Ornamental grasses whisper on the wind. A wind chime can anchor an experience. Outdoor speakers can bring music to the space. Also consider your materials choices. Pea gravel, crushed stone, or decomposed granite bring their own element to the soundscape when walked upon.
Water Water also may add a sound element with the splashing of a fountain or the music of a waterfall. Moving water can be a creative sound screen for a busy road or close neighbors and transport us to a peaceful oasis. Water also reflects, allowing those Italian lights or candles extra brilliance. There’s something inherently calming about the sound of water, even if it’s a tabletop bubbler.
Creating an Oasis
Plants for Fragrance, Texture, and Night-Blooming Elegance
Fragrance These are five plants to consider for day into evening fragrance. They might be a little unusual, but are all available, and offer a range of scents for an evening garden.
Chionanthus virginicus – Fringetree Zone: 3 to 9 Height: 12 to 15 ft Width: 12 to 15 ft Sun: full sun to part shade Water: average Bloom: white in June Fragrance: uniquely sweet Notes: For those seeking a native small understory tree, fringetree offers outstanding fragrance when in bloom. Large glossy tropical leaves follow the charismatic flowers, and it also features pale bark. It leafs late, so the sculptural architecture catches spring moonlight.
Dianthus sp. – Pinks Zone: 3 to 8 Height: 12 in to 16 in Width: 12 in to 3 ft Sun: full sun Water: well-drained to dry Bloom: white, yellow-green, pink, coral, lavender, red; often re-blooming Fragrance: fruity and sweet Notes: Perennial pinks can be a terrific groundcover for hot, dry, sharply draining spaces. Try them at the edge of retaining wall where they will soften the stone. Their fragrance tends to be reminiscent of bananas and many of the newer varieties will bloom for months.
Jasminum – Jasmine Zone: 7 to 10 Height: 4-5 to 10-20 ft Width: 3-4 to 7-10 ft Sun: full sun to part shade Water: average Bloom: white, occasionally yellow Fragrance: distinctively spicy Notes: What is a fragrant garden without jasmine? A tropical in Illinois, it may be overwintered as a houseplant as it is not frost hardy. You can find it as a shrub or twining vine and is a sought-after addition to the summer garden.
Lonicera ‘Scentsation’ – Honeysuckle Zone: 4 to 9 Height: 8 to 10 ft Width: 6 to 8 ft Sun: full sun to part shade Water: average Bloom: pale yellow and white all season Fragrance: powerfully sweet Notes: A newer selection of honeysuckle vine, this one is truly fragrant. Plus, it attracts hummingbirds and butterflies. Plant it where you need a twining vine to scramble up a trellis, obelisk, or along a fence. Consider it for a screening element in a tight space. Wonderful under windows where the sweet scent can be enjoyed.
Philadelphus ‘Snow White’™ - Mockorange Zone: 4 to 8 Height: 5 to 6 ft Width: 3 to 5 ft Sun: full sun to light shade Water: average Bloom: double white rebloomer Fragrance: orange blossom Notes: This tough small-scaled mockorange from Bailey Nurseries is easily tucked into small spaces. Not only is it beautifully fragrant with the classic old-fashioned orange blossom scent, it also blooms at least twice. First in late spring, then again in late summer on new tips. Delicious!
Texture
To capture and reflect light, these plants offer interesting bark or soft, silvery foliage. Try them as accents or statement specimens.
Athyrium niponicum var. pictum - Japanese Painted Fern Zone: 3 to 8 Height: 12 to 18 in Width:12 to 18 in Sun: part shade to full shade Water: average Foliage: silvery cast to the edges of the fronds Notes: In a shade garden or an evening garden, the silvery lace of Japanese painted fern provides wonderful light-reflecting texture. Explore its many cultivars for selections that are smaller or larger, brighter or more subtle.
Betula sp. – Birch Zone: 4 to 8 Height: 20-30 to 40-70 ft Width: 10 to 30 ft Sun: full sun to part shade Water: average to wet tolerant Bark: white, yellow, golden, creamy-pink Notes: Birch bark is beloved for its unique lightreflecting qualities and rich textures. A grove of white-barked birch creates instant serenity. Look for selections like Whitespire that are bronze birch borer resistant.
Cladrastris kentukea – Yellowwood Zone: 4 to 8 Height: 30 in to 40 ft Width: 30 in to 40 ft Sun: full sun to part shade Water: average Bloom: white fragrant trusses in spring Bark: pale grey Notes: Yellowwood does double duty with elegant pale grey bark and fragrant white flowers. This underused native tree is surprisingly tolerant of compacted soils. Try it as an elegant mid-sized shade tree.
Cynara cardunculus - Cardoon Zone: 7 to 9 Height: 3 to 6 ft Width: 2 to 3 ft Sun: full sun Water: average Foliage: large, toothed silvery leaves Notes: Big, blowsy, bold, bodacious, and edible too! There’s lots to love with this silver annual plant. Its instant drama brightens the evening garden and can be particularly eye-catching in modern designs. The celery-like stems may be cooked and taste like artichokes.
Miscanthus sp. – Variegated Japanese Silver Grass Zone: 5 to 9 Height: 4 to 8 ft Width: 3 to 5 ft Sun: full sun to part shade Water: average Foliage: several white striped cultivars Notes: The movement of grasses provides whispery texture to the evening garden. Consider the white striped cultivars of Miscanthus like Cosmopolitan and Dixieland to provide height and airiness. You can even use large varieties as a lovely screening plant.
Night Bloomers Night blooming plants offer a conversation starter as you may watch their flowers unfold as the sun sets. These selections are also fragrant for even more layered richness in the evening garden.
Ipomoea alba – Moonflower Zone: 10 to 12 Height: 10 to 15 ft Width: 3 to 6 ft Sun: full sun Water: average Bloom: white, yellow, pink; sometimes double; blooms all season Notes: A beloved heirloom, moonflower is an easy-going twining vine whose flowers open as the sun sets. Beautifully fragrant, the flowers often attract moths. Let this annual reseed for years of elegance in the evening garden.
Matthiola longipetala - Evening Stock Zone: 8 to 10 Height: 12 to 18 in Width: 6 to 12 in Sun: full sun to part shade Water: average to well-drained Bloom: lavender and white Notes: Look for this heirloom annual at specialty mail order seed companies. The deliciously fragrant flowers unfold at evening and release their scent. Light and airy, it can be a wonderful weaver plant in the garden or interesting filler in a container. May reseed.
Oenothera macrocarpa - Evening Primrose Zone: 3 to 7 Height: 10 to 12 in Width: 12 to 18 in Sun: full sun Water: average to drought tolerant Bloom: lemon yellow from May to August Notes: Lightly fragrant, this native plant’s lovely large flowers open at dusk. A little sprawling in its habit, it can tumble across retaining walls or be a filler in a container. It’s happiest on the dry side as its silvery leaves attest.
Polianthes tuberosa or Agave amica – Tuberose Zone: 7 to 10 Height: 2 to 3 ft Width: 2 to 3 ft Sun: full sun Water: average Bloom: white, blush Notes: Intensely fragrant, tuberose has been cultivated for centuries for its scent. A tuberous rooted rhizome, you can lift it for winter storage or keep it in containers to be moved indoors. Taxonomists have moved it into the agaves, but many catalogs still offer it under Polianthes. Readily available via mail order.
A White Theme Garden Sampler
Embelleciendo con piedras—
by Nina Koziol
La mayor inversión en paisajismo que
sus clientes harán será en elementos sólidos—aceras, escaleras, patios, piscinas, fuentes, mesas con fogata, entradas para autos, pilares, muros de contención y muretes de asiento y superficies chapadas. Seleccionar e instalar debidamente los materiales adecuados añade belleza y valor duradero a sus propiedades. Y eso es un factor de venta que no se puede ignorar al hacer una oferta contractual.
En lo que se refiere a los elementos sólidos, le piedra sigue siendo muy solicitada para muchos proyectos. “Lo bueno de la piedra es que es intemporal”, dijo Jim Larson, gerente general de Capitol Stoneworks en Wheeling. “Hay gran demanda de productos ‘artificiales’ pero hay una demanda aún mayor de productos de piedra. Los productos artificiales tienen su lugar y hacen mucho bien. No es una crítica”.
Los contratistas de paisajismo tienen suerte de tener acceso a varias canteras y distribuidores del Medio Oeste. “Vivimos en el extremo final de la escarpa del Niágara, por lo que la mayor parte de nuestras piedras regionales son piedra caliza con algo de granito de Minnesota”, afirmó Daniel Wood de Lurvey Landscape Supply. “Forman parte de nuestro lenguaje vernáculo”. (Las rocas encontradas en la escarpa se depositaron originalmente como barro de cal en un lecho marino antiguo hace unos 430 millones de años. Lo que queda es el resultado de levantamientos, meteorización y erosión. Y ese es un gran tema de conversación al presentar muestras de piedra a sus clientes).
La presentación virtual de Wood, “El lenguaje de las piedras”, fue bien recibida en la iLandscape de este año. “Los dueños de casa trasplantados de la Costa Este podrían preferir granito, arenisca o cuarcita, que es más predominante en esa región”. Pero la variedad de opciones de piedras es asombrosa. Wood es expresidente del National Stone Institute y viaja por el mundo en busca de productos inusuales.
Oferta y demanda
Hasta ahora, la demanda de piedra no ha cesado desde comienzos de 2020. “Hemos estado súper ocupados”, afirma Larson. “En esta época, el año pasado, nadie sabía lo que iba a pasar. Pero suministramos piedras para cocinas al aire libre y patios, piedras para buzones y pilares de piedra con cubrepilares que tenían direcciones domiciliarias. Fácilmente estábamos construyendo al menos cinco o seis remates de coronación de piscinas al mes. Pienso que este ritmo
Mariani Plants se enorgullese en su attencion al cliente. Tenemos expertos ajentes de ventas de habla hispana en nuestras dos localidades, Kenosha Wisconsin y Garden Prairie Illinois. Mariani Plants esta aquí para proveerle mejores plantas, mejor servicio y mejor selección.
Llámenos a Mariani Plants: 866-627-4264 / marianiplants.com
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