Nighttime is the right time for two sweet-smelling plants.
June’s sizzling sun can transform a gardener into a nocturnal creature. This can bring pleasant surprises, as the night garden has its rewards. For me, fragrance floats at the top of the list.
While some flowers release their scent by day, other summer bloomers are more fragrant by night. Intensely fragrant. As I stepped outdoors on a recent evening, two powerful floral notes made me smile: that of sweet almond verbena and nightblooming jasmine.
Sweet almond verbena
(Aloysia virgata) is a tall, gawky thing unless I neaten it up a bit with the clippers. Our 12-foot-tall shrubby plant, which grows pathside, is rather easily shaped like a small tree. I remove the lower, slap-me-in-the face stems but leave a full canopy of upright branches for a full head of intriguingly sweet blooms that intensify after sunset.
The clusters of tiny white flowers will fill the night garden with their potent vanillaalmond scent into fall. Butterflies and bees enjoy the nectar-filled blooms by day.
Drought-tolerant almond verbena has gray-green, sandpapery foliage, likes sun and good drainage. Night-blooming jasmine
(Cestrum nocturnum), a vigorous shrubby perennial, is perfect as a warm-month, informal green filler by day. I wouldn’t describe it as an eye catcher. But on a warm, humid night, the slender, tubular greenish-white blooms release an intoxicating sweetness.
Night-blooming jasmine, aka queen of the night, is easy and accepts sun to part sun and a mulched, well-draining soil. The arching V-shaped fast grower easily reaches 8 to 10 feet tall.
I prune ours heavily in late winter, whether the top has been damaged by a hard freeze or not. Prune after blooms to shape and encourage another flowering period. Otherwise the spent flowers are followed by white berries.
Virtual Father’s Day Plant Sale
The Mercer Society will host an online plant sale from 8 a.m. June 13 to 8 p.m. June 14 at the mercer society. square. site. The sale will feature more than 115 ginger varieties and other plants, and proceeds will benefit Mercer Botanic Gardens.